Coming out to parents as gay or lesbian: The relationship of forgiveness, religiosity, social support, and closeness to psychopathology

The primary goal of the current correlational study was to examine relationships among the variables of forgiveness, religiosity, psychopathology, closeness, and social support as they relate to parental reaction to having a son or daughter come out as gay or lesbian. A secondary issue was that of the usefulness of the internet as a medium for data collection in psychological research. 242 gay and lesbian subjects aged 18--43 completed questionnaires to measure the variables of interest. Intrinsic religiosity was correlated with trait forgivingness. Trait forgivingness was associated with lower levels of depression, anxiety, and somatization. Stage and extent of incident-specific forgiveness were correlated with lower levels of depression and global severity. Social support was strongly associated with mental health. The roles of religiosity and forgiveness in mental health, independent of social support, were less clear. Internet data were found to be comparable to that obtained from in-person testing.