Project title: "Towards an LGBTQ+ parent family minority stress model: Extending minority stress theory using mixed methods research synthesis".

Project team/partners: Magdalena Siegel, Martina Zemp (Faculty of Psychology), Nathalie Meuwly (University Freiburg, CH), Abbie E. Goldberg (Clark University, USA).

Institute/Department: Department of Clinical and Health Psychology.

Goal of the project: Parents and children in LGBTQ+ parent families experience discrimination in the legal and private spheres based on the parents' sexual orientation or gender identity. How does this discrimination affect parents' and children's mental health, family relationships, and family life?

Why is this important? Our research helps to draw attention to the many forms and consequences of discrimination that LGBTQ+ parent families experience and to formalize these experiences in a psychological model. This is intended to advance research and improve the social situation of LGBTQ+ parent families.

Abstract: LGBTQ+ parent families (families in which at least one parent identifies as LGBTQ+) are a diverse community and face multiple forms of discrimination. These range from legal discrimination (e.g., no legal protection of the parental or parent-child relationship) to unequal treatment or microaggressions in everyday life to internalization of negative societal stereotypes or concealment of the family structure. Using a mixed methods synthesis of qualitative and quantitative studies, we aim to describe these forms of discrimination and their impact on the family system (collectively conceptualized as minority stress) in a psychological model. The goal is to extend minority stress theory formalized on the individual level by integrating empirical evidence and family psychological theories.

Explanation - easy to understand: LGBTQ+ parent families are families in which a child has, for example, two fathers or two mothers. Some people think that children in LGBTQ+ parent families don't fare well, because they lack a father or a mother. These people then sometimes also treat parents and children in LGBTQ+ parent families differently. In some countries, two fathers or two mothers are not even allowed to marry or to have a child together. We want to find out how parents and children in LGBTQ+ parent families cope with these experiences.

Further information: Siegel, M., Assenmacher, C., Meuwly, N., & Zemp, M. (2021). The legal vulnerability model for same-sex parent families: A mixed methods systematic review and theoretical integration. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, Article 644258. Link zur Studie: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.644258/full

Siegel, M., Legler, M., Neziraj, F., Goldberg, A. E., & Zemp, M. (2022). Minority stress and positive minority identity aspects in members of LGBTQ+ parent families: Study protocol for a mixed-methods systematic review and meta-analysis. Manuscript in preparation.

Media report: https://science.orf.at/stories/3204481/