Revisiting the bottleneck hypothesis: The role of sexual identity development in the career exploration and decision-making of sexual minority college students

Abstract

Hetherington's (1991) “bottleneck hypothesis”, which maintains that the process of sexual identity development can hamper the career development of sexual minority college students, has received periodic study. We revisited this hypothesis using the social cognitive model of career self-management (CSM; Lent & Brown, 2013) as a theoretical framework. An online survey of 225 sexual minority and 287 heterosexual college students did not reveal a robust between-group bottleneck effect. For example, no significant mean level differences were observed between the two groups in career decision-making process and outcome variables, such as career decision-making anxiety and level of career decidedness. In addition, a CSM-based path model of career decision-making was found to be invariant across the two student groups. However, a few noteworthy within-group patterns were observed. For example, a cluster analysis suggested the presence of two sexual minority sub-groups who differed regarding level of outness and difficulties negotiating their sexual identity. The more identity-integrated cluster reported less decisional anxiety and greater decidedness than their less identity-integrated peers. Indicators of identity conflict and level of disclosure were also linked to perceived support and goals for future career exploration. The pattern of findings suggests that sexual minority identity development in college does not represent a monolithic bottleneck to career development. However, a more nuanced bottleneck effect in career decision-making may be linked to students' intrapersonal and social comfort in negotiating their sexual minority identity. Implications for the bottleneck hypothesis and further research on sexual minority students' career exploration and decision-making are discussed.