title: The intergenerational relationships of gay men and lesbian women.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Despite the demonstrated importance of intergenerational ties across the life course, few studies examine relationships between gay men and lesbians and their later life parents and parents-in-law. The present study examines how midlife to later life gay men and lesbians in intimate partnerships conceptualize these intergenerational ties.
  
  
  METHODS
  Qualitative analysis of 50 in-depth interviews collected with midlife to later life gay men and lesbians (ages 40-72) in long-term intimate partnerships.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Findings reveal 4 central ways respondents describe supportive parent-child and parent-child in-law relationships: integration, inclusion through language, social support, and affirmations. Findings reveal 3 central ways individuals distinguish strained parent-child and parent-child in-law relationships: rejection in everyday life, traumatic events, and the threat of being usurped. Findings further articulate how intergenerational ambivalence is distinguished through descriptions of a parent as simultaneously supportive (via subthemes of solidarity) and rejecting (via subthemes of strain).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Findings from this study provide empirical evidence of how support, strain, and ambivalence in intergenerational ties are identified and experienced by gay men and lesbian women. This study reveals a new lens to view relationships between midlife to later life adults and their aging parents and parents-in-law and further identifies linkages between solidarity-conflict and ambivalence paradigms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, The Ohio State University, Columbus. reczek.2@osu.edu.
authors.forename: Corinne
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Reczek
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D054541:Family Conflict / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D018452:Homosexuality, Female / Q000523:psychology*; D018451:Homosexuality, Male / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D016901:Intergenerational Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012747:Sexual Partners / Q000523:psychology
keywords: Ambivalence; Gay men and lesbians; In-law relationships; Intergenerational relationships; Midlife to later life; Solidarity–conflict.