What We Know | What do the scholarly rearch say about the well-beg of children wh gay or lbian parents? | What We Know

Contents:

• WHAT DO THE SCHOLARLY REARCH SAY ABOUT THE WELL-BEG OF CHILDREN WH GAY OR LBIAN PARENTS?
• KIDS OF GAY PARENTS FARE WORSE, STUDY FDS, BUT REARCH DRAWS FIRE OM EXPERTS
• GROWG UP WH GAY PARENTS: WHAT IS THE BIG AL?*
• LBIAN AND GAY PARENTG
• CHILDREN OF LBIAN AND GAY PARENTS

WHAT DO THE SCHOLARLY REARCH SAY ABOUT THE WELL-BEG OF CHILDREN WH GAY OR LBIAN PARENTS?

Dpe numero attempts to bias the rults favour of the null hypothis and allowg for up to 20 (of 63, 32%) dg errors, Cameron's (2006) hypothis that gay and lbian parents would be more likely to have gay, lbian, bisexual or unsure (of sexual orientatn) sons and dghters was nfirmed. In fact, one prehensive study of children raised by lbian mothers or gay fathers nclud that children raised by same-sex parents did not differ om other children terms of emotnal functng, sexual orientatn, stigmatizatn, genr role behavr, behavral adjtment, genr inty, learng and gra pot averag.

Though many fay relatnships may be plex, explag fay relatnships is uniquely plex for lbian and gay parented fai bee of the lack of societal norms and relevant exampl media, stereotyped notns about such relatnships that are mon, and the fear of discrimatn faced by the fai. Competent parentg may be fluenced by gay and lbian parents’ abily to accept and acknowledge their inty and how they are able to negotiate livg a heterosexist, homophobic, or otherwise discrimatory society, while rearg their children a fay un that is not socially sanctned. Children wh gay, lbian, transgenr or other sexual mory parents fare as well as, or better than, children wh parents of the oppose sex, acrdg to rearch published Monday BMJ Global Health, further unrmg a mon but unsupported argument agast equal marriage and adoptn as a growg number of stat enact laws curtailg LGBT+ rights.

At most a handful of the children who were studied were actually raised by same-sex parents; the rt me om fai which oppose-sex parents raised their children for a perd of time, but which, often, one or more parent(s) subsequently me out as gay or lbian and left the fay or had a same-sex relatnship.

KIDS OF GAY PARENTS FARE WORSE, STUDY FDS, BUT REARCH DRAWS FIRE OM EXPERTS

Includg such children among those labeled as havg been “raised by same-sex parents” is so misleadg as to be accurate, sce the children were generally raised by oppose-sex fai and only later, after a fay disptn, did they live hoeholds wh one or more gay parent(s), and only rarely did two parents of the same sex, a stable, long-term relatnship, actually raise the children together.

In a jot statement om the Fay Equaly Council, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), Freedom to Marry, and the Gay and Lbian Alliance agast Defamatn (GLAAD), advot lled the study a "flawed, misleadg, and scientifilly unsound paper that seeks to disparage lbian and gay parents.

After rrectg for errors, addg appropriate ntrol variabl, redg race/ethnicy to reflect multiple (stead of two) tegori, and ntrollg for the effects of misclassified or uncerta data, the thors found only six differenc between adult children of lbian mothers and tact blogil fai, and three differenc between adult children of gay fathers and tact blogil fai.

GROWG UP WH GAY PARENTS: WHAT IS THE BIG AL?*

Of the remag three differenc, two were not nsired to be objectively worse for eher group (intifyg as homosexual, and havg had a same-sex relatnship), leavg only one statistilly signifint difference between adult children raised by lbian mothers pared to adult children raised tact blogil fai. Of the, two were not objectively worse (intifyg as homosexual and havg had a same-sex relatnship), and two did not take place durg adulthood (receivg public assistance childhood, and sense of safety and secury growg up), and therefore nnot be reasonably nsired nsequenc of their childhood fay suatn.

Three key fdgs stood out this study: children of married, oppose-sex parents have a high graduatn rate pared to the others; children of lbian fai have a very low graduatn rate pared to the others; and children the other four typ of livg arrangements (mon law marriage, gay uple, sgle mother, and sgle father) are siar to each other and fall between the extrem of married heterosexual parents and lbian upl. The women (whose average age both groups was 29) wh gay or bisexual fathers had difficulty wh adult attachment issu three areas: (1) they were ls fortable wh closens and timacy; (2) they were ls able to tst and pend on others; and (3) they experienced more anxiety relatnships pared to the women raised by heterosexual fathers (and mothers). The study is noteworthy for several reasons: (1) his study sample was large, reprentative, and populatn-based (not a small, self-selected group); (2) Regnes studied the rpons of adult children rather than askg same-sex parents to scribe how their young pennt children are dog; and (3) he was able to draw parisons on up to 80 measur for children who had lived wh (or had) parents who fell to one of eight tegori—tact fai wh both blogil parents who were married to each other, lbian mothers, gay fathers, heterosexual sgle parents, parents who later divorced, habg parents, parents who adopted the rponnt, and other (such as a ceased parent).

4) as prevalent among children wh same-sex parents than the general populatn, after ntrollg for age, sex, ethnicy, and parent soc-enomic stat (Sulls 2015b) n one rencile the signifint fdgs wh the wily publicized studi showg no harmful effects to children who have, or have lived wh, lbian or gay parents? For example, 2005, the Amerin Psychologil Associatn (APA) issued an official brief on lbian and gay parentg, which clud this assertn: “Not a sgle study has found children of lbian and gay parents to be disadvantaged any signifint rpect relative to children of heterosexual parents” (Amerin Psychologil Associatn 2005). The thor remend further flaws exist the vast majory of studi published before 2012 on this subject (Marks 2012) cludg the fact that they relied upon small, nonreprentative sampl that are not reprentative of children typil homosexual fai the Uned major studi, published by Gartrell and Bos (2010) and Biblarz and Stacey (2010), are often ced by gay activists and extensively the media.

LBIAN AND GAY PARENTG

Published fal eded form as:PMCID: PMC4194076NIHMSID: NIHMS632124AbstractObjectiveThe study objective was to terme the nature and prevalence of childhood maltreatment experienc among lbian, gay, and bisexual adults and to pare fdgs to those obtaed om siar heterosexual adults.

MethodData om the Natnal Survey of Midlife Development the Uned Stat (MIDUS), which measured both childhood experienc wh parental emotnal and physil maltreatment and adult sexual orientatn, were ed to pare childhood maltreatment experienc of 2917 heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual dividuals, age 25–74 years, separately by genr. Keywords: Child maltreatment, Child abe, HomosexualyIntroductnMaltreatment durg childhood, cludg physil, sexual, psychologil, and emotnal abe and/or neglect, ntu to be an important public health ncern the Uned Stat (US Department of Health and Human Servic, Admistratn on Children, Youth and Fai, 2001). Although rearch this area has been hampered by methodologil difficulti, over the last several years studi have repeatedly documented that help-seekg lbian, gay, and bisexual youth monly report posive histori of victimizatn and abe (Hunter, 1990; Mart & Hetrick, 1988; Remafedi, 1987; Rotheram-Bos, Rosar, & Koopman, 1991).

CHILDREN OF LBIAN AND GAY PARENTS

Although youth seekg social servic might be more likely than other youth to experience maltreatment, a later study that reced lbian, gay, and bisexual participants om nonclil settgs also observed high prevalence of faial physil and psychologil victimizatn (Pilkgton & D’Augelli, 1995). Further, several recent school-based surveys of adolcents Massachetts (Flkner & Cranston, 1998; Garofalo et al., 1998; Garofalo Wolf, Wissow, Woods, & Goodman, 1999) and Mnota (Saewyc, Bearger, Blum, & Rnick, 1999) report higher rat of vlent victimizatn generally wh the ntext of school and muny settgs among youth reportg eher same-genr sexual behavr or a lbian, gay, or bisexual inty.