Perceived parental social support for LGBTQ+ children

McCurdy & Russell (2023) published “Perceived Parental Social Support and Psychological Control Predict Depressive Symptoms for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, or Questioning Youth in the United States” in Child Development. I have edited both the abstract and the article and added bold for major findings:

Salient practices in the parenting literature—support and control—have seldom been applied to understanding lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (LGBTQ) youth mental health. We examine associations among perceived parental social support, psychological control, and depressive symptoms for LGBTQ youth in the United States (n = 536; Mage = 18.98; 48.1% women; 25.2% Black or African American; 37.1% Hispanic or Latino/a/x). Data were collected in 2011–2012. Results indicated joint effects of social support and psychological control predicting youth depressive symptoms. Multiple group analysis yielded a significant interaction of parenting practices for youth whose parent(s) did not know their LGBTQ identity. 

Sexual and gender minority youth (SGMY) are at particular risk of experiencing elevated depressive symptoms during adolescence, due to a combination of universal risk factors as well as stigma and discrimination specific to being lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (LGBTQ). Depression is a mental health problem with widespread impact among adolescents: an estimated 13.3% of youth aged 12–17 in the United States experience a major depressive episode and SGMY are at particular risk compared to heterosexual, cisgender youth. 

Results indicated that parental social support was significantly associated with youth depressive symptoms, controlling for the influence of perceived psychological control, such that higher perceived support was linked with fewer depressive symptoms (β = −.05, SE = .02, p = .005). Parental psychological control was significantly associated with youth depressive symptoms, controlling for perceived parental social support, such that higher perceived psychological control was linked with greater depressive symptoms (β = .22, SE = .05, p < .001). However, the interaction between perceived parental social support and psychological control predicting depressive symptoms was not statistically significant (β = .02, SE = .03, p = .580).

The associations between parenting and depressive symptoms were similar for youth regardless of gender identity. A follow-up multiple group analysis was conducted with a subset of participants who reported on both mother and father knowledge of identity (n = 512) to test whether focal multiple group results varied for participants who reported on one or two parents. Results did not differ. Simple slopes analysis indicated that perceived parental psychological control was significantly associated with youth depressive symptoms in the context of high perceived parental social support but not in the context of low perceived social support for youth whose parents did not know their identity.

Results indicated that perceived parental social support and psychological control were each uniquely and independently linked with youth depressive symptoms. Consistent with study hypotheses, perceived parental social support was linked with fewer depressive symptoms whereas perceived parental psychological control was linked with greater depressive symptoms, each controlling for the influence of the other. These findings are also consistent with research that has independently assessed parenting practices of SGMY, which find that parental social support and parental psychological control independently predict youth depressive symptoms. Parent social support has been found to be a consistently strong predictor of psychosocial well-being for sexual minority youth, compared against other sources of social support, perhaps by allowing youth to regulate stress exposure through conversations and activities with supportive parents. The current study also adds to the small amount of extant work linking parental psychological control and mental health outcomes for LGBT youth through the consistent demonstration of the ill effect of psychological control and extends it by showing that psychological control predicts youth depressive symptoms controlling for parental social support.

In recognizing that these relationships unfold in the context of other family processes for SGMY, we also considered the potential impact that parental knowledge of youth LGBTQ identity and youth gender identity has on the relations between parenting practices and depressive symptoms. Multiple group analysis indicated that the regression of depressive symptoms on the parenting interaction term varied by parent knowledge of youth LGBTQ identity (but not youth gender identity). For youth who reported that neither parent knows their identity, psychological control predicted greater depressive symptoms at high, but not at low, levels of parental social support. This significant interaction is consistent with previous research on adolescents and could be interpreted to indicate that support does not ameliorate the stress of control, but rather engenders a confusing mixture of both supportive and intrusive behaviors that result in worse mental health. The confluence of these practices may offer an unpredictable or inconsistent parenting environment for youth, which may be particularly difficult to navigate for youth who perceive that their parents do not know their LGBTQ identities. We speculate that this result speaks to a tension for youth who know themselves to be LGBTQ but are navigating a supportive but controlling relationship with parents. These youth were in the unique position of reporting high social support from parents, but they had not yet disclosed their LGBTQ identities, perhaps due to perceived parental psychological control. Youth in this position may experience heightened vigilance and anxiety, experiences consistent with the heightened depressive symptoms demonstrated in the current study. Importantly, research on the parenting practices of LGBTQ youth whose parents are not aware of their identities is still emerging and this finding represents a novel addition to this literature.

Significant main effects, but no significant interactions, emerged for youth who had at least one parent who knew their LGBTQ identity. In this instance, it appeared that perceived parental psychological control plays a key role in predicting depressive symptoms for youth whose parent(s) knew their identities at both high and low levels of social support level. This is consistent with previous work indicating that family social support has a direct effect on mental health outcomes but does not buffer sexual minority youth from the ill effect of victimization. The current study also extends these findings to the ill effects of coercive practices within the family (specifically). 

I like the study due to its sample size and the detailed analysis of the data. I think it is especially interesting that, in a family with high support and high control, youth who have not yet disclosed their gender identity to their parents are much worse off in terms of depressive symptoms. Overall, the study highlights, yet again, the negative consequences of controlling parenting practices. My only question is why, if the data were collected in 2011-2012, it took so long to publish the findings.