#biwocstudy

Hi folks! Happy Pride! It's taken longer than I expected but I'm excited to share with you the results of the study I collected data on back in 2019. Above is the infographic of the study's main findings. Thank you to everyone who participated and shared my post when I was looking for participants. I seriously appreciated it!

My inbox is open and I'm happy to answer any questions about the study. The actual research article isn't available yet but once it is I'll let y'all know.

Thank you again!

[ID: Seven social slides.

Slide 1: Pink, purple, and blue background with a white box. Inside the box is text that reads, "Research results. Bisexual+ Women of Color and Body Satisfaction. Let's discuss."

Slide 2: Same background. Different text. "Helpful definitions. Bisexual+/Bi+ is an umbrella term used for those who have the potential to be emotionally, romantically, and/or physically attracted to more than one gender identity (i.e. bisexual, pansexual, queer, fluid, etc.). Not everyone who falls under this umbrella likes this term though. Academic literature sometimes uses the terms plurisexual or nonmonosexual. The second bullet point reads Internalized Biphobia/ Binegativity: A person's negative views and feelings about themselves being bisexual+ that stem from society's biases. The third bullet point reads Internalized Racism: A person's negative views and feelings about themself being part of a racially marginalized community that stem from society's biases."

Slide 3: Same background. Image of four sketched women of varying skin color wearing some combination of blues, pinks, and purples. "Women, Objectification, and Body Satisfaction. According to objectification theory, cisgender and transgender women's bodies are constantly under scrutiny and objectified by the society around them and unconsciously by themselves. Objectification of oneself, or self-objectification, may predict body dissatisfaction, internalized discrimination, and other mental health issues, especially in women with marginalized identities. Source: Comiskey et al., 2020; Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997."

Slide 4: "Does internalized discrimination predict body dissatisfaction in bi+ women of color? Yes, internalized biphobia and internalized racism, respectively, did predict body dissatisfaction in the 292 predominantly bisexual cisgender women of color who participated in the survey. Source: Paul, in press."

Slide 5: "Why does it matter? Bisexual+ individuals report greater mental health-related issues, such as depression, anxiety, and disordered eating than their lesbian and gay counterparts. This may likely be due to invalidation and/or stereotypes about bisexuality. However, there is a small amount of research on the unique experiences of bisexual+ individuals, especially bi+ people of color. The more we know about predictors of negative mental health that are unique for bisexual+ women of color, the more mental health professionals can help their clients with these intersecting identities."

Slide 6: "References: Brewster, M. E., Moradi, B., DeBlaere, C., & Velez, B. L. (2013). Navigating the borderlands: The roles of minority stressors, bicultural self-efficacy, and cognitive flexibility in the mental health of bisexual individuals. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 60(4), 543. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033224

Campón, R. R., & Carter, R. T. (2015). The Appropriated Racial Oppression Scale: Development and preliminary validation. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 21(4), 497. https://doi.apa.org/doi/10.1037/cdp0000037

Flanders, C. E., Anderson, R. E., Tarasoff, L. A., & Robinson, M. (2019). Bisexual stigma, sexual violence, and sexual health among bisexual and other plurisexual women: A cross-sectional survey study. The Journal of Sex Research, 56(9), 1115-1127. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2018.1563042

Fredrickson, B. L., & Roberts, T. A. (1997). Objectification theory: Toward understanding women's lived experiences and mental health risks. Psychology of women quarterly, 21(2), 173-206. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.1997.tb00108.x

Ghabrial, M. A. (2019). “We can shapeshift and build bridges”: Bisexual women and gender diverse people of color on invisibility and embracing the borderlands. Journal of Bisexuality, 19(2), 169-197. https://doi.org/10.1080/15299716.2019.1617526

Ghabrial, M. A., & Ross, L. E. (2018). Representation and erasure of bisexual people of color: A content analysis of quantitative bisexual mental health research. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 5(2), 132. https://doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000286

Hayfield, N., Clarke, V., Halliwell, E., & Malson, H. (2013). Visible lesbians and invisible bisexuals: Appearance and visual identities among bisexual women. In Women's Studies International Forum, 40, 172-182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2013.07.015

Paul, Z. (in press). The mediating effects of body surveillance on internalized discriminations and body satisfaction in plurisexual women of color. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity.

Just wanted to give a demographic updated the survey so far.

Out of 235 total participants:

- 102 identify as bisexual

- 36 identify as pansexual

- 8 identify as asexual

- 42 identify as queer

- 6 identify as fluid

- 6 identify as American Indian or Alaskan Native

-47 identify as Asian

- 74 identify as Black or African American

- 38 identify as Hispanic or Latino

- 21 identify as multiracial/multiethnic

The age range so far has been between 18 and 49.

I'm really looking forward to see how demographics change as I continue to collect data and how it applies to the overall data. The survey is still open so please continue to participate and/or share.

Thank you!

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Hi everyone!

I’m looking for participants who are 18 years old or older, women of color who identify as bisexual, pansexual or sexually, emotionally, and/or romantically attracted to more than one gender identity, and who currently live in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, or U.S. territories to participate in a survey. The purpose of the survey is to understand how sexual minority women of color feel about themselves and their bodies.

The survey should take approx. 10 to 15 minutes and participation is completely voluntary and you can stop at any time. After the survey, there will be an option to enter into a raffle to win one of ten $10 Target gift cards. The full informed consent information and access to the online survey are at this link:

http://tinyurl.com/BiWOCStudy

Please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions. Also please feel free to share this with others even if you don't meet the survey qualifications.

[Alt text: Yellow background with three fists raised in the air. Text reads “Thank you for participating! Check your inboxes and spam folders to see if you won a gift card from the survey’s raffle.”]

Thank you once again to everyone who has shared and/or participated in my study on bisexual+ women of color! The raffle winners have been selected and sent an email with a link to the gift card. Please check your inbox and spam folders. Unfortunately, if you did not receive an email, you did not win.

In terms of the study's findings, the data has been analyzed, and I'm waiting for feedback from my dissertation committee chair. Once my dissertation has been defended (aka once I've presented it to complete my doctoral program requirements), I'll share a link to the dissertation and create an infographic of the main findings.

Hi anon! I'm so sorry! The study is still active. I don't know why an error message keeps popping up. I've tried to edit the link but it still happens. Here's the long version of the link that should work:

https://umsl.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4VLx9wZs1w6e0Zw

Hopefully one of these will work or I can figure out why the link in the main post is being wonky.

Hi all!

I know it’s been awhile. Unfortunately a lot of research, I’m learning, is just waiting. Anyway, I’m happy to share with all of you that the manuscript for this study has FINALLY been accepted by a journal!

What does that mean? 

I can finally start preparing how I want to share the results with all of you! Making sure I came back with results to the people who participated and/or helped shared my study is super important to me as a researcher. Now that I have a journal that’s accepted my manuscript, I don’t have to worry about people trying to use my data as their own (something that apparently has happened too often in academia). I’ll either make some easy to understand infographics and/or video that’ll explain the major results. 

So I’ve had a few people message me about unexpectedly being sent to the end of the survey. There’s only a few reasons why the survey would do that but the biggest reason I’ve seen so far is if you chose “White” and another racial/ethnic choice. Unfortunately the survey can’t differentiate from someone picking just “White” (which should send you to the end because this is a study for WOC) vs. someone saying they’re “White” and another racial/ethnic identity (who I do want to complete the survey in its entirety). 

If you are someone who identifies as biracial/multiracial and you got kicked out of the survey, please let me know and I’ll tell you how you can retake the survey if you’re still interested in participating.