Tri-parenting or Try Parenting? Online Posts About a Potentially Stigmatized Family Structure

This exploratory study investigates existing views on the practice of tri-parenting and perceived reasons for potential stigma towards families in tri-parenting relationships. Two themes emerged from 448 posts on five online copies of an article about tri-parenting: domains of comparison and attitudes toward family. Findings from a generic qualitative approach reveal that the majority of anonymous comments posted in response to these articles about tri-parenting were negative, thus potentially associated with stigma. Four categories of potential attitudes underlying statements toward these families also emerged from the data: tradition/slippery slope, complicated, deviance, and welfare. Further analysis suggests that in the case of tri-parenting, family unusualness is related to family stigma and that stigmatizing comparisons are made based on concerns in social and legal domains. Results are discussed in terms of future research and implications for minimizing family stigma.