Perceived Difficulties Of Future Parenthood And Their Associations With Mental Health Among Chinese Lesbian And Gay Individuals

Contrary to the stereotype that lesbian and gay individuals are uninterested in parenthood,there is growing evidence that a large percentage of childless lesbian and gay adults have a desire for parenthood.Parenthood is a common need of human beings including lesbian women and gay men.With the legal recognition of same-sex marriage and parenting in some Western countries,being a parent in the context of the same-sex relationship becomes a more common occurrence among the lesbian and gay population.However,although China’s long historical and cultural traditions that overemphasize parenthood have a profound impact on parenting desire of its people and a substantial number of Chinese lesbian and gay individuals did want to become parents in the future,developmental tasks such childbearing and childrearing can still only be completed within the frame of the heterosexual relationship due to inevitable impediments to same-sex parenthood.A heterosexual relationship is an essential prerequisite of parenthood in China’s sociocultural and legal climates.Facing with the conflict that identity as lesbian and gay and parenthood,some lesbian and gay individuals will discard all thought of parenthood to avoid such conflict,and others will enter into opposite-sex marriage and then achieve parenthood.The resultant social problems should be solved quickly.Notwithstanding,in fact,the academic circles in current China are not sensitive to childless lesbian and gay individuals’ growing need for parenthood.There are several shortcomings in existing studies:(1)absence of quantitative research on parenthood difficulties of Chinese lesbian and gay individuals;(2)absence of relative measuring tools and research on Chinese lesbian and gay individuals’ perception of impediments to same-sex parenthood;(3)absence of research on the influence of the awareness of the conflict between parenthood and identity as lesbian and gay on mental health.To solve the problems mentioned above,the present research that selects unmarried and childless Chinese lesbian and gay adults as a sample,with the theme of perceived difficulties of parenthood,has conducted the following studies:The purpose of Study 1 was to develop an effective measurement of the perceived difficulties of future parenthood for exploring and quantifying Chinese lesbian and gay individuals’ perception of impediments to parenthood.Based on the results of both previous related research and semi-structured interview,17 items were generated to assess perceived difficulties of future parenthood,which included four dimensions:(1)restricted pathways,(2)social discrimination,(3)uncertain affective ties,and(4)parental opposition.Via collecting and analyzing the original scale’s date,by means of exploratory factor analysis(EFA)and confirmatory factory analysis(CFA),we removed two items,and then developed the 15-item four-factor Perceived Difficulties of Future Parenthood Scale.In other words,we finally formed a model including four dimensions(restricted pathways,social discrimination,uncertain affective ties,and parental opposition),and certified that Chinese lesbian and gay individuals’ perceived difficulties of future parenthood was a multi-dimension structure.The internal reliability and the statistical analysis of content validity and structural validity had proved that the present scale had the good reliability and validity.These results that the present scale could be used to assess the perceived difficulties of future parenthood among Chinese lesbian and gay individuals.Thus,the 15-item Perceived Difficulties of Parenthood Scale was used for the following analyses.The main purpose of Study 2 was to explore the association between perceived difficulties of future parenthood and mental health among childless Chinese lesbian and gay individuals,and to explore the moderating effect of parenting desire on this association.The results showed that perceived difficulties of future parenthood significantly predicted negative mental health outcomes,but the moderating effect of parenting desire on the association between perceived difficulties of future parenthood and mental health was not significant.Additionally,the relationships between perceived difficulties of future parenthood,minority stress,and estimated likelihood of getting married to a heterosexual partner were analyzed.Minority stress showed positive correlations with all dimensions of perceived difficulties of future parenthood.The relationships between estimated likelihood of getting married to a heterosexual partner and perceived difficulties of future parenthood were complicated.The estimated likelihood of getting married to a heterosexual partner was positively correlated with two dimensions of perceived difficulties of future parenthood(uncertain affective ties and parental opposition)and negatively correlated with another dimension(restricted pathways).Based on these studies,the conclusions are as follows:(1)Perceived difficulties of future parenthood consist of four dimensions:restricted pathways,social discrimination,uncertain affective ties,and parental opposition;(2)Perceived difficulties of future parenthood were associated with poorer mental health;(3)Parenting desire did not moderate the association between perceived difficulties of future parenthood and mental health.Overall,the present research quantitatively examined perceived difficulties of future parenthood of childless Chinese lesbian and gay individuals,and explored the influence of perceived difficulties of future parenthood on mental health outcomes.Also,the present research is the first to quantitatively examine Chinese lesbian and gay individuals’ awareness of barriers to future parenthood.These findings have important implications for clinical counseling and social policy.