Sexuality and demographic change : documenting family formation trajectories and cohort change in the LGB population
Ophir, Ariane (Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics)
Boertien, Diederik (Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics)
Vidal, Sergi (Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics)

Date:	2023
Abstract:	Narratives of demographic shifts overlook how societal changes shape the family trajectories of sexual minorities. Using sequence analysis, we describe how partnering and parenthood evolve over the life course of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) women and men in the United Kingdom (N = 455) and how the types of these family trajectories changed across two birth cohorts (born before 1965 and in 1965-1979). We find five distinct trajectories between ages 18 and 40, wherein two thirds of the sample belonged to a family trajectory that did not involve living with children. Partnership-centered trajectories became more common across cohorts, and this increase came at the expense of trajectories characterized by singlehood among gay men and lesbian women. However, parenthood trajectories became less common among all LGB groups. Furthermore, family trajectories became more complex across cohorts, including more transitions, which coincides with trends in the general population. Yet we also find that family trajectories became less diverse among lesbian women and bisexual men, in contrast to the trend among gay men and the general population. The results demonstrate the dynamic, complex, and diverse nature of LGB individuals' family lives and why existing narratives of family-related demographic change should explicitly consider sexual minorities in demographic narratives.
Grants:	European Research Council 948557 Agencia Estatal de Investigación PID2021-124267OB-I00 Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación FJC2021-048042-I Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación RYC2019-026510-I
Note:	Altres ajuts: Spanish Ministry of Education.
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, i la comunicació pública de l'obra, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. No es permet la creació d'obres derivades.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Sexual minorities ; Partnering ; Parenthood ; Life course ; Sequence analysis
Published in:	Demography, Vol. 60 Núm. 5 (September 2023) , p. 1581-1605, ISSN 1533-7790

DOI: 10.1215/00703370-10968468

26 p, 1.3 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Social and Legal Sciences > Centre for Demographic Studies (CED-CERCA)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles