Monosexual and nonmonosexual women in same-sex couples’ relationship quality during the first five years of parenthood

ABSTRACT

Research on relationship quality in same-sex couples has rarely focused on (1) couples who are parents, or (2) couples in which partners differ in sexual identity. Insomuch as nonmonosexual women (i.e., women with non-exclusive sexual orientations) experience unique challenges due to monosexism, relationship quality may be influenced by whether partners share a monosexual or nonmonosexual identity. The current study is a longitudinal, dyadic analysis of 118 female parents within 63 same-sex couples whose relationship quality (relationship maintenance, conflict, love, ambivalence) was assessed at five time points across the first 5 years of adoptive parenthood. Monosexual women were those who identified as exclusively lesbian/gay (n = 68); nonmonosexual women were those who identified as mostly lesbian/gay, bisexual, queer, pansexual, or mostly heterosexual (n = 50). Analyses revealed both actor and partner effects on maintenance and conflict, such that nonmonosexual women reported more maintenance and conflict than monosexual women, and women with nonmonosexual partners reported more maintenance and conflict than women with monosexual partners. Depression was related to greater conflict and ambivalence and less love; internalized sexual stigma was related to greater conflict and ambivalence. Maintenance and love declined over time whereas ambivalence increased during early parenthood.

KEYWORDS:

• Monosexual
• nonmonosexual
• mixed orientation
• parents
• plurisexual
• relationship quality
• same-sex

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Including an indicator of whether the couple adopted a single child (= 1) or siblings (= 0) into the models described below did not change the patterns of results, nor did it have any statistically significant effects on the outcome variables. Thus, we do not discuss this variable further.

2. Only 17 women were in interracial (white-POC) couples; 97 women were in same-race couples (with one POC–POC couple). Four women were missing race information. There were no intercept differences between same-race and interracial couples on any relationship quality variables (p from .226 to .427) and the pattern of results did not change when same-race vs. interracial was included as a control. Thus, we do not mention this variable any further.

3. We also estimated four additional models (one for each of the four relationship variables) that included interactions exploring moderation of the sexual identity status-time interactions by internalized sexual stigma. The highest order interaction in these models was the four-way interaction of internalized sexual stigma, actor sexual identity status, partner sexual identity status, and time. All relevant lower order interactions were also included in these models. No significant moderation by sexual stigma were found so these effects were trimmed from the models reported.

Additional information

Funding

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [grant number R03HD054394]; Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues; Spencer Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Abbie E. Goldberg

Abbie E. Goldberg is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at Clark University in Worcester MA. She studies diverse families and sexualities across the lifespan.

Randi Garcia

Randi Garcia is an Assistant Professor of Social Psychology at Smith College in Northampton MA. She studies group dynamics, power and status, and group dynamics.

Melissa H. Manley

Melissa H. Manley is a doctoral student in clinical psychology at Clark University in Worcester MA. She studies diverse sexualities and relationship configurations.