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among the young women in the present study, it seems reasonable to
conclude that the risk for frequent intoxication and drug use may be higher
among young bisexual women or young women with a homosexual
orientation. Young men with homosexual attractions reported strong
feelings of loneliness and low peer acceptance compared to young men with
heterosexual or solely homosexual experience, and also compared to young
women reporting homosexual attractions. This may suggest that the
stigmatisation is indeed stronger for gay men, but that other mechanisms
than stigmatisation and social isolation lie behind the risk for frequent
intoxication and drug use among young homosexually attracted women
contrary to what was suggested in the studies referred earlier (Caldwell et
al., 1998; Faulkner & Cranston, 1998; Fergusson et al., 1999; Garofalo et al.,
1999; Smith et al., 1999).
Although the current study is based on a nationally representative
sample and good response rates, there may however be certain limitations.
Sexual behaviour in general and homosexual behaviour in particular, as well
as substance use and poor social networks may be sensitive topics even
when self-administered and anonymous questionnaires are used. It is
therefore likely that these topics to some extent have been under-reported. In
the case of systematic under-reporting on all these topics, we may expect
that the observed associations are biased downwards. On the other hand, it is
also possible that to some extent we may be dealing with so-called ‘false
positives’, for example, that students have reported illicit substance use
without really having this experience. In particular this may be a problem
when we are dealing with low-incident or low-prevalent phenomena, such as
illicit drug use or homosexual behaviour (see for instance Skog, 1992). Even
if only a very small proportion of the respondents have systematically overreported
on low-prevalent topics, the observed associations may be biased
upwards. Hence, both under-reporting and over-reporting may have
occurred. For this reason, it is not clear whether the results may be biased to
some extent, and if so in which direction. In addition, the time frame for the
questions on homosexual experience and attractions (during teenage years),
substance use (previous 12 months) and social networks and loneliness
(present) varies, and the data are cross sectional. The interpretation of the
associations between these measures is thus restricted to an inference of
group differences.
176
– NOVA Rapport 1/07 –