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Across the world, people have seen their lives interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Using an online survey, we explored how the psychosocial effects of the pandemic affected the mental health of LGBTQ+ young adults who were confined with their parents during the lockdown period (N = 1,934), from six countries: Portugal, UK, Italy, Brazil, Chile, and Sweden. South American participants experienced more negative psychosocial effects of the pandemic. Depression and anxiety were higher among participants who were younger, not working, living in Europe and who reported feeling more emotionally affected by the pandemic, uncomfortable at home, or isolated from non-LGBTQ friends. Not attending higher education predicted depression while not being totally confined at home, residing habitually with parents, and fearing more future infection predicted anxiety. LGBTQ+ community groups, as well as health and educational services should remain particularly attentive to the needs of LGBTQ+ young adults during health crises.

This study explored the impact of sexual identity on attitudes towards parenthood among childless individuals from Portugal and the United Kingdom (UK). Compared to heterosexuals, lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals were less likely to: desire and intend to have children, be concerned about the prospect of childlessness or perceive children as a source of enrichment. They also people anticipated more stigma as parents than did heterosexuals. Compared to UK participants, all Portuguese participants, independently of sexual identity, desired and intended more to have children, were more concerned about childlessness, reported higher levels of parental commitment, and anticipated less stigma and expected more social support as parents. Portuguese lesbian, gay and bisexual participants desired more to have children than did those in the UK. Only in the UK did lesbian, gay and bisexual participants perceive children less as a source of enrichment than did heterosexuals and also anticipate negative costs associated with parenting. We concluded that the intersectional influence of different cultural climates on parenting aspirations should be taken into account in future research alongside sexual identity.

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Objective: Many studies point to the negative impact of discrimination on the psychological and social functioning of ethnic minority persons. The realization of these studies across multiple European countries enables a systematization of this knowledge, which is our goal in the present work. Method: This study presents a meta-analysis of the correlates of perceived ethnic discrimination among minorities living in European countries. Results: The analyses of 121 effect sizes reveal that discrimination is positively associated with symptoms of psychiatric disturbances, depression, psychosis, perceived stress, and externalizing behavior. Discrimination is also negatively associated with the self-esteem, positive evaluation of life, self-efficacy/mastery, well-being, and psychological adaptation of migrants. The results show that the strength of these significant relationships is, in some cases, moderated by persons' gender, age and ethnicity and countries' multicultural approach and rating in the Migrant Integration Policies Index (MIPEX), namely in regards to labor market mobility, permanent residence, and anti-discrimination policies. Conclusions: The detrimental effect of discrimination on many psychosocial dimensions emphasizes the need for governmental agencies to develop systemic and concrete interventions to decrease ethnic prejudice in Europe. Moreover, the results show that fostering multiculturalism, implementing broad anti-discrimination policies and enabling labor market mobility has a protective function in the face of discrimination as fundamental ways to promote the psychological adjustment of ethnic minority persons.

This study compared Israeli, Portuguese, and British childless lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) and heterosexual adults on parenthood aspirations as indicated by their desire and intent to become a parent and their concern about childlessness. For this purpose, 168 childless adults (57 self-reported as LGB) in Portugal were matched on sociodemographic variables with 168 participants from the United Kingdom and 168 participants from Israel, resulting in a sample of n = 504 (M age = 28.26, SD = 6.17). Participants were recruited through convenience sampling and completed online questionnaires assessing parenthood desire, intent, and concern about childlessness. Results indicated that participants from Israel and Portugal reported higher levels of parenthood desire, intent, and concern about childlessness than participants from the United Kingdom. Parallel patterns also appeared separately for LGB and heterosexual participants between the countries. Heterosexual participants from Israel scored higher than counterparts from Portugal on parenthood intention and concern about childlessness. In addition, LGB participants in general reported lower levels of parenthood desire, intentions, and concern about childlessness than did heterosexual participants. The findings are interpreted in light of the different sociocultural contexts of the countries, that is, the individualistic values characterizing the U.K. versus the familistic values characterizing the Israeli and Portuguese contexts, alongside a strongly pronatalist stance evident in Israel and economic context in Portugal. The study contributes to the scant comparative literature on parenthood aspirations among LGB individuals as a function of cultural context by providing a multicontextual viewpoint on parenthood aspirations, sexual orientation, and diverse sociocultural contexts. Implications for clinicians are discussed.

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The present study aimed to characterize beliefs surrounding the sexual and gender development of children adopted by lesbian and gay couples. Participants were 768 Portuguese university students. Using a quasiexperimental design, participants were presented with identical descriptions of a couple interested in adopting a child, manipulating couple sexual orientation and child gender. Participants were then asked to anticipate three aspects of the sexual and gender development of the adopted child: sexual orientation, gender role behavior, and gender identity. MANOVAs and follow-up ANOVAs were conducted in order to analyze the data. Results indicated that participants, particularly males, considered children adopted by either lesbian or gay couples to have a lower probability of developing a normative sexual and gender identity than children adopted by heterosexual couples. Both men and women considered that children would emulate the sexual orientation of their same-sex parents, and that a boy's gender role behavior was more at risk if he was adopted by a lesbian couple. Moreover, men were apprehensive about the gender role behavior of a boy adopted by a gay male couple. Overall, these results indicate persistence of biased evaluations of the sexual and gender development of children adopted by lesbian and gay parents. Furthermore, both gender of the participant and gender of the child play an important role in these evaluations. Results are discussed and interpreted as a way of "doing gender" in the context of hegemonic masculinity.