Vol.:(0123456789) Sexuality & Culture https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-020-09785-7 1 3 ORIGINAL PAPER Parent and Peer Messages About Homosexuality: Considering the Role of Gender Monica D. Foust 1  · L. Monique Ward 2  · Carolin Hagelskamp 3  · Stephanie J. Rowley 4 Accepted: 30 September 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020 Abstract Parents and peers are key sources of information on a variety of sexual topics. Parents and peers difer in the content and frequency of the sexual messages they convey, but both sources infuence the development of sexual attitudes. Gender dif- ferences in messages about homosexuality have been underexplored. The current study examined gender diferences in the messages that youth received about homo- sexuality from parents and peers during their formative years (ages 5–18), focus- ing on messages conveyed within and across genders. Data were drawn from 429 undergraduate students (55% female) between the ages of 18 and 24 (M = 18.81, SD = 1.00). Results showed that positive and negative messages constitute inde- pendent dimensions of socialization on homosexuality. Across sources, women and men reported receiving more positive than negative messages about homosexual- ity. Multi-level regression models confrmed hypotheses that peers provide more positive messages than parents and that female sources provide more positive mes- sages than male sources. In turn, male sources provide more negative messages than female sources. Moreover, cross-level interactions supported expectations of gen- dered experiences of socialization on homosexuality. Women reported receiving more positive messages from same-gender sources than men, and men report receiv- ing more negative messages from same-gender sources than women. The gendered pattern of messages aligns with the larger body of research on diferences in wom- en’s and men’s attitudes toward homosexuality. Overall, the fndings are a reminder that the messages individuals receive about homosexuality continue to be explicitly and implicitly interwoven with expectations concerning gender norms. Keywords Sexual socialization · Parents · Peers · Gender · Homosexuality * Monica D. Foust mfoust@bmcc.cuny.edu Extended author information available on the last page of the article