This study examined the narratives of 82 adoptive parents (41 couples: 15 lesbian, 15 gay male, 11 heterosexual) of young children (M age = 5.81 years) with a focus on understanding parents' socialization practices and strategies surrounding race (among parents of children of color), and family structure (among lesbian or gay [LG] parents). Most parents described an engaged approach to socialization surrounding their children's racial minority and LG-parent family statuses, employing strategies such as (a) holding parentchild conversations aimed at instilling pride, (b) seeking communities that reflect their child's identities (more often LG than heterosexual), and (c) educating about racism and heterosexism. Some parents described a cautious approach in which they acknowledged their child's racial background and LG-parent family status but were cautious about not being overly focused on their differences. A minority of parents (more often heterosexual than LG) described an avoidant approach, whereby they did not discuss their child's differences.

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Gay families are constructed support networks that gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals of color form, often in response to societal marginalization and rejection from biological families. Research on these family structures has been scarce, with little focus on the experience of African American gay family networks in the South. The current grounded theory qualitative study focused on the experiences of 10 African American male and transgender individuals between the ages of 18 and 29 from gay families in the Mid-South, and explored the ways these families addressed safe-sex issues and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) risk prevention. Results revealed that families can play a role in either increasing HIV risk (e.g., ignoring HIV issues, encouraging such unsafe behaviors as exchanging sex for money or drugs, stigmatizing HIV-positive people) or decreasing it (e.g., intensive, family-level prevention efforts at safe-sex practices and family support for HIV treatment adherence). The potential of these family networks for HIV prevention and adherence efforts is considered.

The current study is the first to examine parental gatekeeping in both same-sex (57 female, 51 male) and heterosexual (n = 82) couples, all of whom became parents via adoption. Aspects of the individual, the couple, and the work context, measured preadoption, were examined as predictors of gatekeeping. Gatekeeping refers to attitudes and behaviors aimed at regulating and limiting the involvement of the other parent in housework and child care and was measured 2 years postadoption. Findings revealed that women in heterosexual relationships reported higher gatekeeping compared with all other groups, and men in same-sex relationships reported higher gatekeeping compared with women in same-sex relationships and men in heterosexual relationships. Across the full sample, lower job autonomy predicted higher gatekeeping in both housework and child care, whereas greater relationship ambivalence, greater perceived parenting skill, and lower perceived partner parenting skill predicted higher gatekeeping in child care. Findings provide insight into how gatekeeping behaviors and beliefs are enacted in diverse types of couples and suggest that work factors should be taken into account when conducting research on, and seeking to improve, coparenting relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record