Parental Background of Homosexual and Heterosexual Women

¹ Professor, School of Education, The City College of New York, New York City, 10031, U.S.A.

The parental background of non-clinical homosexual women (N = 63) compared to heterosexual women (N = 68) was evaluated with a shortened form of the Roe and Siegelman (1963) Parent-Child Relations Questionnaire, as well as other techniques. Differential findings resulted from the total sample comparisons in contrast to comparisons made between sub-samples scoring low on neuroticism. The possible contamination of psychopathology with homosexuality was thus considered. The results also suggest that the subjects' reactions to his parents behaviour may be more important than the parent behaviour considered alone. The need for conducting studies which could examine the direction of effect between parent and child interactions is also discussed.