Browsing by Author "Anttila, Sonja"

Aims.The number of rainbow families, i.e. families with children where at least one parent be-longs to a sexual or gender minority, has been steadily growing alongside the legislative developments in 21st century Finland and the increasingly diverse methods of having children. Previous studies have indicated that having children in rainbow families is a carefully considered and planned process. As this process consists of numerous stages, the chains of events leading to having a child in a rainbow family could be referred to as a family-forming process. The purpose of this study is to obtain knowledge of the special features of the family-forming process from the viewpoint of parents. Taking into account the influence of individuals, their local community and society on these family-forming processes makes it possible to better understand and support this diverse group of families with children. The research questions were: 1. What special features are related to the family-forming processes of the parents of rainbow families in respect of individuals, local community and society? 2. How have societal representations affected the perceptions that people belonging to gender and sexual minorities have on their possibilities for parenthood? Methods. The research data were collected with an online questionnaire and consisted of the responses of 74 parents in rainbow families. The questionnaire was mainly comprised of open questions; multiple-choice questions were additionally used to ask about the respondents' background information. The study was conducted with qualitative methods using theory-guided and material-based content analysis and content itemisation. Results and conclusions. Above all, this study indicated that the family-forming processes of the parents in rainbow families were individual. Nevertheless, some of the respondents shared experiences in the family-forming processes related to the family structure, method of having children and challenges they faced. The research findings indicate that female couples and independent women experience stress due to the costs of fertility treatments. In addition, those wishing to establish a system of shared rainbow family parenthood might fail to find people to co-parent with. Representations of rainbow families might have influenced the family-forming process of some of the respondents. The responses reflected the strong agency and responsibility of individuals. Based on the results, it can be noted that there is still need to develop the legislation concerning rainbow families. Diversity within rainbow families is not always recognised. There is need for more individual encounters that take different family structures into account as well as more versatile representations of rainbow families in different areas of society.