Biomaterial Database

A test of the maternal stress theory of human male homosexuality. 1991

J M Bailey, and L Willerman, and C Parks

Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208-2710.

Both the neurohormonal theory of sexual orientation and previous research on humans and animals suggest that male homosexuality may arise from prenatal stress during the brain's sexual differentiation. Stress-proneness and retrospective reports of stress during pregnancy were obtained from mothers of male and female heterosexuals, bisexuals, and homosexuals. Each mother also rated pregnancy stress for a heterosexual sibling of the subject. For males, neither between-family nor within-family analyses revealed a maternal stress effect for either sexual orientation or childhood gender nonconformity. However, mothers of effeminate children reported more stress-proneness than other mothers. Male homosexuality nevertheless was strongly familial, suggesting a reconsideration of genetic and familial environmental mechanisms.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007092	Imagination	A new pattern of perceptual or ideational material derived from past experience.	Imaginations
D008016	Life Change Events	Those occurrences, including social, psychological, and environmental, which require an adjustment or effect a change in an individual's pattern of living.	Life Course,Life Crises,Life Crisis,Life Experiences,Course, Life,Crisis, Life,Event, Life Change,Experience, Life,Life Change Event,Life Courses,Life Experience
D008297	Male		Males
D009035	Mothers	Female parents, human or animal.	Mothers' Clubs,Club, Mothers',Clubs, Mothers',Mother,Mother Clubs,Mother's Clubs,Mothers Clubs,Mothers' Club
D011247	Pregnancy	The status during which female mammals carry their developing young (EMBRYOS or FETUSES) in utero before birth, beginning from FERTILIZATION to BIRTH.	Gestation,Pregnancies
D011248	Pregnancy Complications	Conditions or pathological processes associated with pregnancy. They can occur during or after pregnancy, and range from minor discomforts to serious diseases that require medical interventions. They include diseases in pregnant females, and pregnancies in females with diseases.	Adverse Birth Outcomes,Complications, Pregnancy,Adverse Birth Outcome,Birth Outcome, Adverse,Complication, Pregnancy,Outcome, Adverse Birth,Pregnancy Complication
D011795	Surveys and Questionnaires	Collections of data obtained from voluntary subjects. The information usually takes the form of answers to questions, or suggestions.	Community Survey,Nonrespondent,Questionnaire,Questionnaires,Respondent,Survey,Survey Method,Survey Methods,Surveys,Baseline Survey,Community Surveys,Methodology, Survey,Nonrespondents,Questionnaire Design,Randomized Response Technique,Repeated Rounds of Survey,Respondents,Survey Methodology,Baseline Surveys,Design, Questionnaire,Designs, Questionnaire,Methods, Survey,Questionnaire Designs,Questionnaires and Surveys,Randomized Response Techniques,Response Technique, Randomized,Response Techniques, Randomized,Survey, Baseline,Survey, Community,Surveys, Baseline,Surveys, Community,Techniques, Randomized Response
D005260	Female		Females
D005783	Gender Identity	A person's concept of self as being male and masculine or female and feminine, or ambivalent, based in part on physical characteristics, parental responses, and psychological and social pressures. It is the internal experience of gender role.	Gender,Gender Identities,Identity, Gender
D006716	Homosexuality	The sexual attraction or relationship between members of the same SEX.	Homosexuality, Ego-Dystonic,Ego-Dystonic Homosexuality,Homosexuality, Ego Dystonic