Study of the Coming Out Process and Coping Strategies of Lesbian Women, 1979

The purpose of this study was to document the coming out process in lesbians and to create a seven-stage model to describe this process. Unlike other studies of lesbians, this study included African-American lesbians and older lesbians. The sample comprised 118 women in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. area. Eighteen of these women were evaluated as bisexual or predominantly heterosexual in orientation; these women were not included in the analysis of the data. One-fourth of the remaining 100 women who completed all the measures were African-American. One-half of the sample indicated no current religious affiliations and the remainder fit into the expected proportions of Catholics, Protestants, and Jews. Between February and May, 1979, a team of six interviewers conducted personal interviews with the participants. These interviews consisted of 120 precoded questions and several open-ended questions. Major categories in the interviews include coming out, job discrimination, societal oppression, coping strategies, religion, personal attitudes, relating in a heterosexual society, and demographic information. The Murray Archive holds additional analogue materials for this study (typed responses to open-ended questions). If you would like to access this material, please apply to use the data.本研究旨在记录女同性恋者（lesbians）的出柜（coming out）过程，并构建七阶段模型以阐释该流程。不同于其他女同性恋相关研究，本研究纳入了非裔美国女同性恋者与老年女同性恋者。研究样本为华盛顿-巴尔的摩地区的118名女性，其中18名女性的性取向被评估为双性恋或主要为异性恋，该部分样本未纳入数据分析。完成全部调研测量的剩余100名女性中，四分之一为非裔美国人；样本中有一半女性目前无宗教信仰，其余女性的宗教归属分布符合天主教徒、新教徒与犹太教徒的预期比例。1979年2月至5月间，由6名访谈员组成的团队对参与者开展了一对一访谈，本次访谈包含120个预编码问题与若干开放式问题。访谈的核心议题涵盖出柜、职场歧视、社会压迫、应对策略、宗教信仰、个人态度、在异性恋社会中的社交互动以及人口统计信息。默里档案库（Murray Archive）藏有本研究的补充存档资料，即开放式问题的打印版回复。若需获取该资料，请提交数据使用申请。