Papers by Margaret Gibson
Archives of Women's Mental Health, 2015
Purpose Significant numbers of sexual minority women are choosing to parent. Despite this, there ... more Purpose Significant numbers of sexual minority women are choosing to parent. Despite this, there is limited research on postpartum depression (PPD) with sexual minority mothers and less research considering differences within sexual minority women in the experience of PPD. This research examines two questions to address this gap in research: (1) Do experiences of PPD symptoms vary between different subgroups of sexual minority women, and (2) Which recruitment strategies effectively address the challenge of recruiting sexual minority women who are pregnant? Methods Two Canadian studies recruited participants via consecutive or convenience sampling from midwifery clinics and hospital sites. Participants completed prenatal and postnatal measures of PPD symptoms, social support, and perceived discrimination. Results Considering our first question, we found an interaction effect between past sexual behavior and current partner gender. Women currently partnered with men reported higher scores on the Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale when their sexual history included partners of more than one gender, whereas this effect was not found among women who were currently partnered with women or not partnered. Regarding our second question, most sexual minority participants recruited through convenience sampling were partnered with women and identified as lesbian or queer, while most participants recruited through consecutive sampling were partnered with men and identified as bisexual. Conclusions Women whose sexual histories include more than one gender and are currently partnered with men may be at a higher risk for PPD symptoms. Recruitment method may influence the type of sample recruited for perinatal mental health research among sexual minority women.
Using ethnographic methods, this study started from the everyday activities and narratives of LGB... more Using ethnographic methods, this study started from the everyday activities and narratives of LGBTQ parents of children with 'special needs'. A critical approach to intersectionality was employed to consider how certain parents, children, and families are constructed as “different” or “not fitting” in particular settings and contexts, and what consequences follow (Crenshaw, 1991; Gibson, 2013). Fifteen parents and six key informants were interviewed, all of whom were based in the Greater Toronto Area. Methods used were drawn from institutional ethnography (Smith 2005) and discourse analysis (Gee, 2005; Riessman, 2008). The study found that special needs services systems operate to ‘filter out’ potential service users at multiple points of contact, regardless of the intentions of individual providers or the written policies of organizations. Parents encounter interpersonal and text-based, procedural barriers that discourage, deny, and defer claims. As a result, parents do ext...
Interrogating Psychiatric Narratives of Madness, 2021
The British Journal of Social Work, 2020
What do the many translations of ‘the brain’ from the domain of neuroscience offer to social work... more What do the many translations of ‘the brain’ from the domain of neuroscience offer to social work researchers? Drawing upon disability studies and critical social work, this article examines trends and tensions across ‘neuro’ writing in social work journals and summarises some commonly recommended practices. Neuroscientific discourse has undeniable cultural influence and offers distinctive forms of evidence to social workers. Social work scholars have strategically translated neuroscience findings to access greater disciplinary status, to counter neo-liberal onslaughts on public services, to communicate on inter-disciplinary teams and to address calls for ‘new’ scholarship. At the same time, many writers readily acknowledge that they use neuroscience to justify or even revive well-established social work practices and theories. A unidirectional strategy of translation across disciplines comes with inherent risks of reinforcing hierarchy, ignoring social difference and undermining th...
Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience, 2018
This paper “queers” the history of autism science through an examination of the overlap between t... more This paper “queers” the history of autism science through an examination of the overlap between the regulation of autism with that of gender and sexuality in the work of Ole Ivar Lovaas. Lovaas is the founder of Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA), the most commonly used and funded autism intervention today that seeks to extinguish autistic behaviors, primarily among children. Less commonly recognized is Lovaas’ involvement in the Feminine Boy Project, where he developed interventions into the gender identities and behaviors of young people. Turning to Lovaas’ published works, we perform a “history of the present” and argue that a queer disability studies lens opens up the richness of autism as a cultural nexus, and deepens understandings of intersecting and contested histories of science, professional scopes of practice, and dominant futurities. The article makes a significant and timely contribution to understanding the disabling material effects of autism science in the lives of aut...
International Journal of Inclusive Education, 2019
She researches and teaches in disability studies, critical autism studies and critical approaches... more She researches and teaches in disability studies, critical autism studies and critical approaches to mothering and care using arts-informed, interpretive, post-structuralist and post-humanist approaches. Douglas works with teachers, educators, families and disabled persons to challenge stereotypes and reimagine systems beyond exclusion and deficit perceptions. More information can be found at: www.enactingautisminclusion.ca. ORCiD: 6209. @DougladPatricia Carla Rice is Professor and Canada Research Chair at the University of Guelph specializing in embodiment studies and in arts-based and creative methodologies. She founded Re•Vision: The Centre for Art and Social Justice as an arts-informed research centre with a mandate to foster inclusive communities, social well-being, equity, and justice. Rice has received awards for research and mentorship, and has written on embodied difference, non-normative cultures, and accessibility and inclusion. More information about the Re•Vision Centre can be found at: .
Journal of Progressive Human Services, 2018
ABSTRACT What does the work that LGBTQ parents do to find resources for their disabled children r... more ABSTRACT What does the work that LGBTQ parents do to find resources for their disabled children reveal about the social organization of services? This article presents findings from an institutional ethnography study based on interviews with 15 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer (LGBTQ) parents and six key community informants in Toronto, Canada. The analysis focused on the work parents did to engage with disability service systems on behalf of their children, and the ways in which families’ social privilege and/or marginalization affected their experiences. Particular attention was paid to the ways in which “parent advocacy” was taken up, responded to, and critiqued in these interviews. “Parent advocacy” was found to operate as what Dorothy Smith has called an “ideological code” (Smith 1999), offloading systemic responsibilities onto parents, shielding inequities, and promoting individualized competition between service users. This study suggests that the systemic organization that makes “parent advocacy” necessary also renders parents’ relative privilege or marginality central to what their children receive.
PloS one, 2018
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and/or queer (LGBTQ) people face barriers to accessing mental heal... more Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and/or queer (LGBTQ) people face barriers to accessing mental health care; however, we know little about service experiences of low income LGBTQ people. In this qualitatively-driven mixed methods study, over 700 women and/or trans people completed an internet survey, of whom 12 LGBTQ individuals living in poverty participated in interviews. Low income LGBTQ respondents saw more mental health professionals and had more unmet need for care than all other LGBTQ/income groups. Narrative analysis illustrated the work required to take care of oneself in the context of extreme financial constraints. These findings highlight the mechanisms through which inadequate public sector mental health services can serve to reproduce and sustain both poverty and health inequities.
Journal of Homosexuality, 2017
How are lesbian/gay/bisexual/trans/queer (LGBTQ) parents of children with disabilities categorize... more How are lesbian/gay/bisexual/trans/queer (LGBTQ) parents of children with disabilities categorized by service providers, and how do parents anticipate, interpret, and respond to such categorizations? This intersectional study investigated the experiences of LGBTQ parents of children with disabilities with service providers in Toronto, Canada. Parents described pressures to "fit" into providers' limited understanding of family. Some parents described facing overt discrimination, including one parent who was seen as a possible sexual predator. Some described being perceived as representatives of "diversity" for organizations, or "pet lesbians" in the words of one couple. Others described being misread as a non-parent, as in "just the nanny," particularly in conjunction with their racial minority status. Parents described how their experiences of being "outside the mainstream" helped them challenge systems and normative beliefs. Findings suggest that a context of scarce disability resources shapes parents' experiences of how LGBTQ identity comes to matter.
Health & social care in the community, May 18, 2017
This article uses an intersectionality lens to explore how experiences of race, gender, sexuality... more This article uses an intersectionality lens to explore how experiences of race, gender, sexuality, class and their intersections are associated with depression and unmet need for mental healthcare in a population of 704 women and transgender/gender liminal people from Ontario, Canada. A survey collecting demographic information, information about mental health and use of mental healthcare services, and data for the Everyday Discrimination Scale and the PHQ-9 Questionnaire for Depression was completed by 704 people via Internet or pen-and-paper between June 2011 and June 2012. Bivariate and regression analyses were conducted to assess group differences in depression and discrimination experiences, and predictors of depression and unmet need for mental healthcare services. Analyses revealed that race, gender, class and sexuality all corresponded to significant differences in exposure to discrimination, experiences of depression and unmet needs for mental healthcare. Use of interaction...
Disability & Society, 2016
Abstract What role do texts play in LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) parent... more Abstract What role do texts play in LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) parents’ experiences of disability service systems? In interviews with 15 LGBTQ parents of disabled children in Toronto, Canada, participants selected documents to be used as a focus for discussion. Parents considered how LGBTQ identity and other intersectional identities influenced their experiences of institutional texts including adoption certificates, intake forms, and assessments. Findings suggest that documentation practices can operate as forms of systemic gatekeeping. LGBTQ identity was sometimes very significant in parents’ accounts, and sometimes less central than other aspects of their families' identities and experiences.
Journal of Women's Health, 2017
Previous studies have found that transgender, lesbian, and bisexual people report poorer mental h... more Previous studies have found that transgender, lesbian, and bisexual people report poorer mental health relative to heterosexuals. However, available research provides little information about mental health service access among the highest need groups within these communities: bisexual women and transgender people. This study compared past year unmet need for mental health care and untreated depression between four groups: heterosexual cisgender (i.e., not transgender) women, cisgender lesbians, cisgender bisexual women, and transgender people. This was a cross-sectional Internet survey. We used targeted sampling to recruit 704 sexual and gender minority people and heterosexual cisgendered adult women across Ontario, Canada. To ensure adequate representation of vulnerable groups, we oversampled racialized and low socioeconomic status (SES) women. Trans participants were 2.4 times (95% confidence intervals [CI] = 1.6-3.8, p < 0.01) and bisexual people 1.8 times (95% CI = 1.1-2.9, p = 0.02) as likely to report an unmet need for mental healthcare as cisgender heterosexual women. Trans participants were also 1.6 times (95% CI = 1.0-27, p = 0.04) more likely to report untreated depression. These differences were not seen after adjustment for social context factors such as discrimination and social support. We conclude that there are higher rates of unmet need and untreated depression in trans and bisexual participants that are partly explained by differences in social factors, including experiences of discrimination, lower levels of social support, and systemic exclusion from healthcare. Our findings suggest that the mental health system in Ontario is not currently meeting the needs of many sexual and gender minority people.
British Journal of Social Work, 2013
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Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 2014
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Journal of Women's History, 1998
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Culture, Health & Sexuality, 2013
What role do texts play in LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) parents’ experi... more What role do texts play in LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) parents’ experiences of disability service systems? In interviews with 15 LGBTQ parents of disabled children in Toronto, Canada, participants selected documents to be used as a focus for discussion. Parents considered how LGBTQ identity and other intersectional identities influenced their experiences of institutional texts including adoption certificates, intake forms, and assessments. Findings suggest that documentation practices can operate as forms of systemic gatekeeping. LGBTQ identity was sometimes very significant in parents’ accounts, and sometimes less central than other aspects of their families' identities and experiences.
How do we understand human difference, and what should we do with it? These are central questions... more How do we understand human difference, and what should we do with it? These are central questions of social work knowledge, practice and pedagogy. In recent years, ‘inter- sectionality’ has emerged as a useful construct in theorising how difference operates in social hierarchies. Too often, however, ‘intersectional’ discussions have led to increasingly fine divisions that isolate individuals and reify categories of difference. This article argues that an active engagement with history can promote a more nuanced and helpful ap- proach to intersectionality, as a greater understanding of the past shakes up static percep- tions of identity categories. The legacy of eugenics visible in present-day notions of ‘desirable reproduction’ is explored using the example of ‘queer parents of disabled chil- dren’. Two ways of looking at such a grouping illustrate different possible applications of intersectionality theory. A temporal, relational intersectionality is proposed—one that can be both historically responsive and situated in everyday narratives. The article concludes by addressing the social work implications of a historically aware, relational approach to difference.
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Papers by Margaret Gibson