How LGBTQ Adults Maintain Ties with Rejecting Parents: Theorizing "Conflict Work" as Family Work.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

The present study examines how LGBTQ-identified adults maintain relationships with parents who reject their LGBTQ gender and sexuality.

Background

Parents often reject their children's LGBTQ gender and sexuality, sometimes leading to relationship dissolution. But how LGBTQ adults maintain parent-child relationships despite parents' LGBTQ rejection is less known. We answer this question with an empirical study of how LGBTQ adults maintain relationships with parents who reject their child's LGBTQ identity, drawing on conflict management theories and the concept "family work," or the work done to promote family functioning.

Method

Qualitative in-depth interviews with 76 LGBTQ young adults are analyzed, supplemented with data from 44 of their parents.

Results

SUBMITTER: Reczek R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8654036 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature