Concerns about whether their children will one day be able to have children of their own appear to influence parents’ attitudes about the possibility of their children coming out as lesbian, gay or bisexual, according to a new study.
Researchers Daniel J. DelPriore, Olivia Ronan and Pamela Lantz from the College of Education, Human Development and Social Sciences at Pennsylvania State University Altoona said: Sexual Archives Actions I’ll be back in July.
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“Parents often react negatively when their children disclose a minority sexual orientation,” the team wrote. “We suggest that negative parental attitudes in this context may be shaped by evolutionary concerns about the reproductive outcomes of their children.”
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DelPriore and other researchers conducted three studies to test their hypotheses. In the first study, the researchers surveyed a group of 386 cisgender, heterosexual parents: 192 mothers and 194 fathers, all of whom had children under the age of 6. The surveys measured the extent to which parents were concerned about their children’s potential to reproduce (i.e., have their own biological children), as well as their attitudes toward the possibility of their children coming out as gay, lesbian, or bisexual.
The researchers found that concerns about a child’s fertility were significantly associated with parents’ more negative attitudes if their child were to come out as non-heterosexual: Parents who were more concerned about whether their child would be able to have children of their own, or who believed that non-heterosexuals faced greater reproductive challenges, were more likely to hold negative views of their child coming out.
Two other studies tested whether providing parents with information about reproductive options for LGBT people influenced parents’ attitudes toward their children’s sexual orientation. The first study included 327 cisgender heterosexual mothers with young children under the age of 6, and the second study included 279 cisgender heterosexual fathers. In both studies, parents were split into two groups: one group read an article that highlighted the accessibility of procedures such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), and the other group read an article unrelated to reproductive issues. The parents were then given the same questionnaire as the group in the first study.
The researchers found that mothers and fathers who had more information about the reproductive options available to lesbian, gay, and bisexual people were significantly less likely to express negative opinions about the possibility of their children coming out.
Research suggests that for some parents, negative attitudes about their children coming out may be changeable: When parents understand that LGBT people can have biological children of their own, they seem less likely to react negatively to their children coming out.
Of note, this study was conducted on in vitro fertilization, Most common The procedure, a type of assisted reproductive technology, has attracted national attention after the Alabama Supreme Court issued an unprecedented ruling in February that effectively banned the procedure in the state.
