Family caregiving responsibilities among lesbians and gay men.

This study examines the full range of family care responsibilities among lesbians and gay men, including caring for children and adults with an illness or disability. Thirty-two percent of the gay men and lesbians in this study were providing some type of caregiving assistance. Lesbians, compared with gay men, were significantly more likely to be caring for children and elderly people, whereas gay men were more likely to be assisting working-age adults with an illness or disability. After controlling for the sociodemographic characteristics of the caregivers, having child care responsibilities was a significant predictor of not being openly identified as gay or lesbian, but child care and adult care responsibilities were not significant predictors of degree of support received from biological family members or of harassment experienced. These findings have implications for the development of human services practices and policies that are responsive to the unique needs of lesbians and gay men and their families.

[1]  D. Nord.  Multiple Aids-Related Loss: A Handbook for Understanding and Surviving a Perpetual Fall , 1997 .

[2]  E. Congress,et al.  Multicultural Perspectives in Working With Families , 1997 .

[3]  S. Golombok,et al.  Do Parents Influence the Sexual Orientation of Their Children? Findings from a Longitudinal Study of Lesbian Families. , 1996 .

[4]  S. Golombok,et al.  Adults raised as children in lesbian families. , 1995, The American journal of orthopsychiatry.

[5]  F. Masterpasqua,et al.  Lesbians choosing motherhood: A comparative study of lesbian and heterosexual parents and their children. , 1995 .

[6]  M. Fish,et al.  Lesbian Mothers and Their Children: A Review for School Psychologists. , 1995 .

[7]  Linda A. Wardlaw.  Sustaining Informal Caregivers for Persons with AIDS , 1994 .

[8]  J. Catania,et al.  The prevalence of informal caregiving to persons with AIDS in the United States: caregiver characteristics and their implications. , 1994, Social science & medicine.

[9]  Rhonda R. Rivera.  Sexual Orientation and the Law , 1991 .

[10]  D. Rait.  The family context of AIDS. , 1991, Psychiatric medicine.

[11]  Kevin T. Berrill.  Anti-Gay Violence and Victimization in the United States , 1990 .

[12]  G. Herek.  The Context of Anti-Gay Violence , 1990 .

[13]  B. Bernstein.  Attitudes and Issues of Parents of Gay Men and Lesbians and Implications for Therapy , 1990 .

[14]  Julie S. Gottman.  Children of Gay and Lesbian Parents , 1989 .

[15]  C. Pies.  Lesbians and the Choice to Parent , 1989 .

[16]  Patricia J. Falk,et al.  Lesbian mothers: Psychosocial assumptions in family law. , 1989 .

[17]  F. Bozett.  Homosexuality and the family , 1989 .

[18]  E. Strommen.  "You're a what?": family member reactions to the disclosure of homosexuality. , 1989, Journal of homosexuality.

[19]  S. L. Huggins.  A comparative study of self-esteem of adolescent children of divorced lesbian mothers and divorced heterosexual mothers. , 2020, Journal of homosexuality.

[20]  M. C. P. Msw.  Lesbians Choosing Children , 1988 .

[21]  L. Pearlin,et al.  Stress of AIDS caregiving: a preliminary overview of the issues. , 1988, Death studies.

[22]  M. Kirkpatrick.  Clinical implications of lesbian mother studies. , 1987, Journal of homosexuality.

[23]  E. Rawlings,et al.  Psychological health and factors the court seeks to control in lesbian mother custody trials. , 1982, Journal of homosexuality.

[24]  Colin J. Williams,et al.  Male homosexuals; their problems and adaptations , 1974 .