Dissertation Defense Announcement

College of Education announces the Final Dissertation Defense of

Ramah Steinruck

for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

May 3, 2019 at 10:00 AM in Ball Hall, Room 103

Advisor: Suzanne Lease

Heterosexist workplace environments and subjective career success for bisexual vs. gay/lesbian individuals: Coping self-efficacy, career adaptability, community connection and outness at work as moderators.

ABSTRACT: A person's career is often an important aspect of identity and levels of success in career are correlated with overall psychological wellness.Many lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals report experiencing heterosexism in the workplace. Previous literature has shown that heterosexist experiences at work are related to a plethora of negative work and career outcomes. The findings from this study of 210 LGB-identified men and women investigated the impact of heterosexist experiences at work on subjective career success. Further, moderators of the relationship between heterosexist experiences at work and subjective career success, including coping self-efficacy, career adaptability, connectedness to the LGBT community, and outness at work were explored. Bisexual individuals experienced similar levels of heterosexist experiences at work as LG individuals, but had lower levels of subjective career success and outness at work. Coping self-efficacy was a significant moderator but differed by sexual orientation such that it was a stronger moderator for lesbian and gay individuals. Implications of findings and limitations are discussed.