How Do LGBTQ+ Parents Raise Well-Adjusted, Resilient, and Thriving Children?

Abstract

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) parents raise well-adjusted children. How do they accomplish this feat despite stigma and discrimination? Psychological scholarship (often based in the United States and other Westernized countries) has typically used atheoretical, deficit models based on biased assumptions to compare the outcomes of children of LGBTQ+ parents and children of cisgender heterosexual parents. However, research on processes and socialization within LGBTQ+-parent families suggests that LGBTQ+ parents demonstrate flexibility, creativity, and intentionality, which are associated with children’s positive outcomes and resilience. We recommend moving from deficits-based, comparative approaches to intersectional, queer-theory-based, and strengths-based alternatives. We argue that this conceptual shift will generate new questions and thus new knowledge about the unique strengths of LGBTQ+ parenting that positively influence children’s development. Such findings may provide insights about parenting practices and ways to support effective parenting that could benefit all children and families.

The temporal intersectional minority stress model: Reimagining minority stress theory

“…The decision to keep this portion of the model the same as Meyer's (2003) original minority stress model was influenced by findings from studies we reviewed that show that stressors still have a direct effect on the mental health outcomes for queer individuals and families (e.g., Bockting et al, 2013; Fulginiti et al, 2020; Green et al, 2022) and that coping and social support impact the strength of this effect (e.g., Mereish et al, 2022; Meyer, 2015; Wong et al, 2014). We urge the use of the TIMS model to support the efforts of scholars who have shifted the focus of LGBTQ+ research from a deficit approach to a strengths‐based one by highlighting queer joy (Travers et al, 2022), resistance (e.g., Robinson & Schmitz, 2021), and thriving (Farr et al, 2022). This paradigm shift helps to highlight the positive experiences that LGBTQ+ families encounter in their day‐to‐day lives.…”

Parental burnout, coparenting, and internalized sexual stigma during COVID-19 in parents with minoritized sexual identities.

“…Overall, research has shown that lesbian and gay parents experienced heightened levels of stress and anxiety during the pandemic, also related to concerns about their children’s well-being and the potential for discrimination or prejudice (Goldberg et al, 2021; Salerno et al, 2020). Further examination of parental burnout in parents with minoritized sexual identities is needed, given that they face partially different stressors (e.g., they tend to experience more stigmatization and less social support; Leal et al, 2021) but also benefit from partially different resources (e.g., they typically demonstrate a more egalitarian division of unpaid household and childcare labor; Carone & Lingiardi, 2022; Farr et al, 2022), relative to heterosexual parents. Therefore, the present study examined some factors associated with parental burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic in lesbian and gay parents with school-age children born through assisted reproduction.…”

From safety in silence to speaking up for LGBTQ+ families: A reflection on the personal, professional, and political through a feminist lens

“…Instead, we should be “setting our own agendas” in our research, and resisting the urge to engage with offensive and anti‐LGBTQ+ research and theorizing (Clarke, 2000, p. 157). Setting our own agendas may lead us to explore long‐understudied and difficult topics within LGBTQ+ parent families—as well as, or perhaps in concert with, choosing to focus on the many strengths and resilience of LGBTQ+ parent families (e.g., Farr et al, 2022; Gartrell et al, 2019).…”