According to research, the majority of gay or bisexual college men report they first became aware of their sexual orientation in .

According to research, the majority of gay or bisexual college men report they first became aware of their sexual orientation in high school.

Explanation:

In general, the term sexual identity refers to the ability of the individual to self-identify and recognize their sexuality from their internal experience. Includes labels related to sexual orientation: being homosexual, bisexual or heterosexual. Attraction, behavior, and identification as homosexual or bisexual occur in different steps and no step automatically leads to another. During the self-recognition, the individual realizes an attraction to people of the same sex, a fact that he or she may or may not accept. If they accept it and decide to reveal it to others, they can get to next steps, experimentation and exploration and begin to engage in homoerotic behavior. Some individuals will seek intimacy and more stable relationships eventually integrating their sexual orientation as an important (and not just peripheral) part of their personal identity,  and last step, consolidation. In the adolescence (during high school) is when the set of rules or norms and beliefs are constructed that will morally guide their future decisions before the world and among them, their sexual identity. All these changes in emotional maturity are in turn accompanied by physical modifications that - accelerated or not - generate even more confusion in the process of affirmation and self-recognition. This process is often accompanied by worry, confusion and uncertainty, especially in relation to sexual orientation, since emotions and affections with a libidinal charge begin to be felt towards other people. More often this orientation is heterosexual, but in other cases it can acquire homosexual or bisexual characteristics, which frequently generates greater conflicts than those typical of adolescence.