Does feeling caught between parents magnify or reduce the association between parents’ nonaccommodation and sexual minorities’ personal-enacted identity gap with family?

ABSTRACT

This study examined the degree to which the association between parents’ nonaccommodation and sexual minorities’ personal-enacted identity gap (PEIG) with their family depends upon feelings of being caught between parents. Participants included 205 sexual minorities who reported on their parents’ unwanted advice about their sexual identity and the degree to which they emphasized divergent values in conversations about LGBTQ+ issues. Reports of both mother’s and father’s nonaccommodation were positively associated with feeling caught between parents. Feeling caught diminished the magnitude of association between parental nonaccommodation and PEIG, although the association remained significant across all levels of feeling caught.

KEYWORDS:

• Nonaccommodation
• sexual minority
• feeling caught
• identity gap
• LGBTQ+

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Paul Schrodt

Paul Schrodt (Ph.D., University of Nebraska – Lincoln) is the Philip J. and Cheryl C. Burguières Professor and Graduate Director in the Department of Communication Studies at Texas Christian University.

Haley Decker

Haley Decker (M.S., Texas Christian University, 2021) is a doctoral student in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Portions of this study were completed as part of the second author’s masters thesis under the direction of the first author.