Parent adjustment over time in gay, lesbian, and heterosexual parent families adopting from foster care.

Abstract

Although increasing numbers of gay and lesbian individuals and couples are adopting children, gay men and lesbian women continue to face increased scrutiny and legal obstacles from the child welfare system. To date, little research has compared the experiences of gay or lesbian and heterosexual adoptive parents over time, limiting conceptual understandings of the similarities they share and the unique challenges that gay and lesbian adoptive parents may face. This study compared the adoption satisfaction, depressive symptoms, parenting stress, and social support at 2, 12, and 24 months postplacement of 82 parents (60 heterosexual, 15 gay, 7 lesbian) adopting children from foster care in Los Angeles County. Few differences were found between heterosexual and gay or lesbian parents at any of the assessments or in their patterns of change over time. On average, parents in both household types reported significant increases in adoption satisfaction and maintained low, nonclinical levels of depressive symptoms and parenting stress over time. Across all family types, greater parenting stress was associated with more depressive symptoms and lower adoption satisfaction. Results indicated many similarities between gay or lesbian and heterosexual adoptive parents, and highlight a need for services to support adoptive parents throughout the transition to parenthood to promote their well-being.

Stigma Experiences, Mental Health, Perceived Parenting Competence, and Parent–Child Relationships Among Lesbian, Gay, and Heterosexual Adoptive Parents in the United States

“…LG adoptive parents specifically (Goldberg and Smith, 2011;Calzo et al, 2019;Goldberg et al, 2019), and across two time points (Lavner et al, 2014). Although there were no differences by parents' sexual and gender identities in mental health symptoms at W1 and W2, all parents described fewer average symptoms when their children were in middle childhood as compared to 5 years earlier during early childhood.…”

“…Although there were no differences by parents' sexual and gender identities in mental health symptoms at W1 and W2, all parents described fewer average symptoms when their children were in middle childhood as compared to 5 years earlier during early childhood. This may reflect the particularly demanding responsibilities of parenting young children Smith, 2009, 2011;Lavner et al, 2014), especially considering that for many families in this sample, the target children represented the parents' first child. There were no differences as a function of parent sexual and gender identity in reports of perceived adoption stigma, consistent with Goldberg et al's (2011) study of LG and heterosexual adoptive parents.…”

“…LG parents, including LG adoptive parents, demonstrate high levels of effectiveness and competence in their roles as parents and healthy psychological adjustment as compared with their cisgender heterosexual parent counterparts (Bos et al, 2004a;Goldberg and Smith, 2009;Golombok et al, 2014Golombok et al, , 2018Farr, 2017;Calzo et al, 2019). Moreover, studies of LG parents (including adoptive parents specifically) have described relatively few mental health symptoms and low psychological distress, below clinical cutoffs, and often failed to uncover differences in comparison to heterosexual parents (Goldberg and Smith, 2011;Lavner et al, 2014;Calzo et al, 2019).…”

Supporting Parents: How Six Decades of Parenting Research Can Inform Policy and Best Practice

“…Same-sex parents tend to have a more equal division of labor (Farr & Patterson, 2013). They are, unfortunately, also more likely to face discrimination and continued legal obstacles, types of stress that minority parents also experience (Lavner, Waterman, & Peplau, 2014). However, even when families grapple with racism and discrimination in addition to parenting challenges, parenting support contributes to their resilience (Perrin & Siegel, 2013;Trub, Quinlan, Starks, & Rosenthal, 2017).…”

Using Symbolic Interactionism to Model Transitions to Adoptive Parenthood

“…Various theories have helped researchers and practitioners better understand adoptive family life. Their work has addressed different stages, variations from normative life-course development, and perspectives of adoption as inferior to a biological requisite (Brodzinsky, 2005;Hoksbergen & Laak;Kirk, 1988;Lavner, Waterman, & Peplau, 2014). Other topics have included the importance of communication boundaries and the influence of boundary ambiguity and ambiguous loss (Brodzinsky, 2005;Farr, Grant-Marsney, & Grotevant, 2014;Grotevant, McRoy, Wrobel, & Ayers-Lopez, 2013), as well as the reciprocal influence of family members, the interrelated nature of interactions across various social systems, and the influence of broader sociohistorical cultures (DeBerry, Scarr, & Weinberg, 1996;Kim, 2017;Liao, 2016;Schweiger & O'Brien, 2005;Verbovaya, 2016).…”