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Coming Out, Coming Home: Helping Families Adjust to a Gay or Lesbian Child resources

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250  Appendix their child’s sexual orientation and about their behavioral and emotional reactions, including whether they experienced mental health symptoms. They were also queried regarding any changes immediately following and up to a year after the discovery. In addition, their lesbian daughters or gay sons were also asked for their perceptions of parental reactions. 2. What effects do parents’ reactions have on their gay and lesbian children? Gay and lesbian respondents were asked the specific effects of parental reactions on their self-esteem and whether they experienced mental health symptoms after their parents learned of their sexual orientation. They were asked to describe their responses to their parents’ reactions so that specific interactions could be identified. They were also asked to describe changes in their parental relationships immediately after they came out and up until the time of their interviews. 3. What helps or hinders parental adjustment? Parents were asked how their attitudes and behaviors changed since their initial discovery. They were asked about factors that enhanced or interfered with their adjustment, including child-related factors. Children were also asked for their impressions of the changes in their parents’ reactions since the initial discovery and what factors influenced these reactions. Probes were used to elicit factors that facilitated or hindered parental adjust- ment. Each interview lasted anywhere from ninety minutes to two hours. Two research assistants assisted with the interviews: Bethann Albert is a white social worker who is the mother of a lesbian adult; Rita D. Velez Car- reras is a bilingual, native Puerto Rican lesbian woman, who was twenty-five at the time of the interviews and had recently graduated from college with a degree in women’s studies. Respondents initially were paid twenty dollars per interview. However, halfway through the data collection this compensation was raised to forty dollars, and this increase served to attract more respondents from lower socio- economic backgrounds including working-class and poor African American families. Data Analysis All interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed using a combi- nation of cross-case analysis and grounded theory methods (Padgett2008; Corbin and Strauss2008). Using cross-case analysis, transcriptions of answers 08_lasala14382_app.indd 250 3/10/10 1:12:11 PM

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