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This study investigates perceptions of family communication among members with different sexual identities. Specifically, from the perspective of heterosexual family members (N = 129), the study takes an intergroup perspective to determine how accommodative and non-accommodative communication and attitudes toward homosexuality predict intergroup anxiety and relational satisfaction with gay or lesbian family members. Further, the manner in which family communication influences attitudes toward homosexuality is examined. Results are discussed in terms of implications for research on heterosexual-homosexual interaction, family communication, and intergroup communication, in general.

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As the number of families formed through visible adoption continues to increase, so too does the need to understand how members communicatively experience their families. Grounded in the interpretive paradigm and framed by relational dialectics theory, the researcher conducted 31 interviews with 40 parents to investigate what, if any, contradictions parents experience as they engage in identity-work. The researcher describes six contradictions active in parents' identity-work: (i) similarity and difference, (ii) invisibility and visibility, (iii) integration and distance, (iv) fortune and loss, (v) openness and closedness and (vi) community and privacy. Implications of these findings are discussed to provide insight to researchers and individuals who interact with members of families formed through visible adoption. KEY WORDS: adoption • contradiction • family communication • identity-work • qualitative research • relational dialectics theory • visible adoption Journal of Social and Personal Relationships