Transgender conceptualisations of family: An interpretive phenomenological analysis

This study explored the experiences of transgender individuals that they felt impacted their conceptualisations of family. It aimed to discover how these individuals defined family and to what extent, and in what manner, they felt their gender impacted these views. This study used interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to analyse the semi-structured interviews conducted. This study consisted of six transgender participants (transwomen = 2, nonbinary = 4), each of whom were interviewed twice regarding their experiences with and beliefs surrounding family. The results found that participants discussed unconditional love as the main defining attribute of family, valuing both biolegal and chosen family. However, these views were somewhat influenced by societal biases that view biolegal family as the ‘default’. Gender was seen to impact these views in two main ways: personal rejection and societal transphobia. There was nuance to these impacts such as the expectation of rejection regardless of past experiences of acceptance, and the impact of gender roles on nonbinary individuals. This study found that gender was believed to be an important factor in shaping participants’ conceptualisations of family and was, generally, seen to be more impactful than non-gender-related experiences. However, the influence of society on participants’ conceptualisations was seen to have an important impact, mostly through societal biases surrounding familial structures and gender norms. Differences between nonbinary and binary transgender individuals were also discussed, particularly in regard to gender roles, demonstrating the ways in which specific gender identities may have different conceptualisations of family.