Adolescents in planned lesbian families in the U.S. and the Netherlands: Stigmatization, psychological adjustment, and resilience

Abstract

From the studies in this dissertation, it can be concluded that adolescents in planned lesbian families do not differ in terms of their perceived quality of life and exhibit less problem behavior than adolescents in matched heterosexual families. Some adolescents experienced negative reactions from their environment based on their mothers’ lesbian identity. This homophobic stigmatization tended to occur in schools, and adolescents’ peers were most often the source of negative comments, teasing or ridicule. Stigmatization was negatively related to psychological adjustment, and it was found that two contextual factors from the mesosystem of the adolescents’ environment (having positive relations with one’s parents and peers) could ameliorate this relationship