Sex/gender differences in how plurisexual attractions contribute to young adults' thoughts and feelings about their sexual selves.

Abstract

Purpose: Sexual self-schema (SSS) are cognitive frameworks for one's thoughts and feelings about oneself as a sexual being. These schema interpret and organize sexual information and attitudes, and can guide sexual behavior. This study examined how plurisexual attractions may interact with gender to predict SSS.

Materials and methods: I surveyed 602 young adults about their gender, patterns of attractions to men, women, and gender non-binary people, and SSS using the validated SSS Scale.

Results: In this sample, SSS were similar across participants with monosexual vs. plurisexual patterns of attraction. However, a few significant effects emerged. Cisgender women with low attraction to any gender reported significantly lower romantic/passionate self-schema relative to women with at least some attraction to one or more genders. In contrast, cisgender men with exclusively same-gender attractions reported higher open/liberal self-schema relative to men with either exclusively other-gender or plurisexual attractions. Novel to this study, 22% percent of participants reported attractions to gender non-binary and gender non-conforming people, and these attractions significantly predicted SSS.

Conclusion: These findings point to subtle gender differences in how attractions interact with young people's conceptualization of their sexual selves.