Reading between the lines: How sexual minority youth interpret paternal support

Sexual minority youth experience persistent stigma that contributes to well-documented mental health disparities. Parental support is a critical promotive factor in this context, yet empirical attention has disproportionately centered on the role of maternal support, leaving fathers' roles underexplored. Drawing on in-depth interviews with a subsample of cisgender sexual minority youth aged 15-19 (n = 17) from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexual and gender minoritized identities Youth in Family Study residing in the United States, this study employs reflective thematic analysis to explore how youth interpret their interactions with their heterosexual fathers in relation to their sexual minority identity. Analyses indicate that paternal support was frequently experienced as indirect or ambiguous, requiring youth to infer meaning from silence, avoidance, or instrumental forms of care rather than explicit affirmation. Participants described a wide variation in paternal responses and emphasized the emotional significance of clear, unambiguous messages of support. Attention to these interpretive processes highlights fathers' consequential, though often obscured, role in sexual minority youth identity development and suggests the need for family-based interventions that address gendered norms shaping paternal expressions of support. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).