A Content Analysis of the Queer Stepfamily Literature: Contextual, Methodological, and Inclusivity Insights and Opportunities

Recent research has demonstrated increased visibility of queer individuals’ and families’ lived experiences across various scholarly domains. Prior content analysis suggests this literature remains small and calls for more attention to the diversity among this population. Grounded in a queer intersectional framework, we conducted a content analysis of the available scholarly literature (N = 44) focused on queer stepfamilies, assessing for contextual and theoretical plurality, methodological plurality, and inclusivity. Results suggest the literature is strongly theoretically and contextually grounded, is mostly qualitative using non-probability samples but pluralistic in the use of multiple sampling strategies as well as data collection methods. Finally, there is some level of inclusiveness in terms of diverse representation across the samples, but the literature focuses more on lesbian-headed stepfamilies. Implications for future research on queer stepfamilies is discussed.