Table 1.
Demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of wave IV National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Young Adult Health participants (n=14 051) by sexual orientation and sex
| Females (n=7518) | Males (n=6533) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | Heterosexual (n=6757) | Sexual minority (n=761) | All | Heterosexual (n=6238) | Sexual minority (n=295) | P values | ||||||||
| n | % | n | % | n | % | P values | n | % | n | % | n | % | ||
| Demographics | ||||||||||||||
| Age (years), wave IV | ||||||||||||||
| 24–27 | 2428 | 38.2 | 2134 | 37.5 | 294 | 43.9 | <0.001 | 1816 | 34.4 | 1737 | 34.5 | 79 | 32.0 | 0.85 |
| 28–29 | 2810 | 34.3 | 2516 | 33.9 | 294 | 37.7 | 2460 | 33.4 | 2340 | 33.4 | 120 | 34.6 | ||
| 30–34 | 2280 | 27.5 | 2107 | 28.6 | 173 | 18.4 | 2257 | 32.2 | 2161 | 32.1 | 96 | 33.4 | ||
| Race-ethnicity, wave IV* | ||||||||||||||
| White, non-Hispanic | 3994 | 66.5 | 3559 | 66.2 | 435 | 69.6 | 0.27 | 3573 | 66.6 | 3420 | 66.7 | 153 | 64.6 | 0.15 |
| Hispanic | 1182 | 11.4 | 1077 | 11.4 | 105 | 11.4 | 1057 | 12.0 | 992 | 11.8 | 65 | 17.3 | ||
| Black, non-Hispanic | 1717 | 16.0 | 1553 | 16.4 | 164 | 12.5 | 1264 | 14.7 | 1211 | 14.8 | 53 | 12.4 | ||
| Other, non-Hispanic | 625 | 6.1 | 568 | 6.0 | 57 | 6.5 | 639 | 6.7 | 615 | 6.8 | 24 | 5.7 | ||
| Parental education, wav | e I | |||||||||||||
| <HS diploma | 984 | 12.0 | 894 | 12.0 | 90 | 12.2 | 0.84 | 764 | 11.9 | 725 | 11.8 | 39 | 14.1 | 0.09 |
| HS diploma/GED | 1936 | 28.0 | 1734 | 28.0 | 202 | 28.3 | 1598 | 26.5 | 1519 | 26.5 | 79 | 25.4 | ||
| Some college or vocational school | 2155 | 29.3 | 1933 | 29.1 | 222 | 30.8 | 1949 | 30.4 | 1878 | 30.8 | 71 | 21.9 | ||
| ≥Bachelor’s degree | 2443 | 30.7 | 2196 | 30.9 | 247 | 28.7 | 2222 | 31.2 | 2116 | 30.8 | 106 | 38.6 | ||
| Number of household members, including respondent (mean) | 3.34 | 3.35 | 3.24 | 0.21 | 3.06 | 3.08 | 2.57 | <0.001 | ||||||
| Received household assistance before age 18 years, wave III or IV | 1413 | 18.6 | 1220 | 17.8 | 193 | 26.1 | <0.001 | 1073 | 17.1 | 1016 | 17.1 | 57 | 17.9 | 0.31 |
| Urbanicity, wave IV† | ||||||||||||||
| Rural | 3871 | 57.3 | 3517 | 57.7 | 354 | 53.8 | 0.17 | 3327 | 55.1 | 3214 | 55.6 | 113 | 43.9 | 0.013 |
| Urban | 3647 | 42.7 | 3240 | 42.3 | 407 | 46.2 | 3206 | 44.9 | 3024 | 44.4 | 182 | 56.1 | ||
| Geographic region, wav | e IV | |||||||||||||
| Northeast | 957 | 13.0 | 863 | 13.0 | 94 | 12.9 | 0.40 | 766 | 12.8 | 717 | 12.5 | 49 | 17.9 | 0.25 |
| Midwest | 1726 | 29.2 | 1536 | 29.1 | 190 | 30.2 | 1504 | 27.6 | 1450 | 27.5 | 54 | 28.3 | ||
| South | 3065 | 40.6 | 2775 | 41.0 | 290 | 37.3 | 2662 | 42.0 | 2544 | 42.3 | 118 | 35.6 | ||
| West | 1770 | 17.2 | 1583 | 16.9 | 187 | 19.7 | 1601 | 17.7 | 1527 | 17.7 | 74 | 18.3 | ||
| Socioeconomic status | ||||||||||||||
| Educational attainment | ||||||||||||||
| <HS diploma or GED | 437 | 7.1 | 363 | 6.5 | 74 | 12.5 | <0.001 | 574 | 9.7 | 553 | 9.8 | 21 | 7.6 | 0.004 |
| HS diploma or GED | 985 | 13.6 | 884 | 13.5 | 101 | 14.7 | 1225 | 21.2 | 1194 | 21.7 | 31 | 10.5 | ||
| Some college or vocational education | 3345 | 44.4 | 2942 | 43.7 | 403 | 51.0 | 2863 | 41.4 | 2733 | 41.3 | 130 | 44.3 | ||
| ≥Bachelor’s degree | 2751 | 34.8 | 2568 | 36.3 | 183 | 21.8 | 1871 | 27.6 | 1758 | 27.2 | 113 | 37.6 | ||
| Wave IV employment statust‡ | ||||||||||||||
| Employed | 5829 | 76.7 | 5282 | 77.4 | 547 | 70.2 | 0.002 | 5589 | 84.8 | 5333 | 84.9 | 256 | 84.6 | 0.04 |
| Unemployed | 417 | 5.5 | 343 | 5.1 | 74 | 9.4 | 454 | 7.0 | 439 | 7.1 | 15 | 5.5 | ||
| Homemaker | 686 | 9.9 | 616 | 9.7 | 70 | 11.2 | 18 | 0.2 | 16 | 0.2 | § | § | ||
| Student | 248 | 3.5 | 223 | 3.5 | 25 | 3.4 | 145 | 2.1 | 136 | 2.1 | 9 | 3.9 | ||
| Other | 338 | 4.4 | 293 | 4.2 | 45 | 5.8 | 327 | 5.8 | 314 | 5.8 | 4.7 | 13 | ||
| Personal income | ||||||||||||||
| <US$10000 | 1663 | 24.1 | 1478 | 23.9 | 185 | 26.1 | <0.001 | 685 | 11.5 | 651 | 11.3 | 44 | 16.3 | 0.04 |
| US$10000–US$24999 | 1781 | 25.0 | 1536 | 24.1 | 245 | 32.6 | 1147 | 18.6 | 1081 | 18.4 | 66 | 24.0 | ||
| US$25 000–US$49 999 | 2814 | 37.5 | 2585 | 38.3 | 229 | 29.9 | 2688 | 41.3 | 2566 | 41.4 | 122 | 39.0 | ||
| ≥US$50 000 | 1109 | 13.4 | 1018 | 13.7 | 91 | 11.4 | 1881 | 28.6 | 1824 | 28.9 | 57 | 20.7 | ||
| Poverty-to-income needs ratio | ||||||||||||||
| <100% | 834 | 13.0 | 732 | 12.8 | 102 | 14.1 | 0.04 | 457 | 8.5 | 427 | 8.4 | 30 | 10.8 | 0.75 |
| 100%—199% | 1097 | 15.3 | 949 | 14.8 | 148 | 19.9 | 802 | 13.7 | 775 | 13.7 | 27 | 12.3 | ||
| 200 %—2 9 9 % | 1581 | 22.0 | 1422 | 22.0 | 159 | 22.3 | 1299 | 21.0 | 1250 | 21.1 | 49 | 18.1 | ||
| 300%—399% | 903 | 12.3 | 824 | 12.5 | 79 | 19.0 | 858 | 13.5 | 809 | 13.4 | 49 | 15.4 | ||
| ≥400% | 2656 | 37.3 | 2432 | 37.9 | 224 | 32.8 | 2699 | 43.4 | 2576 | 43.4 | 123 | 43.5 | ||
| Received public assistance since last interview | 2071 | 29.0 | 1799 | 28.0 | 272 | 37.2 | <0.001 | 1093 | 18.7 | 1042 | 18.7 | 51 | 19.9 | 0.53 |
| Any economic hardship, past 12 months | 1988 | 27.2 | 1707 | 26.0 | 291 | 37.2 | <0.001 | 1389 | 22.4 | 1312 | 22.1 | 77 | 27.5 | 0.11 |
| Home ownership | 3172 | 44.8 | 2949 | 46.2 | 224 | 32.2 | <0.001 | 2625 | 40.0 | 2554 | 40.7 | 71 | 23.7 | <0.001 |
| Subjective social status (mean)¶ | 4.97 | 5.02 | 4.59 | <0.001 | 5.01 | 5.02 | 4.95 | 0.66 | ||||||
All n are unweighted counts. Percentages are weighted and reflect column percentages within sex and sexual orientation groups and may not sum to 100 due to rounding.
Design-based F-statistic of association between sexual orientation and covariate within each sex group unless otherwise noted.
Other, non-Hispanic includes Asian, Pacific Islander, American Indian and self-reported ‘other’ race.
Urbanicitiy was defined using the population density of respondent’s Census tract: rural defined as fewer than 1000 people/square mile; urban defined as 1000 people or more/square mile.
′Other employment′ includes on disability, temporary parental leave, active military and incarcerated respondents.
Subjective social status on scale from 1 to 10, indicating where the respondent believed they fell relative to other people in the USA, with 1 being ‘the people who have the least money and education and the least respected jobs or no job’.
Cell size too small to report (eg, n≤3), per Add Health reporting requirements.
GED, graduate equivalence degree; HS, high school.