O8 Re-thinking ‘mental health’ through feeling: emotion centred research about family with LGBTQ+ youth

• Published in: BMJ open 2019-01, Vol.9 (Suppl 1), p.A3-A3
• Main Authors: Eastham, Rachael, McDermott, Elizabeth, Gabb, Jacqui
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Child & adolescent psychiatry; Emotions; Families & family life; LGBTQ people; Mental health; Qualitative research; Teenagers
• ISSN: 2044-6055
• DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2019-QHRN.8

BackgroundLGBTQ +young people experience disproportionately poor mental health outcomes compared to their heterosexual counterparts. Poor mental health is linked to family conflict about sexual orientation whereas supportive family relationships are correlated with mental wellness in LGBTQ +youth. However, little research focuses on family environments for LGBTQ +youth and to date there is no UK evidence on the topic. In addition, both ‘family’ and ‘youth’ remain under-theorised and mental health research typically uses a psycho-biomedical framework where emotion is pathologized. This limits our understanding of the complexity, relationality and meanings of youth mental health.Aim/ObjectivesThis methodological paper will explain the interdisciplinary critical mental health taken to researching LGBTQ+youth and family relationships in a small-scale study in England. Specifically, I will critically reflect on the epistemological and practical aspects of centralising emotion within this research project.MethodsTwo phases of qualitative research with13 LGBTQ +young people and 7 ‘family members’ was conducted. Phase one involved family mapping and semi-structured interviews; and phase two used diary methods. Emotion mapping techniques were used throughout and an emotion-centred analysis conducted including through the development of ‘I-feel poems’; and drawing on Hochschild’s (1979) concept of ‘emotion work.’ResultsOur approach to researching LGBTQ+young people and their families yielded material that was saturated with emotion and highlighted myriad ways that LGBTQ+youth mental health is influenced by doing emotion work in their families for the purposes of becoming, belonging and survival.ConclusionsOur method/ology successfully captured emotion and facilitated an emotion-centred analysis of LGBTQ +youth/family relationships. Although it’s likely much emotion remains hidden from view and its exposure presents ethical risks for researcher and participant, this methodological approach offers a valuable alternative perspective on mental health that attends to the meanings and relationality of LGBTQ +youth experience.