The Influence of Family Support on the Mental Health of LGBTIQ+ Young
Traditionally, lesbian, gay, transgender and other non-normative sexual orientations or gender identities have been discriminated and subjected to multiple hostile attitudes and behaviours.
Until 1973, homosexuality was considered a mental disorder according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Furthermore, it was not until 2007 that the right of any person to feel male or female was recognised in Spain, and not until 2013 «Gender Identity Disorder» was removed from the DSM (Los transexuales ya no son enfermos mentales, 2012).
Fortunately, in recent decades, Western societies have undergone an important and necessary transformation in terms of people’s sexual rights. Sexual diversity is now more present in the media, in the law and has become a more visible and common reality, especially among younger generations. However, this transformation has not been easy, nor has it been quick, nor can it be considered complete, given that heterosexual and cisgender people still maintain a privilege over other less socially accepted groups.
Mental health in LGTBIQ+ people
Numerous research studies have tried to explain the consequences of stigma towards LGTBIQ+ people, finding lower levels of well-being and a higher frequency of mental health problems in sexual minorities, such as anxiety, depression, substance abuse disorders and suicidal tendencias. More recent studies confirm that despite social progress in terms of acceptance of sexual plurality, these minorities continue to suffer more psychological disorders, clearly not as a result of their sexual orientation or gender identity per se (Trevor, 2020).
To understand this mental health disparity compared to the heterosexual and cisgender population, it has been argued that young people who belong to sexual minorities, or are perceived as such, experience elevated levels of stress throughout their psychosocial development. This stress generally goes hand in hand with an internalisation of widespread homophobic and transphobic attitudes in society, as well as concealment of sexual minority status (Katz-Wise, et al, 2016).
The main source of stress experienced by sexual minorities comes from their immediate social context, so that poorer mental health among sexual minorities is often the result of a hostile or stressful social environment. Some life experiences, such as peer victimisation in educational institutions, a phenomenon better known as bullying, have been largely associated with the psychological distress of these young people. However, there is one social factor that has received less attention in psychological studies that can have an enormous impact on the mental health of these individuals: family acceptance and support.
Importance of family support
Family is a central source of support in adolescence, and appropriate family dynamics are essential for young people’s well-being and development. Moreover, adolescence and emerging adulthood often mark the time when individuals become aware of and manifest their sexual orientation and gender identity, and the family has a very important place during this process (Rosario and Schrimshaw, 2014). Furthermore, the experience of disclosure of sexual orientation or gender identity is a potentially stressful event for LGTBIQ+ youth, as family rejection can become a major threat to their psychological well-being (Newcomb et al., 2019).
Unfortunately, these young people are more likely to experience parental rejection because of their sexual minority status. Because of the stigma attached to this population, some parents find it difficult to understand and accept their children’s sexual orientation or gender identity, and may adopt rejecting or overprotective attitudes. Sometimes parents interpret their children’s sexual orientation as a «phase», transmitting parental denial or ambivalence to their children.These behaviours and attitudes within the family can have a very detrimental effect on the psychosocial development of adolescents.
However, one study shows that if an LGTBIQ+ adolescent receives adequate family support, the protective effect on their mental health can be reflected both directly and indirectly. Directly, by influencing their self-acceptance, self-esteem and sense of self-confidence. Indirectly, by being able to educate them in appropriate ways to deal with homophobia or transphobia, as well as to prevent or deal with incidents of bullying outside the family context. In this sense, the family can be a key element in protecting sexual minorities from internalising the effects of victimisation or other societal attacks (Sidiropoulou et al., 2019).
How can we work with these families in therapy?
From the previous paragraphs it can be concluded that working with the families of LGTBIQ+ young people can be of great importance in preserving their mental health. Through psychological therapy, it is possible to help families to recognise and modify their false beliefs about the group, their stigma and to foster attitudes and behaviours of acceptance and support towards their children.
It is equally important to address the psychological stress experienced by LGTBIQ+ people, as well as the possible mental health problems linked to it. This therapeutic work should be carried out by professionals trained to work with sexual and gender diversity. It is particularly important to pay attention to issues of parental acceptance and rejection, and to work together with parents, with the aim of helping young people develop a healthy sense of self in terms of their sexual orientation.
At the same time, individual therapeutic work should focus on the appropriate handling of homophobia and transphobia in the individual’s different social contexts, as well as the psychological effects of possible experiences of discrimination. This requires a modification of false self-beliefs and a strengthening of self-esteem on cognitive and emotional levels, as well as learning behavioural strategies to cope with potentially stressful situations, e.g. social skills.
References:
- Alfageme, A. (2012, 5 diciembre). Los transexuales ya no son enfermos mentales. El País. Recuperado de https://elpais.com
- Katz-Wise, S., Rosario, M., y Tsappis, M. (2016). LGBT Youth and family acceptance. Pediatric Clinics of North America, 63(6), 1011-1025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pcl.2016.07.005
- Newcomb, M., LaSala, M., Bouris, A., Mustanski, B., Prado, G., Schrager, S., y Huebner, D. (2019). The influence of families on LGBTQ youth health: A call to action for innovation in eesearch and intervention development. LGBT Health, 6(4), 139-145, https://doi.org/10.1089/lgbt.2018.0157
- Rosario, M., y Schrimshaw, E. W. (2014). Theories and etiologies of sexual orientation. En D. L. Tolman, L. M. Diamond, J. A. Bauermeister, W. H. George, J. G. Pfaus, y L. M. Ward (Eds.), APA handbooks in psychology. APA handbook of sexuality and psychology, Vol. 1. Person-based approaches (p. 555–596). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/14193-018
- The Trevor Project. (2020). 2020 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health. The Trevor Project.
- Sidiropouloul, K., Drydakis, N., Harvey, B., y Paraskevopoulou, A. (2019). Family support, school-age and workplace bullying for LGB people. International Journal of Manpower. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-03-2019-0152
Division of Psychology, Psychotherapy and Coaching
Psychologist
Adults and adolescents
Languages: English and Spanish
Challenges of third culture kids
Helena is a 17-year-old teenager with parents of Turkish origin, a British passport and who has lived in three European countries throughout her life. Now that she has moved to a different city due to her parents’ jobs, she is excited to make new friends. However, although she enjoys meeting new people, it is not always easy for her. Especially when the most feared question comes up… Where are you from?
This is when she starts to get nervous, feels a knot in her throat and thousands of thoughts uncontrollably land in her head: «Should I talk about the country where I grew up as a child, or the country where I lived the last eight years of my life, or maybe the country where my family is from?» Finally, she chooses to tell the short version of a long life story full of airports, goodbyes, welcomes, languages, schools and experiences.
The complexity hidden behind a simple question
«Where are you from?» is one of the easiest questions to answer for most people. However, for some minorities, it is one of the most difficult. Helena feels a different attachment to each of the countries she has lived in, as well as to the country her family comes from. From each of the cultures in which she has found herself immersed throughout her life, she has acquired different ways of interacting with others, habits, values and ideas. However, she has no sense of belonging to any of them.
«Where am I from?» she has asked herself several times. This is the question often asked by people who, like her, belong to the collective of «third culture kids», TCK´s for short.
What does it mean to be a Third Culture Kid?
TCK’s are those children/adolescents who have spent a significant part of their developmental years outside the culture of their parents or the culture that would correspond to them by the nationality of their passport.
The first culture refers to that of the child’s parents. The second culture is that of the host country (or countries) in which the child has lived. The third culture corresponds to the fusion of the first two, in which the child adopts certain traits of each to create his or her own cultural identity.
This is, however, a very basic definition, as each child has his or her own history. The term TCKs encompasses not only children who have grown up in a culture different from that of their parents, but also children adopted by families from another culture, and even children of parents with different cultures. While some of the sepnd most of their childhood jumpimg from one place to another, others remain almost all their childhood in the same place, cohabiting permanently with different cultures inside and outside the home.
Nowadays, due to the high level of globalization achieved by society, it is very difficult to define the various circumstances by which a child can be defined as a TCK. However, there are two aspects concerning this group that are clear. On the one hand, due to the exponential increase in migratory movements, it is a group in constant growth. On the other hand, although the history of each TCK is unique and unrepeatable, this group of people share the singular characteristic of having grown up in intense contact with different cultures.
Advantages of being a TCK
From childhood, people tend to adapt to the culture around them, internalizing the attitudes and behaviors promoted by that culture. We acquire habits, such as eating or sleeping at certain times, we learn to relate and communicate with others in different social contexts, and we develop our sense of humor, as well as our opinions on what is right or wrong. Through our culture, we build our own glasses for observing the world and our guidebook for living in it. It is therefore not surprising that the coexistence of different cultures in a child’s life, or the change from one to another, has a great impact on his or her psychosocial development.
Numerous positive aspects of this experience have been identified:
- TCKs have a strong international background and tend to maintain a lifelong interest in learning about new cultures. They have a great capacity of adaptation and a great sensitivity to appreciate the value of the richness of each individual’s culture.
- They tend to develop an open mind, as well as an interpersonal style based on tolerance, respect and empathy.
- They quickly acquire social skills, communication skills and are often fluent in two or more languages.
- The diversity of the situations they face, makes them become people with a high level of autonomy, high problem-solving skills and willing to help others.
Challenges of being a TCK
On the other hand, the cultural changes that TCKs experience from their first years of life also bring with them some difficulties:
- As described in the introduction to the article, TCKs may have great difficulty in defining their own identity, as they are not bound to a specific culture. A behavior considered perfectly normal in the culture of the place where they live may be forbidden according to the culture of their parents. A joke that is funny in one of the cultures in which they have lived, might be offensive in another. As a result, they undergo a complex process when internalizing the values and habits that define them as individuals. In other words, when it comes to understanding who they are.
- For some TCKs, the feeling of not having a home base to which they can always return can generate a sense of insecurity and loneliness in the world. For these children, the widespread cliché «home is where the people you love are» is a very important reality. For them, home is not defined by a place, but it is wherever they can live with their loved ones.
- On many occasions, TCKs feel like they are the different kids, the odd ones, the ones who don’t fit in, the ones who don’t share interests, hobbies or ideas with their classmates. The ones who don’t have the same way of speaking, accent or expressions. And sometimes, those who have a different physical appearance than the rest. This may sometimes cause them a feeling of being «left out» or isolated, especially when it comes to new beginnings.
- For most people, it is never easy to say goodbye. Some of these children spend several years in one place, until one day they have to pack up their bags and say goodbye to everything they have built there: friends, teachers, activities, routines… The emotions produced by these constant goodbyes can be very strong and painful for some TCKs. This feelings also get in the way when creating new social connections in the places they are moving to, as they sometimes wonder «What´s the point of making new friends if we’ll be leaving again in a while?».
Tips for TCK parents
It is normal for parents to have many doubts when it comes to educating their children in a culture different from their own. Many times, parents have experienced a very different childhood from the one their children are facing, and may feel lost when it comes to empathizing with their experience and identifying the aspects in which they may need more support.
Here are some general tips that may be helpful to these parents:
- Try to remain aware that being a TCK can bring difficulties in many ways. Be honest with your child, let him or her know that you are aware it’s not easy. Be open about it and try to make your child feel as safe as possible when talking about his or her feelings, toughts and needs.
- Keep the bound with your home culture and family members alive to strengthen your child’s sense of identity and belonging to a culture. Try to communicate with your child in your language and to make him/her participate in the traditions of your culture (food, customs, festivities…).
- Help your child to establish new relationships in the places where you are moving to, by encouraging them to meet other children who have lived the experience of being a TCK. In this way, he/she will be able to feel more accompanied and understood by friends of his/her age.
- Communicate with your child’s educational institutions, explaining his or her specific case, and involving teachers and counselors during the adaptation process.
Division of Psychology, Psychotherapy and Coaching
Psychologist
Adults and adolescents
Languages: English and Spanish