1-209 - Rainbow Connections: Parent Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, Child Development, and Family Dynamics

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Developmentalists have described outcomes for children with lesbian mothers, but less attention has been paid to family and child development in families headed by transgender and gender nonbinary parents, gay fathers, adoptive parents, and prospective parents. This symposium will communicate results at the cutting edge of child development, family life, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

The first two papers focus on links between parent gender and child gender socialization. One describes the first-ever study of behavioral and emotional adjustment and gender development among children with transgender or gender nonbinary parents. Results indicate that these children exhibit typical development, with few exceptions; parenting stress was associated with child adjustment, but parent gender identity was not. The second paper investigates child gender presentation in a longitudinal study of children adopted by lesbian, gay, or heterosexual parents. Results suggest that parent gender role ideology has little impact on child gender presentation and girls’ peer relationships may suffer when girls conform less to expected gender presentations.

The remaining papers focus on parenting decisions that have implications for child development. The third identifies predictors of lesbian, gay, and heterosexual young adults’ parenting intentions, such as qualities of familial and romantic relationships, in a large, nationally representative U.S. sample. The final paper describes a longitudinal, international study of European infants with lesbian, gay, and heterosexual parents. The authors describe how infant-parent relationships change across infancy and investigate interactions with biological relatedness, wellbeing, and family structure. Theoretical, political, and practical implications will be discussed throughout.

Sub Unit

• Sex, Gender

Chair

• Rachel G Riskind, Guilford College

Individual Presentations

• Behavioral Adjustment, Emotional Adjustment, and Gender Development of Children with Transgender and Nonbinary Parents - Presenting Author: Samantha L. Tornello, Pennsylvania State University; Non-Presenting Author: Rachel G Riskind, Guilford College

• Longitudinal Gender Presentation and Associated Outcomes Among Adopted Children with Lesbian, Gay, and Heterosexual Parents - Presenting Author: Samuel T. Bruun, University of Kentucky; Non-Presenting Author: Rachel H. Farr, University of Kentucky

• Is Parenthood for me? Sexual Orientation and Predictors of Young Adult Parenting Intentions - Presenting Author: Doyle P. Tate, University of Virginia; Non-Presenting Author: Charlotte J. Patterson, University of Virginia

• Determinants of Coparenting Quality in Gay-, Lesbian-, and Heterosexual-Parent Families with Infants - Presenting Author: Kate Ellis-Davies, Nottingham Trent Univerisity & University of Cambridge; Non-Presenting Author: Loes van Rijn-van Gelderen, University of Amsterdam; Non-Presenting Author: Bérengère Rubio, IFSTTAR Versailles; Non-Presenting Author: Alice Winstanley, University of Cambridge; Non-Presenting Author: Terrence Jorgensen, University of Amsterdam; Non-Presenting Author: Martine Gross, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; Non-Presenting Author: Olivier Vecho, Universite Paris Nanterre; Non-Presenting Author: Henny Bos, University of Amsterdam; Non-Presenting Author: Susan Golombok, Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge; Non-Presenting Author: Michael Lamb, University of Cambridge