Family Resilience Amid Stigma and Discrimination: A Conceptual Model for Families Headed by Same‐Sex Parents

• Author: David MacPhee,Sarah Prendergast
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12296
• Date: 01 February 2018
• Published date: 01 February 2018

S P  D MP Colorado State University

Family Resilience Amid Stigma and Discrimination:

A Conceptual Model for Families Headed by

Same-Sex Parents

Despite policy advancements ensuring equality

for lesbians and gay men, families headed

by LG individuals still experience stigmati-

zation and discrimination, both of which are

chronic forms of adversity that can compro-

mise healthy family functioning. Yet research

demonstrates that many families headed by

same-sex parents are functioning well. Research

using decit-comparison approaches has not

contributed to a deeper understanding of vari-

ations in child rearing and child outcomes that

may contribute to, or impede, healthy family

functioning among the population of LG fami-

lies. We describe a model of family resilience,

grounded in minority stress theory, that may

help inform the research agenda on families

headed by same-sex parents. Our conceptual

framework of family resilience can guide the

next wave of research with LG families and may

help programs to promote key family strengths.

Research using a decit-comparison approach—

that is, research in which heterosexual nuclear

families serve as the benchmark against which

other families are understood—has been preva-

lent in the literature on families headed by

Department of Human Development & Family Stud-

ies, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523

(sarah.prendergast@colostate.edu).

Key Words: Child rearing, family resilience, LG parents,

stigma, stress.

same-sex (lesbian or gay) parental dyads (here-

after, LG families). For example, although few

meaningful differences have been identied in

outcomes between children raised by different-

versus same-sex parental dyads (e.g., Biblarz &

Stacey, 2010), stigmatization tied to LG families

is associated with negativeoutcomes for children

(e.g., hyperactivity in boys and self-esteem con-

cerns in girls; Bos & van Balen, 2008).

The emphasis on identifying differences from

a decit-comparison perspective presupposes

that one family type is a normal and superior

model against which other family types can

be measured. However, all family types have

relative strengths and weaknesses. For example,

LG families tend to experience higher levels

of stigma than their heterosexual counterparts,

but children who experience more stigma may

develop more resilience, which would be an

example of stress inoculation (Daskalakis,

Bagot, Parker, Vinkers, & de Kloet, 2013).

Another relative strength of LG families is that

they tend to be more egalitarian, and varia-

tions in egalitarianism as well as androgyny

are more strongly associated with the quality

of parent–child relationships than are family

structure or gender roles (Biblarz & Stacey,

2010).

In light of the decit-comparison approach’s

shortcomings for understanding family

strengths, researchers have called for the

integration of a positive psychology approach

to research on LG families (e.g., Vaughan &

Rodriguez, 2015). Given the stigma that LG

26 Family Relations 67 (February 2018): 26–40

DOI:10.1111/fare.12296