Sociological Studies Show Social Factors Produce Adult Same Sex Attraction

An important path analysis study by Bell, Weinberg, and Hammersmith (1981a) is usually interpreted in the literature as proving there are no social/upbringing effects on development of adult SSA (same-sex attraction). Instead, the study said that varying social factors leading to SSA occur in different ways in various classes, such as bisexuals, blacks, and effeminate homosexuals. It correctly points out that individual factors contribute to SSA for the whole population in small and diverse ways and that any single cause will result in SSA only in small percentages of a population. The present paper shows that these social factors are collectively significant. An important follow-up study (Van Wyk & Geist, 1984) showed sexual experience factors were very important. Bell, Weinberg, and Hammersmith (1981a) believe that adolescent SSA development is biologically preprogrammed—in other words, it is fixed in childhood and shows no further change. This is shown to be quite erroneous on several counts. For example, recent work on teenage twins with SSA (Bearman & Brueckner, 2002) shows no genetic influence and a predominant nonshared environmental component. The conclusion regarding factors contributing to SSA is that social factors are significant, confirming the observations of clinicians, but the influence of the factors is heavily dependent on personal idiosyncrasy.