Perceived Parental Reactions & Psychological Distress among Homosexuals

Abstract

Homosexual individual has suffered long enough in the society and are still suffering physically, sexually and psychologically in every culture, in every society because of the traditional rules, cultures, superstitions, lack of social support, societal rejection, threat, bullying, discrimination, inequality in the workplace, verbal abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse etc. But in ancient times, there were countries like Indian, Greek, and Roman, China - which totally supported homosexuality. In India, once homosexuality was accepted, but after the Mughal and British Invasion it was criminalized under section 377 of Indian Penal Code, and now it is decriminalized. But still there is a lot of taboo associated with homosexuality. The most difficult phase for homosexuals is to identify themselves as lesbian or gay and it becomes more stressful when they disclose their sexual orientation in front of their parents. Hence this research aims to focus on, - (i) to compare between Lesbian and Gay on Maternal Responses & Paternal Responses, (ii) to compare between Lesbian and Gay on Psychological Distress and, (iii) to check the correlations between Parental Responses and Psychological Distress among Homosexuals. A total 94 self-identified Homosexual individuals, aged 18 to 25 years, were selected from four major cities in Gujrat – Surat, Vadodora, Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar by using Snowball Sampling technique. There were two scales – Perceived Parental Reaction Scale and Kessler Psychological Distress Scale used in this research for data collection. After collecting the data, statistical analysis has been conducted by using Independent Sample t test and Pearson Correlation test. The finding revealed that no significant difference between Lesbian and Gay on Maternal Reaction and Psychological Distress, though there was significant difference between Lesbian and Gay on Paternal Reactions. Lastly, a strong positive corelation was found between Parental Responses and Psychological Distress among Homosexuals. The research also highlights the importance of family acceptance for promoting mental health well-being, family counselling, social awareness and supportive policies to reduce stereotypes against homosexual individuals in our society.