Abstract
Objectives
Siblings have been recognized as playing a major role in the coming out process, because they share the same family as the lesbian and gay individual and are often of the same generation. Despite this recognized role, however, research on coming out has mainly focused on parents, and only few studies have examined the coming out process with respect to siblings.
Methods
This study used a sample of 241 lesbians and 171 gay men to examine the frequency with which Italian sexual minorities come out to significant persons in their life.
Results
Most participants reported that they had revealed their sexual orientation to their mother (71%), father (55%), brother (63%), sister (75%), and best friend (94%). Younger participants (15–25 years; M = 17.91, SD = 2.57) reported an earlier coming out experience than did older participants (26–45 years; M = 22.49, SD = 5.23). Chi-square tests revealed that lesbians were more likely to conceal their sexual identity to their father and brother. Again, lesbians reported higher frequencies of coming out to an older brother than a younger brother. First-born gay men were more likely to reveal their sexual orientation to their father than were those with an older sibling. Logistic regression showed that self-disclosure to both parents was associated with male gender, adulthood, average or good socio-economic status, low internalized sexual stigma, and high positive identity.
Conclusions
The discussion focuses on coming out and the importance of this process in promoting positive identity and well-being in sexual minorities.
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Data Availability
Data are available upon request to the authors.
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Acknowledgements
The authors express their sincere gratitude to the gay men and lesbian women who participated in this study. All authors who contributed significantly to the work have been identified.
Author Contributions
J.P. designed and executed the study, assisted with the data analyses, and wrote the paper. V.C. collaborated with the design and writing of the study. R.B. collaborated in the writing and editing of the final manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The Department of Developmental and Social Psychology of the Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome provided IRB approval for the study. This article does not refer to any studies with animals performed by any of the authors. The responsibility of data analysis and elaboration should be ascribed to the authors themselves, who autonomously conceived the research strategy.
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Pistella, J., Caricato, V. & Baiocco, R. Coming Out to Siblings and Parents in an Italian Sample of Lesbian Women and Gay Men. J Child Fam Stud 29, 2916–2929 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-019-01597-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-019-01597-0