College students' perceptual stigmatization of children with divorced lesbian mothers
Abstract
In recent years, an increasing number of lesbians have been willing to enter into custody cases involving their children conceived in previous heterosexual unions. However, these women are more likely than divorced or divorcing heterosexual women to face judicial decisions denying them custody of their minor children. One rationale that has been used to deny lesbians custody is the argument that their children will be stigmatized. Quantitative research to date has not addressed this issue and the current study was designed to do so. The sample consisted of 338 undergraduate students. These students were asked to complete a child behavior check list for a hypothetical child of either a divorced lesbian or a divorced heterosexual mother. Results indicated that students did predict more problematic behaviors in a variety of domains for a child with a lesbian mother than for a child with a heterosexual mother. It was also discovered that this stigmatization is not compounded if lesbian mothers live with adult female partners. The discussion includes suggestions for future research, limitations and implications of the current study, strategies that lesbian mothers and their children may engage in to protect them from stigmatization's impact, and proposed ways to decrease future stigmatization.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Black, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Developmental psychology|Social psychology|Families & family life|Personal relationships|Sociology|Womens studies
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