Queer and Trans* Students of Color: Navigating Identity Disclosure and College Contexts.

COLLEGE students; GENDER identity; UNDERGRADUATES; RACE identity; HIGHER education

The purpose of this study was to explore outness among undergraduate students who identify as queer and trans* people of color (QTPOC). Data for this study originated from The National LGBT Alumni Survey and included 386 QTPOC respondents. We utilized analysis of variance (ANOVA) to explore differences in outness across racial identities for QTPOC students and linear regression to understand the relationship between contextual influences and outness using Abes, Jones, and McEwen's (2007) reconceptualized model of multiple dimensions of identity as a framework. We also analyzed participants' open-ended responses to understand how QTPOC students navigate meaning making across their gender, racial, and sexual identities. The ANOVA was significant for outness, F(3, 382) = 6.93, p < .001, with a medium effect size (ƞ2 = .05). The linear regression analysis explained 44% of the variance in outness among QTPOC student respondents (p < .001). Narratives from the open-ended responses offered additional perspectives and further informed how QTPOC students navigated and made meaning of their identity disclosures. Overall, our results emphasize that QTPOC students navigate their racial, gender, and sexual identities in complex manners as they negotiate their levels of outness while in college. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Higher Education is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)