A Study on the Clothing Behavior and Psychological Characteristics of Homosexual and Heterosexual Men

성인남성의 성적지향에 따른 의복행동과 심리적 특성의 관련연구

The purpose of this study were 1) to identify the differences between homosexual and heterosexual men in clothing behaviors(fashion leadership, preference for up-to-date style and sexual attractiveness), lifestyle and sex-role attitudes, and 2) to investigate the relation- ships between clothing behaviors and lifestyle and sex-role attitudes. The data was collected via self-administered questionnaires from 183 adult men(88 homosexual, 95 heterosexual men) living in Seoul, and was analyzed by factor analysis, t-test, correlations and multiple regressions. The result of this study were as follows: 1. Two factors of fashion leadership. were identified: fashion opinion leadership and fashion innovativeness. Four factors of lifestyle were identified: appearance awareness, self-confidence, authoritativeness, and achievement. 2. The result of t-test between homosexual and heterosexual men in clothing behaviors and psychological characteristics, homosexual men showed higher scores in fashion innovativeness, fashion opinion leadership, preference for up-to-date style, and appearance awareness of lifestyle characteristics. 3. From the result of analyzing the effects of psychological characteristics on 4 variables of clothing behaviors, appearance awareness of lifestyle characteristics was found to be the most influential factor for all the clothing behavior variables in both groups.