What Would It Be Like to Be a Parent? Exploring the Role of Sexual Orientation and Culture on Perceptions of Parenthood in the Future

Abstract

Objective: This study explored the impact of sexual orientation and cultural context on the way lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) and heterosexual cisgender adults without children from Portugal, Israel, and the UK anticipate the parenting experience. Background: Higher levels of parenthood aspirations (e.g. desires and intentions) and more positive perceptions of the parenting experience (e.g. emotional enrichment upon having children) have been reported among heterosexual individuals than LGB ones, and more so in familistic societies than in individualistic ones. However, perceptions of the parenting experience have rarely been examined across different cultural contexts. Methods: One-hundred and sixty-eight adults without children (57 self-reported as LGB) in Portugal were matched on sociodemographic variables with 168 participants from the UK and 168 participants from Israel, resulting in a convenience sample of N = 504 (Heterosexual: n = 333, Mage = 27.48, SD = 5.47; LGB: n = 171, Mage = 29.77, SD = 7.12). Results: Overall, participants from Israel and Portugal, as well as heterosexual participants in general, perceived parenting in a more positive way than either their counterparts in the UK or LGB participants, respectively. Parallel patterns also appeared separately for LGB and heterosexual participants, with higher levels of social support and lower levels of stigma anticipated in both Portugal and Israel than the UK. Conclusion: Both sexual orientation and the socio-cultural context are associated with parenting perceptions. However, the effect of the cultural context seems to surmount that of sexual orientation, with both LGB and heterosexual individuals from more familistic countries anticipating parenthood in a more positive way, than their peers from the UK. Implications:Repercussions of the findings include consideration of the needs of prospective LGB parents in terms of social support, culturally competent and affirmative interventions regarding LGB parenthood, and policies targeting prejudice and counteracting heteronormativity.

The Mediating Role of Insecure Attachment in the Gap in Parenthood Desire between Lesbian and Gay Individuals and Their Heterosexual Counterparts

“…The current results suggest that LG individuals are more prone to report avoidant attachment, which in turn is associated with lower parenthood desire. This finding makes a direct contribution to current mediation models explaining the gap in parenthood aspirations between LG and heterosexual individuals, which rely on variables such as anticipation of stigma upon parenthood, interpersonal vulnerability, and subjective traumatic outlook [11,23,62]. Furthermore, this finding aligns with previous mediational frameworks suggesting that the social support context, i.e., relationship with parents, romantic partners, and close friends, mediate the association between sexual orientation and parenthood aspirations [8].…”

“…The finding that LG individuals reported lower parenthood desire in comparison to heterosexual individuals is aligned with prior research [3,15,17,40,41,61]. This gap in parenthood desire between LG and heterosexual individuals may be explained by the legal and bureaucratic difficulties faced by many LG individuals, the financial burden associated with the use of assisted reproductive technologies and cross-border surrogacy, and LG individuals' anticipation of being stigmatized as parents [11,18,20,62]. Moreover, internalized homonegativity among LG individuals and the greater pressure placed on heterosexual couples to have children may also contribute to the gap in parenthood desire between LG and heterosexual individuals [9,10].…”

Stress and Resilience Experiences during the Transition to Parenthood among Belgian Lesbian Mothers through Donor Insemination

“…A further fundamental factor in the re-organization of family dynamics following the birth of the child was the mothers' experiences of discrimination and stigmatization. As mentioned above, studies have reported that lesbian mothers are often stigmatized for their desire to have a child and create a family, even within their extended family [56][57][58].…”

Behavioral Outcomes of Children with Same-Sex Parents in The Netherlands

“…The literature on minority stress theory continually shows adverse mental health outcomes for sexual minorities, resulting from the stress of navigating heterosexist societies [12][13][14]. Same-sex parents anticipate rejection not only of themselves, but they expect the rejection of their children, which adds stress unique to same-sex parents to general stress experienced by all parents [9,[15][16][17][18]. Combining insights from family system theory and minority stress theory, one can assume that children growing up in same-sex parent families may experience more psychological problems than children growing up in different-sex parent families due to excessive stress on the family system as a whole.…”