Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: The purpose of this project was to conduct research to understand nonheterosexual youths' experience with disclosure of sexual orientation information to family and how adolescent substance use may affect this process.Constructivist grounded theory guided the qualitative methodology and data analysis.The findings from this study suggest that disclosure of a non-heterosexual orientation to parents is a complex and dynamic experience that can be understood as the process of becoming a queer son or daughter.Substance use among this sample of non-heterosexual youth was not found to be related to the disclosure to family experience, however many of the youth believed that substance use is often used to cope with issues related to sexual orientation.More research is needed to determine if there is a relationship between disclosure to family and substance use for non-heterosexual youth.This study provides a unique contribution to the literature that places the emergent findings of the disclosure to family experience within an existing theoretical framework.Clinicians who work with sexual minority youth and their families should emphasize the dyadic nature of the disclosure decision and experience as well as healthy coping behaviors in order to protect sexual minority youth against the negative health outcomes that have been found in the literature.
Author: Erika L. Grafsky
Institution: The Ohio State University
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2602636098