Parenting Aspiration among Diverse Sexual Orientations and Gender Identities in Mexico, and Its Association with Internalized Homo/Transnegativity and Connectedness to the LGBTQ Community

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine parenting aspiration among a sample of 1,995 childless cisgender, transgender, monosexual (gay/lesbian), and plurisexual (bisexual/pansexual/queer) Mexican individuals, which were compared according to their gender identity (cisgender vs. transgender) and sexual orientation (monosexual vs. plurisexual). For monosexual individuals, only being in a relationship and gender were significantly associated with parenting aspiration whereas for plurisexual individuals, gender, LGBTQ community connectedness, and internalized homo/transnegativity were associated with parenting aspiration. Plurisexual women and transgender individuals reported the lowest level of parenting aspiration, significantly differing from plurisexual men, who reported the highest. Nevertheless, the average score on parenting aspiration was low for the sample as a whole. These findings are discussed in light of Mexico’s current social context and political transformations around family and gender.

Anticipating Parenthood Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Heterosexual Young Adults Without Children in Portugal: Predictors and Profiles

“…Furthermore, gay men who desired to become a parent were less likely than heterosexual men to intend to have children, whereas this discrepancy was not observed among lesbian women (Riskind and Patterson, 2010;Baiocco and Laghi, 2013). Furthermore, gender was notable as a significant predictor of parenthood aspirations among monosexual and plurisexual persons in Mexico (Salinas-Quiroz et al, 2019). A gap between desire and likelihood estimations of having children also was found among Israeli gay men (Shenkman, 2012).…”

“…In fact, given prevailing societal prejudice and discrimination against sexual minority individuals, the interest in the parenthood plans of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals is quite recent. Sexual minority persons face many barriers when they envisage parenthood and that may explain why they express fewer desires, intentions, and expectations of having children than do heterosexual persons (e.g., Patterson and Riskind, 2010;Riskind and Patterson, 2010;Goldberg et al, 2012;Shenkman, 2012;Baiocco and Laghi, 2013;Riskind et al, 2013;Riskind and Tornello, 2017;Simon et al, 2018;Gato et al, 2019;Leal et al, 2019b;Salinas-Quiroz et al, 2019;Tate and Patterson, 2019a,b). Parenthood among bisexual individuals is also relatively understudied.…”

“…Our knowledge of the factors shaping parenthood intentions of LGB individuals is still scarce (e.g., Baiocco and Laghi, 2013;Riskind et al, 2013;Costa and Bidell, 2017;Gato et al, , 2019Salinas-Quiroz et al, 2019;Scandurra et al, 2019;Tate et al, 2019). The current study aims to contribute to fill in this gap, by characterizing parenthood intentions amongst LGB and heterosexual young adults without children.…”

Deciding to parent or remain childfree: Comparing sexual minority and heterosexual childless adults from Israel, Portugal, and the United Kingdom.

“…Among LGB individuals, aspirations for parenthood have been differentiated by parenthood desire (i.e., expressed wishes), parenthood intent (i.e., explicit planning to become a parent), and concern about childlessness (i.e., anticipated psychosocial issues arising from childlessness; Riskind & Patterson, 2010; Tate & Patterson, 2019). Notwithstanding this attention from researchers in different countries such as Italy (e.g., Baiocco & Laghi, 2013), Portugal (Costa & Bidell, 2017), Mexico (e.g., Salinas-Quiroz et al, 2020), and Israel (e.g., Shenkman & Abramovitch, 2020), direct and purposeful comparisons between the parenthood aspirations of LGB individuals living in different sociocultural contexts have remained scarce (Leal et al, 2019). Addressing this deficit in cross-cultural comparison research, we compared the parenthood aspirations of LGB and heterosexual adults without children from three distinct sociocultural contexts (Israel, Portugal, and the United Kingdom) while matching individuals on other potentially confounding sociodemographic variables (e.g., gender, age, education level, and relational status).…”

Predictors of Attitudes toward Lesbian and Gay Parenting in an Ecuadorian Sample

“…Since their beginning, studies on same-sex parenting have focused primarily on the analysis of children's psychological, developmental, and social outcomes, especially from lesbian (L) and gay (G) parents, and to a lesser degree, bisexual (B) and transgender (T) parents (Goldberg, 2010;Patterson, 2013;Salinas-Quiroz et al, 2020;Tasker, 2005). This body of literature has consistently suggested that parental sexual orientation and gender identity do not impact children's psychological, social, and physical well-being nor does it affect the quality of family relationships (Carneiro et al, 2017;Patterson, 2013;Stacey, 2013).…”