Make-Believe Families and Homosexuality Among Imprisoned Girls

A clear operational definition of each was then used to measure their incidence and relationship to each other. Data from the staff and inmates of three coed and four all-female training schools indicated that homosexuality and make-believe families were as prevalent in coed as in female institutions, and that most make-believe family groupings consisted of asexual sister-sister and mother-daughter relationship. Homosexual marriages were rare, and girls who did not adopt make-believe family roles were just as likely to report homosexual experiences as those who were in families. Thus, correlations between homosexual experiences and being in a make-believe family were weak and negative. Explanations are suggested for the nonobvious findings and the results are compared to other reports in previous literature. (Publisher abstract)