Siegel Magdalena, Assenmacher Constanze, Meuwly Nathalie, Zemp Martina
Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Department of Public Health, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium.
Front Psychol. 2021 Mar 16;12:644258. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.644258. eCollection 2021.
Globally, parents and children in same-sex parent families are impacted by many laws related to the parental sexual orientation. These laws vary considerably from one country to another, ranging from full legal recognition to criminalization. The psychological consequences of living in an ambiguous or hostile legal climate likely interfere with parental health, family functioning, and child development. However, a systematic evidence synthesis of the pertinent literature and its placement within a broader psychological model are currently lacking. The aims of this review were thus (1) to systematically review qualitative and quantitative evidence on the impact of sexual orientation laws on same-sex parent families in key domains and (2) to place these findings within a broader model informed by minority stress and family theories. Our review was preregistered and conducted in line with PRISMA guidelines. We searched for qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods studies on the impact of sexual orientation laws on target outcomes (parental health, family functioning, child outcomes) via systematic database search (PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science) and forward-backward searches. Fifty-five studies published between 1999 and 2020 were eligible for inclusion and were synthesized using a data-based convergent synthesis design. Thirteen descriptive and three overarching analytical themes were identified through thematic synthesis. Linking our findings with minority stress and family theories, we propose a novel legal vulnerability model for same-sex parent families. The model posits that legal vulnerability constitutes an increased risk for parental and child health as well as family functioning through individual and shared pathways between family members. Additionally, the model introduces counteractions that families engage in on the personal, familial, and systemic level to mitigate the impact of legal vulnerability, as well as moderators on the contextual, familial, couple, and individual level that modulate this impact. Implications for research and clinical practice are discussed.
在全球范围内，同性父母家庭中的父母和子女受到许多与父母性取向相关法律的影响。这些法律在不同国家之间差异很大，从完全法律认可到刑事定罪不等。生活在模糊或敌对的法律环境中的心理后果可能会干扰父母的健康、家庭功能和儿童发展。然而，目前缺乏对相关文献的系统证据综合及其在更广泛心理模型中的定位。因此，本综述的目的是：（1）系统回顾关于性取向法律对同性父母家庭在关键领域影响的定性和定量证据；（2）将这些发现置于一个由少数群体压力和家庭理论提供信息的更广泛模型中。我们的综述已预先注册，并按照PRISMA指南进行。我们通过系统数据库搜索（PubMed、Scopus、Web of Science）以及前后向搜索，寻找关于性取向法律对目标结果（父母健康、家庭功能、儿童结果）影响的定性、定量和混合方法研究。1999年至2020年间发表的55项研究符合纳入标准，并采用基于数据的收敛性综合设计进行综合。通过主题综合确定了13个描述性主题和3个总体分析主题。将我们的发现与少数群体压力和家庭理论联系起来，我们为同性父母家庭提出了一个新的法律脆弱性模型。该模型认为，法律脆弱性通过家庭成员之间的个体和共同途径，增加了父母和儿童健康以及家庭功能方面的风险。此外，该模型还介绍了家庭在个人、家庭和系统层面采取的应对措施，以减轻法律脆弱性的影响，以及在背景、家庭、夫妻和个人层面调节这种影响的调节因素。讨论了对研究和临床实践的启示。
