Identity Centrality and Well-Being in Lesbian and Bisexual Women College Students

Abstract

Identity centrality and well-being may hold relevance to lesbian and bisexual women college students as they navigate emerging adulthood, develop their identities, and work towards greater authenticity and self-acceptance. This study sought to investigate if identity centrality clusters as identified by Meca and colleagues (2015) could be replicated in a sample of lesbian and bisexual identified college students. Drawing upon extant literature, we hypothesized that lesbian and bisexual women would have profiles of identity centrality that emphasize different aspects of identity and that balanced identity centrality profiles would be associated with higher eudaimonic well-being. Six profiles (or clusters) of identity centrality were found for each group; obtained clusters partially replicated clusters found in Meca et al. (2015). Interestingly, obtained profiles differed between the group of lesbian and the group of bisexual-identified women. Departing from the work of Meca et al. (2015), identity centrality profiles which demonstrated high centrality across all components (engaged/public) and those that deemphasized collective identity (low collective) profiles were associated with higher eudaimonic well-being among both participant groups.