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New Studies Challenge Established Views about the Development of Children Raised by Gay or Lesbian Parents
07 June 2012
Elsevier
New Studies Challenge Established Views about the Development of
Children Raised by Gay or Lesbian Parents
Oxford, June 10, 2012 - Despite considerable research showing that
children of same-sex parents fare just as well as children with
heterosexual parents, two papers - a review of existing studies and a
new study - published today in Elsevier's Social Science Research, find
insufficient data to draw any definitive conclusions.
The review by Dr. Loren Marks from Louisiana State University finds that
much of the science that forms the basis for the highly regarded 2005
official brief on same-sex parenting by the American Psychological
Association (APA)
does not
stand up to scrutiny. The new study by University of Texas sociologist
and professor Mark Regnerus, provides compelling new evidence that
numerous differences in social and emotional well-being do exist between
young adults raised by women who have had a lesbian relationship and
those who have grown up in a nuclear family.
Dr. Marks reviewed studies published between 1980 and 2005 cited by the
2005 official APA brief which asserted that: "Not a single study has
found children of lesbian or gay parents to be disadvantaged in any
significant respect relative to children of heterosexual parents."
"The jury is still out on whether being raised by same-sex parents
disadvantages children", explains Marks. "However, the available data on
which the APA draws its conclusions, derived primarily from small
convenience samples, are insufficient to support a strong generalized
claim either way."
Of the 59 studies referenced in the APA brief, more than three-quarters
were based on small, non-representative, non-random samples that did not
include any minority individuals or families; nearly half lacked a
heterosexual comparison group; and few examined outcomes that extend
beyond childhood such as intergenerational poverty, educational
attainment, and criminality, which are a key focus of studies on
children of divorce, remarriage, and cohabitation. In other words, "A
lack of high quality data leaves the most significant questions
unaddressed and unanswered," concludes Marks.
In his study, Professor Mark Regnerus used data from the New Family
Structures Study (NFSS) , a large
nationally representative sample of just under 3,000 young Americans
aged 18 to 39, to compare how children raised in eight different family
structures fared on 40 social, emotional, and relationship outcomes.
According to his findings, children of mothers who have had same-sex
relationships were significantly different as young adults on 25 of the
40 (63%) outcome measures, compared with those who spent their entire
childhood with both their married, biological parents. For example, they
reported significantly lower levels of income, more receipt of public
welfare, lower levels of employment, poorer mental and physical health,
poorer relationship quality with current partner, and higher levels of
smoking and criminality.
"This study, based on a rare large probability sample, reveals far
greater diversity in the experience of lesbian motherhood (and to a
lesser extent, gay fatherhood) than has been previously acknowledged or
understood," explains Regnerus. "The most significant story in this
study is arguably that children appear most apt to succeed well as
adults when they spend their entire childhood with their married mother
and father, and especially when the parents remain married to the
present day."
In a series of commentaries published in the same issue of Social
Science Research, three family researchers share their views on both
studies.
David Eggebeen, Associate Professor of Human Development and Sociology
at Pennsylvania State University, remarks, "Dr. Marks' paper, by turning
a bright light on the shortcomings of previous work, challenges
researchers to develop better data and conduct kinds of analyses that
allow more confidence in generalizations. The Regnerus paper introduces
a data set based on a national probability sample that has the potential
to address some of Mark's criticisms. The analyses in the Regnerus paper
are provocative but far from conclusive. These very preliminary findings
should not detract from the real importance of this paper, the
description of a new data set that offers significant advantages."
"Whether same-sex parenting causes the observed differences cannot be
determined from Regnerus' descriptive analysis," cautions Professor
Cynthia Osborne from the University of Texas at Austin. "Children of
lesbian mothers might have lived in many different family structures and
it is impossible to isolate the effects of living with a lesbian mother
from experiencing divorce, remarriage, or living with a single parent.
Or, it is quite possible, that the effect derives entirely from the
stigma attached to such relationships and to the legal prohibitions that
prevent same-sex couples from entering and maintaining 'normal
relationships'."
In a final comment on Regnerus' research, Pennsylvania State University,
sociologist and professor Paul Amato points out, "If growing up with gay
and lesbian parents were catastrophic for children, even studies based
on small convenience samples would have shown this by now
If
differences exist between children with gay/lesbian and heterosexual
parents, they are likely to be small or moderate in magnitude-perhaps
comparable to those revealed in the research literature on children and
divorce."