Resilience in Families after a Child’s Same-Sex Sexual Orientation Disclosure: The Child’s Perspective

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify qualities and resources that help families to adapt to the disclosure of their child’s same-sex sexual orientation. Fifty-four same sex-attracted participants from the Western Cape Province, South Africa represented their families and completed seven self-report questionnaires and responded to an open-ended question. The combined quantitative and qualitative analyses identified several family resilience qualities. Amongst these are community and social support from family, relatives, and friends; positive family communication; ability to redefine a stressor; ability to minimize reactivity; and exposure to same sex-attracted individuals and same-sex attraction as a topic of conversation.

Keywords:

• Families
• resilience
• same-sex
• sexual orientation
• disclosure
• child’s perspective

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.