Objectives
Siblings have been recognized as playing a major role in the coming out process, because they share the same family as the lesbian and gay individual and are often of the same generation. ...Despite this recognized role, however, research on coming out has mainly focused on parents, and only few studies have examined the coming out process with respect to siblings.
Methods
This study used a sample of 241 lesbians and 171 gay men to examine the frequency with which Italian sexual minorities come out to significant persons in their life.
Results
Most participants reported that they had revealed their sexual orientation to their mother (71%), father (55%), brother (63%), sister (75%), and best friend (94%). Younger participants (15–25 years;
M
=
17.91,
SD
= 2.57) reported an earlier coming out experience than did older participants (26–45 years;
M
= 22.49,
SD
= 5.23). Chi-square tests revealed that lesbians were more likely to conceal their sexual identity to their father and brother. Again, lesbians reported higher frequencies of coming out to an older brother than a younger brother. First-born gay men were more likely to reveal their sexual orientation to their father than were those with an older sibling. Logistic regression showed that self-disclosure to both parents was associated with male gender, adulthood, average or good socio-economic status, low internalized sexual stigma, and high positive identity.
Conclusions
The discussion focuses on coming out and the importance of this process in promoting positive identity and well-being in sexual minorities.
The experience of "coming out" (CO) to parents is often a crucial event in the lives of lesbian and bisexual (LB) women, associated with lower internalized sexual stigma (ISS) and higher positive LB ...identity. Few studies have compared the experiences of LB women in the CO process. Rather, most prior research has either: (1) not addressed bisexuality or eliminated bisexual individuals from the analysis; (2) combined bisexual women and bisexual men in the same sexual orientation group; or (3) examined bisexual participants alongside lesbian women and gay men, using a single monolithic measure. Thus, the present research aimed at investigating the role of ISS and positive LB identity in inhibiting or encouraging CO to parents in a sample of 241 lesbian women (
= 27.61,
= 7.19) and 186 bisexual women (
= 25.23,
= 5.81), aged 18-40 years. Most participants reported that they had already revealed their sexual orientation to their mother (69%) and their father (52%). More lesbian women had CO to both their mother and their father than had bisexual women. These lesbian women reported lower levels of ISS and higher levels of LB positive identity relative to bisexual women. On average, CO to mothers occurred at age 20 (
= 5.54), while CO to fathers occurred at age 22 (
= 5.63). LB women did not differ in the average age of CO to mothers or fathers, or in parental reactions to CO. Finally, ISS was found to affect the process of CO to both parents via positive identity (bootstrapping estimate = -0.26, SE = 0.08, 95% CI = -0.43, 0.11), whereas sexual orientation was not found to moderate the path from ISS to CO to both parents. The present study contributes to our understanding of the differences between LB women when developing their sexual orientation, highlighting the relevance of a positive LB identity for CO to parents. Research and clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.
Purpose
This study explores perceptions and experiences related to healthcare utilization in a group of Italian sexual minority older adults, to understand the unique challenges faced by this ...population when accessing healthcare services. Older adults represent one of the subgroups exposed to the highest risk within sexual minorities with regard to physical and mental health.
Method
Data collection occurred between October 2018 and April 2019. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 23 participants over 60 years, including questions about participants’: experiences when dealing with physical/mental healthcare services; tendency to disclose sexual orientation in clinical contexts; preferences and desires when seeking care. Data were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), in order to provide qualitative information on participants’ experiences.
Results
Three interconnected themes were identified: the relevance of clinician and patient’s identities in determining confidence and satisfaction; expectations and experiences of discrimination; the need for specific competencies on sexual minority concerns.
Conclusion
Access and utilization of healthcare services can be considered as a multi-faceted phenomenon which involves people’s past and current experiences, perceptions, expectations and desires. Participants’ perception of having to deal with heterosexist healthcare settings influences health behaviors and outcomes.
Policy Implications
Interventions directed to healthcare providers are needed, to increase specific competencies and ensure safe and affirming environments.
We explored the differences among 327 lesbian, gay, and/or bisexual (LGB) individuals on the dimensions of the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Positive Identity Measure (LGB-PIM), a recently developed ...instrument to assess positive facets of LGB identity. We evaluated the relationship between the dimensions of LGB-PIM and self-relating processes (self-criticism, self-hate, and self-reassurance), internalized sexual stigma (ISS), social safeness and well-being, and the distinctive impact of the LGB-PIM dimensions on well-being. Lesbian/gay participants showed significantly higher levels of all five dimensions of positive identity than bisexual people. All LGB-PIM dimensions, except for commitment to social justice, showed correlations with well-being, self-relating processes, ISS, and social safeness. When controlling for other variables, only authenticity showed a significant unique relevance to positive psychological functioning in this population.
The coming out (CO) process is fundamental for identity integration among LGBQ+ people, and its impact can vary greatly depending on personal and contextual factors. The historical, cultural, and ...social contexts in which LGBQ+ people develop their sexual identity can mediate the relationship between CO and health outcomes. The present study aimed at clarifying the CO process in three generations of Italian LGBQ+ people (young adults: aged 20-40 years; middle adults: aged 41-60 years; older adults: aged 61-80 years) by providing data on: (a) sexual orientation milestones, such as age of first awareness, age of first self-label, and age of first CO, as well as the rate of disclosure during different life stages; (b) the rate and average age of CO to significant others; and (c) CO within the religious context and its effect on participants' minority stress experiences. A total of 266 Italian LGBQ+ people participated in the study, with ages ranging from 20 to 80 years (
= 41.15,
= 16.13). Findings indicated that, on average, the older adult group became self-aware, self-labeled, and disclosed their sexual identity at a significantly older age than the other groups. Older adults were also more Catholic and had CO more frequently to their Catholic community, relative to young and middle adults. CO within the Catholic context was associated with distal and proximal minority stressors, such as discrimination, vigilance, and internalized sexual stigma. Catholic community reactions to participants' CO were distinguished through thematic analysis in three main types: unconditional acceptance, invitation to change, and open rejection. The present research extended current knowledge on CO and minority stress experiences in different generations of LGBQ+ people. Several differences emerged between generational groups on sexual orientation milestones, highlighting the potential impact of historical and cultural contexts in determining sexual minorities' experiences related to sexual identity. It is recommended that mental health professionals working with LGBQ+ clients implement targeted interventions based on their clients' multiple salient aspects, including age and religious background. Clinicians should also be aware of the potentially detrimental effects of CO within an unsupportive context, rather than encouraging CO
.
Research on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on same-sex relationships is limited. The present study aimed at analyzing the association between the psychophysical impact of the COVID-19 pandemic ...and same-sex couples' conflict, also considering the potential mediating effect of internalized sexual stigma (ISS). For this purpose, psychophysical challenges and couples' conflict during the COVID-19 pandemic, ISS, age, biological sex, sexual orientation, relationship duration, religiosity, involvement in lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) associations, sexual satisfaction, and interpersonal partner violence were assessed in an Italian sample of 232 LGB people engaged in a same-sex relationship (aged 18-45 years;
= 28.68,
= 6.91). The results indicated that the psychophysical impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was significantly associated with couples' conflict, and ISS mediated this relationship. Among the covariates considered, only sexual satisfaction was associated with couples' conflict. The findings suggest that ISS, over and above the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychophysical health, triggered conflict within same-sex relationships. Studying the role of ISS in various relational and social contexts is important, as ISS may have an adverse effect on the mental health of sexual minority people. We recommend that more efforts be made to improve research on the LGB population during the public health response to the COVID-19 emergency, because the paucity of studies underlines the invisibility of this population in many domains, including the domain of romantic relationships. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.
Background
Increased risky sexual behaviors (RSB) in sexual minority people relative to heterosexual individuals are well documented. However, the role of trans-diagnostic factors that are not ...sexual orientation-specific, such as self-criticism, in predicting RSB was understudied. The present study aimed to test participants’ gender and sexual orientation as moderators between self-criticism and RSB.
Methods
Data were collected during 2019. The total sample included 986 sexual minority people (
N
women
= 51%) and 853 heterosexual people (
N
women
= 46%), ranging from 18 to 35 years of age. Self-criticism dimensions (self-hate, self-inadequacy, self-reassurance), types of positive affect (relaxed, safe/content, and activated affect), and RSB were assessed. Bivariate, multivariate analyses, and moderated regression analyses were conducted.
Results
Sexual minority participants showed higher levels of RSB, self-hate, and self-inadequacy than heterosexual people. Only in sexual minority men, RSB correlated positively with self-hate and negatively with safe/content positive affect. Moderated regressions showed that only for sexual minority participants, higher RSB were predicted by higher levels of self-hate. At the same time, this association was not significant for heterosexual people controlling the effects of age, presence of a stable relationship, other self-criticism dimensions, and activation safe/content affect scale. The two-way interaction between sexual orientation and gender was significant, showing that regardless of self-hate, the strength of the association between sexual orientation and RSB is stronger for sexual minority men than sexual minority women and heterosexual participants.
Conclusions
Findings highlight the distinctive role of self-hate in the occurrence of RSB in sexual minority people and support the usefulness of developing a compassion-focused intervention to target self-hate in sexual minority people.
Limited research focused on the association between parenting practices and children's prosocial and externalizing behaviors comparing same- and different-gender parent families. The present study ...considered 76 Italian families (73% same-gender and 27% different-gender parent families) with 8-year-old (SD = 2.17; 49% assigned female at birth) children born through assisted reproductive techniques, to explore parenting practices and children's prosocial and externalizing behaviors.
We ran a Multiple-group-by-couple Structural Equation Model in which we estimated the predictive role of parenting on children's behaviors, controlling for age, gender, and family socioeconomic status using the Maximum Likelihood estimation.
Results showed that both same- and different-gender parent families reported high levels of parental warmth and very low levels of hostility and rejection; regarding children's behaviors, both same- and different-gender parent families reported high levels of prosociality and low levels of externalizing behaviors. In addition, same-gender parents reported significantly higher levels of children's prosociality and parental warmth than different-gender parents. Regarding associations between parenting practices and behaviors, we found a positive association between positive parenting practices and increasing children's prosocial behaviors and decreasing children's externalizing behaviors, in both same- and different-gender families, controlling for family background characteristics.
The present study encourages future research to investigate how specific parenting practices can influence behavioral adjustment in children, focusing on same-gender parent families.
Aims: Research has underscored that an excessively intrusive parental style, defined as helicopter parenting, could be a risk factor for maladaptive behaviours in youth, including alcohol use and ...drug consumption. However, such at-risk behaviours have also been associated with low levels of parental involvement and warmth. Thus, the relationship between parental involvement and at-risk behaviours in adolescents is not clear. The purpose of the current study was to identify the relation between helicopter parenting and alcohol use in a sample of Italian youth. Design: The participants were 402 adolescents (233 female) between the ages of 14 and 19 years (M
age= 17.20, SD = 1.66). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine linear, quadratic, and exponential models and to verify which model best described the correlation. Results: The results showed a quadratic correlation between mothers’ helicopter parenting and alcohol use, whereby higher and lower levels of mothers’ helicopter parenting were associated with adolescents’ alcohol use. Conclusions: The empirical data are essential for improving our understanding of the implications and potential outcomes of helicopter parenting during adolescence.
Teachers and educators represent meaningful relationships for children, and their attitudes can have a major influence on a child’s development. This research examined the role of background ...characteristics, contact experiences, and sexual prejudice in determining beliefs about children’s adjustment in same-sex parent families. The sample consisted of 323 Italian teachers and educators working in nursery schools, kindergartens, and primary schools. The Scale on Beliefs about Children’s Adjustment in Same-Sex Families was used to assess adults’ beliefs about negative impacts on children raised in same-sex parent families. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to test the association between individual and normative opposition to same-sex parenting and background information, political and religious orientation, contact experiences, sexual prejudice, and beliefs about same-sex couples’ parenting abilities. Sexual prejudice, religious involvement, and negative beliefs about two-father couples emerged as strong predictors of individual and normative opposition to same-sex parenting, whereas political orientation and negative beliefs about two-mother couples predicted only the individual form of opposition. Empirical data are essential in understanding the level of prejudice and discrimination in schools in order to provide policies and programs designed to improve knowledge and competencies to deal with same-sex parent families and their children.
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