Religiously-motivated sexual orientation change: A follow-up study

One year after an initial study, follow-up research was conducted on 140 in dividuals attempting to change their homosexual orientation due to their re ligious beliefs. The follow-up participants (102 males and 38 females) came from a group of 248 who took part in a prior study Survey results indicate d a behavioral success rate of 60.8% for males and 71.1% for females during the year following the initial study. Participants were considered behavio rally successful if they had abstained from any type of physical homosexual contact in the past year. Success was associated with strong religious mot ivation and positive mental health. Of those who were not behaviorally succ essful, the majority (88.2%) indicated thar they were still attempting to c hange their sexual orientation. This finding suggests that these participan ts still believed enough in the possibility of change to continue to pursue reorientation.