Abstract

The article describes the development of adolescents for a sense of self in a lesbian home, in order to compile guidelines for lesbian parents as well as pastoral counsellors to help and guide adolescents to develop a healthy sense of self. From the research results, it appears that there are certain positive and negative aspects of a lesbian home that influence adolescents’ sense of self. Where both parents are involved with the adolescents, share household duties equally and have a quality relationship with each other and the adolescents, the adolescents are generally well-adapted, happy and able to handle challenges in order to develop a healthy sense of self. The positive influence that Christian religious certainty has on the overall development of the adolescents was also confirmed by this study. On the other hand, adolescents experience particular aspects as challenging and impeding in their development of a healthy sense of self: Conflict and criticism from the companion parents are humiliating and destructive. Stigmatising, teasing and rejection from the hetero-normative society, as a result of their parents’ sexual orientation, appear to be the largest obstacles in their psychosocial development. They react in a shy, negative and evasive way to the stigmatisation and withdraw themselves from situations that could be painful and humiliating. It also appears that the absence of a father figure and financial tension in lesbian families are impeding the adolescents’ healthy development of a sense of self.