With gay marriage recently becoming legal, many same-sex couples are deciding to adopt children and form a family. Recently, I watched a show with Neil Patrick Harris on it where he was discussing his famously adorable husband and children. This led me to wonder: What is it like for those children? Is there a major difference in their upbringing that effects their childhood raising?
According to the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, studies estimate that there are approximately 594,000 same-sex partner households, with about 27% of those households having children. Overall this association reports that most research leads to no difference in the children in terms of emotional functioning, sexual orientation, stigmatization, gender role behavior, gender identity, and learning (American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy). Deanna Linville, PhD and Maya O’Neil, MS, conducted research finding that children with same-sex parents reported feeling more connected at school and that these children are more likely to openly talk about emotionally difficult topics. This led me to feel slightly skeptical considering children of same-sex marriage parents probably deal with the social stigma against their parents’ sexuality.
The American Psychological Association (APA) reported on gay parenting, with Loren Marks, associate professor at the School of Human Ecology at Louisiana State University, stating 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” (Marks 2012). The APA studies lacked a large research size, and it depended on a certain type of person, particularly white, wealthy families. Additionally, the categories this study examined focused on gender role and sexual identity as opposed to common children outcomes such as learning and behavioral issues.
Mark Regnerus, a sociology professor at the University of Texas at Austin also disagreed with the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy’s claims that these children have no differences. Regnerus stated that “The empirical claim that no notable differences exist must go.” Using 2,988 randomly chosen American young adults aged from 18-39, Regnerus looked into their lives on 40 measures of social, emotional and relationship outcomes. Of the 2,988 people,175 adults were raised by lesbian mothers while 73 adults were raised by gay fathers. He found that adults raised by lesbian mothers had negative outcomes in 24 of the 40 categories, while adults raised by gay fathers had negative outcomes in 19 categories. He concluded that the most successful adults were those who had heterosexual parents that stayed together (The Washington Post 2014). This study could just be a result of chance, as the numbers of children with homosexual parents were low, or other factors could go into the negative results of the 40 unknown “categories” such as the structure of the way the categories are worded or set up, which could be due to Regnerus’s own personal bias.
So are children affected by whether or not they were raised by same-sex parents? The answer still remains unknown. The lack of data and research followed by the difficulty to measure what a “good” childhood raising is, leads this study to be complex. Overall loving parents are necessary for a child regardless of a parent’s sexual orientation and gender.
Works Cited:
Marks, L. (2012, July). Same-sex parenting and children’s outcomes: A closer examination of
the American psychological association’s brief on lesbian and gay parenting [Electronic
version]. , 41(4).
Same-sex Parents and Their Children . (2015). In American Association for Marriage and Family
Therapy . Retrieved from https://www.aamft.org/imis15/aamft/Content/
Consumer_Updates/Same-sex_Parents_and_Their_Children.aspx
Wetzstein, C. (2014, March 25). Michigan gay marriage battle focuses on kids . In The
Washington Times . Retrieved from http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/25/
michigan-gay-marriage-battle-focuses-on-kids/
Kristen, this is a very interesting blog post that revolves around a controversial topic that is beginning to have more light shed upon it. In my health and human development class, I learned that both fathers and mothers typically have particular positive and negative influences on their children that effect development. I’m sure that with the legalization of gay marriage an abundance of research will begin to be done on the issue of same sex parenting potentially having a negative impact on children. One huge dilemma regarding research done on this topic is the possible agendas of both participants and researchers getting in the way of truly factual results. I would inherently agree with Mark Regnerus’ point that ideally, a child with two loving, supportive heterosexual parents would be the healthiest in a majority of psychological categories due to historical and social standards. This research question that you addressed above disregards the possibility of a child lacking the support of one gender from their lives as a result of abandonment, divorce, or death. An article from LIVE STRONG explains the effects of having a single parent throughout childhood on an adolescent. Generally, research shows that single parents typically have lower incomes; subsequently, children tend to do poorly in school. This poverty can also have stressful emotional effects on children. Despite this, kids with single parents may be more responsible and obtain other positive qualities as a result of their upbringing. In conclusion, I do not believe that any amount of research will be able to 100% identify the ideal parenting style for the psychologically healthiest child due to the immense number of underlying factors and the countless characteristics different human beings/ parents can have.
This is a very interesting article. I completely agree with this. Just like Lisa, I too grew up with a friend with lesbian parents. My friend does not act any different than any of my other friends. I feel that kids who grow up with same-sex parents may benefit. I feel it educates them on gay pride, and immediately opens them up to a positive outlook on same-sex marriage. I am all for same-sex marriage and believe people should be able do whatever they want to be happy.
I like Lisa’s reply. In addition, I believe that there could be a bias depending on how the researchers feel about children being raised by lesbian or gay parents. Children are like sponges, they will absorb anything. How each child advances in life ultimately depends on how they see the world and who influences them. We are raised on morals of our parents, until we are old enough to make decisions about life on our own. I personally have not seen statistics in which a child with lesbian or gay parents has a completely altered life. I do agree that children with same-sex parents may be more open to discuss difficult topics, but other than that more other aspects are due to the world around us and morals of our parents. Very interesting article. i am glad you wrote about this topic.
My very best friend Matt, of whom I grew up with, was raised by two lesbian mothers. He also has a twin sister and I am around them and their family all of the time. I do not see any difference in either him or his twin sister. They have always had every advantage that everyone else in my friend group has had and I would say that their moms did an exceptional job raising the two of them. They are both currently in college each with 4.0 GPAS and hearts of gold. Their family is one of the best that I know! I completely agree with the fact that articles and studies have seen no difference. A family is a family, no matter how you look at it.