Anthony D'Augelli

Career

In 1977, D'Augelli worked as the director of evaluation of the Community Helpers Project established by Pennsylvania State University to provide preventive mental health services for rural communities. Since then he had worked as a director of intervention programs, a psychologist, and a psychology professor. In 2004 he was hired by the Department of Human Development and Family Studies of Pennsylvania State University to teach undergraduate and graduate students, as well as to conduct research. In 2006 he accepted the position of Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs and Outreach at Pennsylvania State University, but continues his work as professor in the department as well.

D'Augelli's research and publication agenda originally focused on helping, the training of mental health professionals, interventions, preventive mental health disorders, and eating disorders. He began to focus on sexuality and lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations in rural, higher education, and urban settings the 1980s. D'Augelli was one of the first researchers to publish scholarly articles on the experiences of LGB college students, as well as perceptions of LGB people by heterosexual students, and made an effort to capture the experiences of LGB and straight populations of color in his research.

D'Augelli serves on the editorial boards of Journal of LGBT Youth, Journal of GLBT Family Studies, Sexuality Research and Social Policy, Journal of Gay & Mental Health, and Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior.

Work

D'Augelli is a prolific researcher and academic author. He is best known for his "homosexual lifespan development model", which he later extended to lesbian and bisexual identity development and renamed the lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) lifespan development model.

D'Augelli's Lifespan Model of Lesbian Gay Bisexual Identity Development
D'Augelli published his initial "homosexual lifespan development model" in 1994. According to D'Augelli, identity is shaped by sociocultural contexts. As an individual's awareness of social circumstances changes over time, the individual's identity development will also change. D'Augelli believes that a direct connection exists between sociocultural context, perception of safety, and lesbian, gay, bisexual identity development. D'Augelli stated that other models of identity development reinforce heteronormativity, and that lesbian, gay, and bisexual identity development is often socially conditioned by fear and shame.

Unlike Vivienne Cass' stage theory of lesbian and gay identity development, D'Augelli's identity development theory focused on processes that could occur multiple times or not at all, as LGB people often must navigate the coming out process repeatedly across their lifespan. D'Augelli also recognized that LGB identity development could go dormant, then start again later in life—or simply begin when an individual perceived that it would be safe to come out.

D'Augelli's lifespan identity development model consists of the following processes:
1. Exiting a heterosexual identity
2. Developing a personal lesbian, gay, or bisexual identity status
3. Developing a lesbian, gay, or bisexual social identity
4. Claiming identity as an LGB offspring
5. Developing an LGB intimacy status
6. Entering an LGB community

An individual may experience the following processes at different times during their lifespan. Each process may occur more than once over the course of one's lifespan, or not at all. Connection with social networks also impact lesbian, gay, and bisexual identity development across the lifespan. D'Augelli's LGB lifespan identity development model also introduced the concept that sexual orientation could be fluid, and that sexual identity could occur on a spectrum as opposed to a binary.

Awards

D'Augelli has earned awards in 1991, 1995, and 2000 from the American Psychological Association for his pioneering and influential research on LGB populations.