The Power of Community: LGBTQ+ Parental Belonging and Child Adjustment

• In Event: How Caregivers Address Social Injustices to Promote Children's Wellbeing

Abstract

Among adolescents with LGBTQ+ parents, victimization and stigma can lead to behavior issues (Arseneault et al., 2006); however, parent LGBTQ+ community belonging may be protective (Kaniuka et al., 2019; Patterson et al., 2021). Community connectedness can buffer negative effects of stigma for LGBTQ+ adults (Kaniuka et al., 2019), and supportive environments allow LGBTQ+ parent families to thrive (Patterson et al., 2021). Research is lacking, however, on how LGBTQ+ parent community connectedness specifically relates to adolescent adjustment. Additionally, LGBTQ+ research is largely focused on white families from U.S. coastal regions (Stone, 2018). This mixed methods study had two aims. First, we examined associations between LGBTQ+ parents’ perceptions of LGBTQ+ community and their adolescents’ behavioral adjustment, expecting that LGBTQ+ community connectedness would be linked with greater adjustment. Second, we explored how diverse LGBTQ+ parents describe their sense of community and their adolescents’ adjustment.

Participants represent 16 LGBTQ+ parents (36-56 years) of an adolescent (ages 13-18; see Table 1 for demographics), primarily from the Southern U.S.; data collection (via Qualtrics) is ongoing. We measured adolescent adjustment using the Child Behavior Checklist/6-18 (CBCL; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001), and LGBTQ+ community belonging with the Psychological Sense of LGBT Community Scale (PSOC-LGBT; Lin & Israel, 2012). CBCL total scores fall into normal (>65), borderline (65-70), or clinical (70+) ranges. The CBCL also contains two open-ended questions about parent concerns and adolescents’ positive attributes. The PSOC-LGBT has 5 subscales: community influence, shared emotional connection, membership, need fulfillment, and communities existence; items are measured on a Likert scale (1-5; “None” to “A Great Deal”).

Participants reported a moderate sense of LGBTQ+ community (M=3.54, SD=.70), and high shared emotional connection with, and membership within it (Mdn= 4.1; Mdn= 5). All but two participants’ adolescents fell within the normal range on the CBCL (M=53.47, SD=13.35). One parent (white, pansexual, cisgender woman, Southern U.S., lower-middle class) whose child (13, white) fell within the borderline range said, “I worry that her views of [acceptance and love for others’] differences…may make her feel alienated.” Participants shared many positive attributes about their adolescents. One parent (36, Black, gay, cisgender man, Midwestern U.S., middle class) stated his daughter (16, Black), “is sweet to be around and always warms the house with her laughter and stories.” Inferential statistics have not yet yielded significant results.

Building upon previous literature, this study provides insight into the role of LGBTQ+ community in LGBTQ+ parent families (Goldberg & Garcia, 2020; Power et al., 2014), with a focus on adolescent behavioral adjustment and particularly among families in the Southern U.S. No correlation has been uncovered between belonging and adolescent adjustment, but this may reflect the small sample size or reveal areas of future investigation (i.e., how local acceptance for the LGBTQ+ community may relate to child adjustment). Findings have implications for LGBTQ+ parented children in clinical and policy settings, specifically related to LGBTQ+ community support and visibility in the Southern and Midwestern U.S.

Authors

• Kevin Andrew McAweeney, University of Kentucky
  Presenting Author

• Madi T Diomede, University of Kentucky

• Rachel H. Farr, University of Kentucky