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Lesbian and Gay Parenting Post-Heterosexual Divorce and Separation

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LGBT-Parent Families

Abstract

This chapter begins by discussing initial research on same-gender parenting, which addressed theoretical questions on the influence of parenting on children’s social development and empirically investigated pragmatic concerns raised by restrictive divorce settlements. These early studies concurred that children raised by lesbian mothers or gay fathers did not differ from children with heterosexual parents on key developmental outcomes. Other early studies of same-gender parenting post-heterosexual separation and divorce considered stepfamily formation and the coming out processes that families undergo. Subsequent research and scholarly commentaries have challenged the field to use social constructionist and queer theory paradigms. These paradigms have increasingly led researchers to consider the different social realities experienced by children growing up with lesbian or gay parents and suggest that children may engage in a more open-minded consideration of their own psychosexual development. The research field awaits consideration of how parenting post-heterosexual divorce may differ from planned parenting by lesbian and gay parents. Future research studies will need to conceptualize diversity and fluidity in parental sexual orientation and consider contextual variation in parenthood utilizing a variety of different theoretical frameworks and research methodologies.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In attempting to place the academic origins of particular studies I have undoubtedly simplified the complex multiple positions of scholars investigating lesbian and gay parenting. Nonetheless, discernable waves of research have ebbed and flowed upon particular theoretical and thematic currents navigated by investigators from particular academic disciplines.

  2. 2.

    Post-heterosexual parenting takes place after the ending in separation or divorce of a heterosexual relationship in which children were conceived or adopted and the parent redefines their sexual orientation as nonheterosexual. In considering the published literature in the field I have focused on the position of lesbian and gay parents parenting post-heterosexual separation or divorce. Researchers in the field have sometimes noted the particular circumstances of their participants but most have not.

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Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Abbie Goldberg and Katherine Allen for their editorial comments, enthusiasm, and patience.

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  1. Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck University of London, Malet Street, Bloomsbury, London, WC1E 7HX, UK

    Fiona Tasker Ph.D.

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  1. Fiona Tasker Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Fiona Tasker Ph.D. .

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  1. , Department of Psychology, Clark University, 950 Main Street, Worcester, 01610, Massachusetts, USA

    Abbie E. Goldberg

  2. , Department of Human Development, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State, 401C Wallace Hall (0416), Blacksburg, 24061, Virginia, USA

    Katherine R. Allen

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Tasker, F. (2013). Lesbian and Gay Parenting Post-Heterosexual Divorce and Separation. In: Goldberg, A., Allen, K. (eds) LGBT-Parent Families. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4556-2_1

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