The Interaction and Family Atmosphere Between Homosexual Adults and Their Families During the Pre- and Post- Coming Out Period

• Main Authors: Tsai, Jen-Chieh, 蔡仁傑
• Other Authors: Hung, Ya-Chin
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/97548857723833147036

碩士 === 中國文化大學 === 心理輔導學系 === 103 === The purposes of this study were to understand the interaction and family atmosphere between homosexual adults and their families during the pre- and post- coming out period, and to reveal the key elements during the familial coming out process. In this study, the researcher collected data from two homosexual children (a gay and a lesbian from two different families) aged 20-30 and their core family members, including their parents and siblings. The duration of the interviews with the gay child and his core family members amounted to 24 hours, while the duration of the interviews with the lesbian child and her core family members amounted to 32 hours. The results were analyzed by the narrative analysis method with which the researcher integrated each part of the transcripts from the interview with every family member into two family stories, as the results are shown as follows: A. The interaction between the homosexual children and their parents: (A) From closeting to coming out 1. The homosexual children’s sexualities were likely to be doubted by their parents if their personal traits do not fit into the stereotypes of their genders. 2. The strategies and occasions for the homosexual children to come out to their parents depended on what kind of inner and external resources they were able to gain and how soon they were able to gain them. 3. The parent-child communications quickly reached deadlocks after the homosexual children’s coming out, which required the homosexual children to come out again. (B) Mediators helping to fix the conflicting relationships 1. The mediator’s main functions were intervening in the conflicting relationship, providing emotional support for the homosexual child and providing specialized information for the other parent. 2. In both families, the first repaired parent-child relationship enabled one of the parents to become the mediator of the other still-conflicting parent-child relationship. 3. The parents developed the desire for reparation due to failing to forge alliances, the intervention of the mediators, and the guilty feelings evoked from refusing to accept their own homosexual children. (C) Reparation of the conflicting relationships 1. The homosexual children’s independence and mental maturity helped increase their parents’ trust in them. 2. The parents’ desire for reparation prompted them to repair the parent-child relationships actively. 3. The existence of heterosexual siblings helped the parents deal with disappointment. B. The interaction between the homosexual children and their siblings: (A) Trustfulness in sibling relationships had an impact on the homosexuals’ will to come out to their siblings. (B) Degrees of intimacy in sibling relationships correlated with siblings’ degrees of activeness while being mediators. (C) Siblings’ main functions while being mediators were providing emotional support for the homosexual siblings and providing specialized information for their parents. C. The changes in atmosphere in both families: (A) Positive interactions between the family members were conducive to moderating conflicting subsystems in their families. (B) The interactions of parenting styles with homosexuals’ personal traits formed various patterns of family atmosphere. (C) Both families established consensuses for the degrees of coming out to the society. D. Key elements during the familial coming out process: (A) Closet period: Homosexual children accumulate inner and external resources that would make them able to cope with the threats and negative emotions after coming out to their family members, particularly their parents. (B) Coming out period: Homosexual’s evaluation of coming out strategies, parent-child relationships reaching deadlocks, the homosexuals coming out again, and siblings forging alliances. (C) Compromising period: Homosexual children forge alliances with one of the parents who support them, which enabled the parents alongside with other mediators to intervene in the still-conflicting parent-child relationships. (D) Repairing period: The conflicting parent-child relationships repair gradually due to actively showing the will to communicate from both sides, and the families then establish consensuses for the degrees of coming out to the society. Based upon the above-mentioned results, discussions and suggesting were presented.