Document Type

Dissertation

Rights

Available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 4.0 International Licence

Disciplines

Family studies

Publication Details

Successfully submitted for the award of MA in Child, Family and Community Studies to the Technological University Dublin, 2011

Abstract

This research focused on the experiences and views of lesbian parents and adult children of lesbian parents. The experiences of the members of lesbian-parented families determined the main areas that were explored. The lack of international and Irish research on the lived experiences of lesbian parents and their children prompted this investigation. The study was conducted using qualitative, semi-structured interviews. The sample consisted of three lesbian parents and two adult children of lesbian parents from two parent lesbian families. The findings highlighted the experiences of the parents and adult children from lesbian-parented families in reference to: the Irish legal context; dealing with disclosure of their family type to others for lesbian parents and their children; sources of support for lesbian parents and their children; lesbian parents and their children in the education system; homophobic bullying of children with lesbian parents and the division of labour and the difference in parenting roles between the biological and non-biological mother. Recommendations made in this study included addressing the rights of same-sex families in Irish law, additional support groups for same-sex parents and their children and that further research undertaken with a wider sample including an exploration of the experiences of male gay parents and their children.

DOI

10.21427/D7FR0T

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