Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2005. / Supervisor: Deborah J. Tharinger. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Not available / text

Thesis (Ph. D)--UCLA, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 194-208).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-06, Section: B, page: 4174. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-196).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 196-207).

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- Virginia Commonwealth University, 2004. / Title from title-page of electronic thesis. Prepared for: School of Social Work. Bibliography: p. 222-236.

Thesis (D. Phil.(Educational Psychology))-University of Pretoria, 2005. / Paper copy accompanied by a CD-ROM. Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

The purpose of the study was to explore the statistical relationships among selected variables related to gay divorced fathers in order to develop a better understanding of their gender role conflict and help-seeking behaviors. Participants (N=105) self-identified as Caucasian (91%), resided in the United States (90%), holding a bachelor's degree or higher (80%), and annual incomes of less than $80,000 (52%). The men ranged in age from 29 to 78 (M= 54), married from 1 to 38 years (M= 18), and divorced from 5 months to just under 37 years (M= 10). Participants completed an on-line questionnaire that included (a) Gender Role Conflict Scale, (b) Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale, (c) Intentions to Seeking Counseling Inventory, (d) Hopkins Symptom Checklist, (e) two open-ended prompts, and (f) demographic questions. Participants who had received mental health services in the past were asked to report on what prompted them to seek services and the helpfulness of those services. Analysis of Pearson r was used to answer each of the research questions related to (a) GRC and psychological distress (positive correlation); (b) GRC and attitudes and intentions towards seeking psychological help (negative correlation); and (c) years married and psychological distress (negative correlation). Significance was not identified between time since divorce and any other variable. Over 80% of the participants had used mental health services with the three main reasons being coming-out, depression, and sexual identity. The most beneficial resources they had available to them and/or they would recommend to others were support groups, counseling/therapy, and general support. Findings are limited by a lack of cultural and ethnic diversity among the sample. Implications include using group counseling methods and/or a coaching model for service delivery. An informed integrated approach that focuses on systems, role development, and strategic thinking is recommended. Interventions should include depression and suicide assessments, brief solution focused methods, narrative work, social networking, and community resource guides. Future research should seek to determine between group differences with regards to the impact GRC has on one's ability to adjust to change, establish and maintain relationships, and willingness to seek help. / Ph. D.

Recent developments in public debate, health policy, and research on nontraditional families have brought gay-parent families, especially gay fathers, into the cultural and political spotlight. Existing research and literature on LGBT families and gay fatherhood have emphasized relationship dynamics within the families but there are gaps in the literature regarding the health and well-being of these families, specifically as it relates to health insurance. Using symbolic interactionism, life course theory, and grounded theory methodology, I conducted a qualitative pilot study to investigate gay fathers\' health insurance experiences. I collected responses from 10 White, gay fathers across the United States and asked questions about access to health insurance, the process of providing insurance for their families, access and use of community resources, and unique factors of their health insurance story. This research adds to the same-sex parent knowledge based by (a) gaining an understanding of the family decisions gay fathers make around health insurance, (b) identifying obstacles and subsequent solutions to health insurance problems, (c) discussing issues of disclosure and outness in gay father families, and (d) uncovering continued gender associations with the division of labor. This study has more broad implications for theoretical concepts like intersectionality and agency, but also provides insights into policy inequalities that continue in the United States. / Master of Science

Planned parenthood within the lesbian and gay communities attracts considerable attention internationally among researchers, the media, and law and policy-makers. This Australian study situates the phenomenon�also known as the �gayby boom��within the contemporary Australian socio-legal setting and the more international historical and political contexts of Gay and Women�s Liberation. It investigates how beliefs about nature, kinship, the sexed and reproductive body and political ideologies of family intersect in lesbians and gay men�s decision-making and stories of living their lives as parents. Two fields of intellectual enquiry are generative: the interest in families of choice and family practices within sociology and the post-modern anthropological critique of Western kinship in the era of assisted reproduction. This is a qualitative study informed by a critical humanist approach. It is based on in-depth and key informant interviews conducted with 20 lesbians and 15 gay men (parents, �donor/dads� and prospective parents) as well as 7 people engaged in legal, health or therapeutic support to prospective and current parents. Also incorporated into the analysis are a range of other primary sources, including a substantial media debate, submissions to an assisted reproduction law reform process and primary documents supplied by participants such as parenting agreements and letters. The study argues for the need to look beyond unitary concepts such as families of choice when theorising lesbian and gay parenthood. It is important to consider the historical, political and biographical conditions that make some notions of relatedness and decisions about having children seem more feasible, and indeed, natural than others. It explores how various notions of biological relatedness remain important in the formation of parent/child relationships, and the extent to which lesbians and gay men rely on strategic appeals to choice and biology in enacting families. Continuing constraints on who is eligible for clinically assisted reproductive technology in Australia lead to imaginative and harmonious, yet also fraught reproductive relationships.