Psychological and Social Predictors of Poverty: Differences Between Lesbian and Bisexual Women

Research has demonstrated that sexual minority populations are more likely to experience poverty than sexual majority populations and that many of these disparities are driven by specific sexual minority subgroups, including cisgender bisexual women. Yet, little is known about the factors associated with economic insecurity that explain the intragroup differences in economic outcomes among sexual minorities, particularly among those of the same gender (i.e., cisgender bisexual vs. lesbian women).

We used a U.S. national probability sample of non-transgender sexual minority adults to assess the relationship between poverty and demographic (age, race/ethnicity, education), psychological (psychological distress, self-acceptance, felt stigma, and experienced discrimination), and social (outness, partnership and parental status, partner gender, and gender expression) characteristics for each subgroup of women, lesbian/gay (n = 324) and bisexual (n = 355). We calculated odds ratios and adjusted odds ratios (AORs) estimated from logistic regression models that relate risk factors to poverty.

Race/ethnicity (i.e., identifying as Black) and education (i.e., having a high school diploma or less) were associated with living in poverty for both groups. The role of minority stressors, such as outness, everyday discrimination, and internalized homophobia did not strongly predict poverty for either group. However, reports of experienced stigma related to one's sexual orientation and masculine gender expression were associated with poverty among lesbians but not for bisexual women, and having children was a strong predictor of poverty for bisexual women but not lesbians.

These findings suggest that policy, advocacy, and service interventions should consider tailoring approaches to address poverty for bisexual and lesbian women differently.