ABSTRACT

People and policies in the United States have become more affirming of LGBTQ individuals, yet LGBTQ parents face ongoing challenges in the heteronormative, cisnormative family space. The current study identifies contexts in which LGBTQ parents perceive their family identity to be non-normative and examines parents’ psychological and communicative responses in such contexts, including how parents address family identity with non-family members and with their children. Twenty-five LGBTQ parents provided written responses to open-ended prompts. Thematic analysis found that a range of social and institutional contexts prompted parents to perceive their family identity as non-normative – a generally negative psychological experience for the parents. To manage family identity-related communication with non-family members, parents primarily enacted the strategies ignoring/avoiding, explaining/discussing, and labeling. Parents tended to use the strategy narrating to communicate about family identity with their children, who expressed understanding in response. Results demonstrate the salience of non-normative family identity for many LGBTQ parents and the variety of strategies LGBTQ parents use to manage potentially challenging communication within and outside of the family. Findings also provide insight into children’s communication with parents in such contexts. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

摘要

美国的人民和政策对 LGBTQ 个体更加肯定，但 LGBTQ 父母在异性恋、顺式规范的家庭空间中面临着持续的挑战。目前的研究确定了 LGBTQ 父母认为他们的家庭身份是非规范性的背景，并检查了父母在这种背景下的心理和交流反应，包括父母如何处理与非家庭成员及其子女的家庭身份。25 名 LGBTQ 家长对开放式提示提供了书面答复。主题分析发现，一系列社会和制度背景促使父母认为他们的家庭身份是非规范的——对父母来说，这是一种普遍消极的心理体验。管理与非家庭成员的家庭身份相关的沟通，忽略/避免、解释/讨论和标记。父母倾向于使用叙述的策略与孩子交流家庭身份，孩子表示理解作为回应。结果表明，对于许多 LGBTQ 父母来说，非规范家庭身份的重要性以及 LGBTQ 父母用来管理家庭内外可能具有挑战性的沟通的各种策略。调查结果还提供了有关儿童在这种情况下与父母交流的见解。讨论了实践和理论意义。