Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs present: Exploring eudaimonia, queer readings, character identification and the sexual self-concept among LGBTQ+ Harry Potter and Marauders fans

Sexuality development is a lifelong process, and a critical component within this is one’s sexual self-concept. Such development is particularly challenging and prolonged for LGBTQ+ individuals who frequently experience social repercussions for their non-heterosexual identities. Yet, prior research finds that, broadly, fandom engagement and communities are promising avenues for LGBTQ+ fans’ healthy development. Using a sample of LGBTQ+ Harry Potter/ Marauders fans, we examined the associations between subversive fan behaviours and motivations (i.e., eudaimonic motivations for reading slash fanfiction, queer readings to find a community and character identification) on two components of the sexual self-concept. For sexual anxiety, there was not a significant association with eudaimonic motivations, queer readings and character identification, nor were there significant moderation effects. For sexual self-esteem, there were significant direct associations with queer readings and character identification, but not eudaimonic motivations. There was also a significant moderation for eudaimonic motivations and character identification on sexual self-esteem, but the interaction was only significant at the lowest level of the moderator. Findings are discussed in light of the media effects and human development literatures.