A Forgotten Sexuality: Content Analysis of Bisexuality in the Medical Literature over Two Decades

Abstract

The authors conducted a content analysis of articles listed in PubMed on bisexual health (N = 348). Methodological approaches favored cross-sectional surveys. Fewer than 20% of the articles analyzed data for bisexuals separately; most combined their data with homosexual participants. Most articles used convenience samples with poor representation of women, socioeconomic status and minorities. One fifth of the articles framed bisexuals as an infection bridge, whereas about one sixth framed bisexuality as a legitimate identity. More than 90% of the bisexuality medical research was atheoretical. To address health inequities, further study is required on the needs of this forgotten minority group.

Sexual minority youth of color: A content analysis and critical review of the literature

“…The coding system for the constructs of interest examined in each report was developed inductively by focusing on the report’s dependent and independent variables; eight content categories emerged and are discussed in the following sections. This strategy is consistent with the methodology used in other relevant content reviews (Charmaraman, Woo, Quach, & Erkut, 2014; Kaestle & Ivory, 2012). Reliability was assessed throughout the process (10% of reports were coded twice), and any discrepancies in coding were discussed and reconciled as a team.…”

Sexual Orientation and the Effects of Intimate Partner Violence

“…Instead of measuring identity, attraction, and behavior, we were limited by the NVAWS data and were only able to measure behavioral sexual orientation. Finally, we were unable to confidently create a measure of bisexuality, a sexual orientation often overlooked by researchers because it is often simply grouped together with a homosexual orientation (Collins, 1998;Kaestle & Ivory, 2012). It is important to consider bisexuality within sexual orientation research, as bisexuals face unique social stressors, such as rejection from both heterosexual and homosexual cultures (Bradford, 2004).…”

Postpartum depression among visible and invisible sexual minority women: a pilot study

“…Even fewer researchers have investigated possible differences in the experience of PPD between different subgroups of sexual minority women (i.e., lesbian and bisexual women). The majority of health researchers has not examined bisexual people and gay/lesbian people as separate groups (Kaestle and Ivory 2012). For mental health researchers, conceptualizing all sexual minority people as a homogenous group is problematic since recent studies have identified significant differences in mental health outcomes between bisexual and lesbian women, with bisexual women reporting poorer mental health (Bostwick et al 2010;Kerr et al 2013;Steele et al 2009).…”

“…One reason that researchers have often combined different subgroups of sexual minority women concerns recruitment challenges (Kaestle and Ivory 2012). Sexual minority populations can be difficult to recruit in large numbers due to their relatively low prevalence among the general population, thus, leading to the tendency to collapse subgroups of sexual minority people (Hartman 2011) and making statistical comparisons only between this diverse Bsexual minority^group and a heterosexual comparison group.…”