Purpose Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals, and LB women specifically, have an increased risk for psychiatric morbidity, theorized to result from stigma-based discrimination. To date, no study has investigated the mental health disparities between LGB and heterosexual AQ1individuals in a large cross-national population-based comparison. The current study addresses this gap by examining differences between LGB and heterosexual participants in 13 cross-national surveys, and by exploring whether these disparities were associated with country-level LGBT acceptance. Since lower social support has been suggested as a mediator of sexual orientation-based differences in psychiatric morbidity, our secondary aim was to examine whether mental health disparities were partially explained by general social support from family and friends. Methods Twelve-month prevalence of DSM-IV anxiety, mood, eating, disruptive behavior, and substance disorders was assessed with the WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview in a general population sample across 13 countries as part of the World Mental Health Surveys. Participants were 46,889 adults (19,887 males; 807 LGB-identified). Results Male and female LGB participants were more likely to report any 12-month disorder (OR 2.2, p < 0.001 and OR 2.7, p < 0.001, respectively) and most individual disorders than heterosexual participants. We found no evidence for an association between country-level LGBT acceptance and rates of psychiatric morbidity between LGB and heterosexualAQ2 participants. However, among LB women, the increased risk for mental disorders was partially explained by lower general openness with family, although most of the increased risk remained unexplained. Conclusion These results provide cross-national evidence for an association between sexual minority status and psychiatric morbidity, and highlight that for women, but not men, this association was partially mediated by perceived openness with family. Future research into individual-level and cross-national sexual minority stressors is needed.

Recently, there has been a growing emphasis on the fact that an understanding of identity development requires the study of real-time identity. But what exactly constitutes 'real-time identity'? In this manuscript, we highlight that definitions of real time are often fuzzy, which poses a threat to this research field. We discuss two conceptual issues of research on 'real-time identity' that we believe require further clarification. The first is that 'real-time identity' is often conflated with 'micro-level identity'. The second is that 'micro-level identity' is pitted against 'macro-level identity'. We attempt to bring clarification to the above issues by drawing attention to three conceptual points: Firstly, we stress that 'real-time' simply refers to "the actual time during which something takes place". Secondly, researchers can study static characteristics of identity phenomena in real time or they can study dynamics of change and development in real time. Thirdly, we draw attention to the fact that the terms 'micro-level' and 'macro-level' represent two ends of a time-scale continuum. We describe these points in depth and summarize our clarifications as a taxonomy for authors interested in studying 'real-time identity', which promises to support theoretical and empirical integration between different approaches to identity. KEYWORDSIdentity development; timescales; processes; ontology; epistemology Recently, there has been growing emphasis (as evidenced by this special issue) on the fact that an understanding of identity requires the study of identity processes and mechanisms. Notably, some identity researchers (stemming from both qualitative and quantitative approaches) argue that studying concrete actions and experiences is key for elucidating such processes and mechanisms. This is because they are thought to relate to a more fine-grained and ecologically valid understanding of identity Korobov, 2015). This approach -sometimes conceptualized as tapping into "real-time identity processes" -concerns the study of identity-in-context, mechanisms of development, and within-person processes of identity (Bosma & Kunnen, 2001;Lichtwarck-Aschoff et al., 2008). With its focus on experiences and actions, this is a pioneering and innovative shift in identity research , one which contrasts the more traditional research line of large-scale, group-based, and variable-oriented identity research focusing on identity in terms of selfreflection and cognition.While the empirical research on "real-time identity processes" is blooming, we believe that a deeper conceptual analysis can strengthen this field yet further. Conceptual analysis entails the examination of concepts, terms, and constructs for clarity, and incoherencies, and for unjustified claims or implausible assumptions (Hibberd, 2021;Du Preez & De Klerk, 2019). Du Preez and De Klerk (2019) argued that while psychologists often assume that conceptual analysis is an

In this short-term longitudinal study, we examine specific examples of identity exploration in real-time interactions among peers. The participants included 12 first-year students majoring in literature, social sciences, and humanities at a national university in Japan (M age = 18.2; SD = 0.39; 83.3% female). They were divided into four triads that participated in weekly 20-minute discussions for nine successive weeks around three identity domains: learning, romantic relationships, and career. Transcripts were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Seven characteristics of exploration were identified in real-time interactions: support, open disclosure, meta-exploration, investigating, creating an idea, conflict, and demotivating. In addition, these characteristics generated three major overarching patterns that advanced exploration: creating a safe environment for exploration, clarification and elaboration of the idea embedded in support essential for promoting exploration, and a combination of finding a keyword and repeating it on the border between exploration and discovering an aspect of identity. Overall, our results reveal that exploration in real-time interactions among peers did not involve a fixed sequence of characteristics; rather, it was vitalized by mutual affirmation, going back and forth among different characteristics of exploration while taking small steps. KEYWORDSIdentity development; young adulthood; real-time interactions; peers; grounded theory approach In this article, we address how identity exploration (hereafter, exploration) manifests itself in the real-time interactions among youth. Exploration refers to an individual's active engagement in searching for and investigating meaningful alternatives in important life areas (Marcia, 1966). Previous longitudinal studies have examined exploration using two different time scales: long-term exploration assessed on a yearly or monthly basis (e.g., Meeus et al., 2012) and short-term exploration assessed on a weekly or daily basis (e.g., Klimstra et al., 2010). Short-term exploration is extremely important in understanding the process of identity formation (Bosma & Kunnen, 2001). However, less is known about how exploration herein is expressed in individuals' ongoing actions that last minutes or seconds, namely exploration in real-time.A focus on exploration in real-time allows one to capture mechanisms of identity formation, because it consists of concrete actions unfolding in real-time that result in long-term developmental outcomes (Granic, 2005;Lichtwarck-Aschoff et al., 2008). Moreover, although exploration occurs in relational contexts, particularly peer relationships (e.g., Sugimura & Shimizu, 2010), studies on exploration in realtime interactions are still scarce. Therefore, in this study, we examine specific examples of exploration in real-time interactions among peers and identify these characteristics using qualitative data from young adults. In doing so, we provide a detailed portrayal of the Erikson's (1968) tenet that identity pri...

Identity development occurs in the context of real-time interactions. However, existing research on interactions has focused on identity processes and little is known about identity content development within interactions. We define real-time identity as claims about selves, formulated in the service of an interactional "social business." The aim of this methodological paper is to introduce Iterative Micro-Content Analysis (IMICA) as an approach to studying the changes and consistencies in real-time identity content. We outline four key principles of IMICA and offer a step by step guide to its analytic stages. We provide two worked examples for illustration: a video-recorded conversation between two young women on the topic of "love and desire," and audio-recorded speed-dating conversations between young same-sex attracted men. The worked examples demonstrate how IMICA can be used to study how identity claims change within a single interaction as well as across multiple interactions. We argue that IMICA's empirical insights into the concrete mechanisms through which social interactions shape identities are of both theoretical and practical relevance. We discuss how IMICA may allow for a micro-level operationalization of macro-level concepts (e.g., exploration or identity centrality), outline how it may be combined with quantitative analyses, and discuss its limitations. KEYWORDS Identity development; realtime processes; social context; identity contentThe development of identity is the central psychosocial task of adolescence and continues into emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2015). It is in the context of everyday interactions with social others that individuals both make identity-constitutive experiences as well as integrate these experiences into a coherent sense of self (Adams & Marshall, 1996;Postmes et al., 2006). This process involves concrete actions and behaviors unfolding in real-time (Lichtwarck-Aschoff et al., 2008;Raeff, 2014;Steinberg, 1995). Importantly, within interactions others are not static developmental contexts, but are actively contributing to an individual's identity development (Schachter & Ventura, 2008). It is through these repeated constructions and negotiations of identities within the here-and-now (i.e. micro-level) that more stable identities emerge across developmental time (i.e. macro-level;Schachter, 2015;Thorne & Shapiro, 2011). Thus, everyday interactions both provide the "content" of identities (e.g., Galliher et al., 2017), and are at the same time a pivotal site and process for the integration of these experiences (e.g., Adams & Marshall, 1996;Postmes et al., 2006). The aim of this methodological paper is to introduce Iterative Micro-Identity Content Analysis (IMICA) as an approach to the study of identity content and its change in the context of real-time interactions.