Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
Mark Regnerus has a fascinating piece in Slate about a study he and his colleagues performed after screening 15,000 Americans aged 18-39 on the challenges of growing up in a household where their biological mother or father had ever been in a same-sex relationship.
He points out that academic discourse has careened wildly in the last decade or so, from largely acknowledging the benefits of intact, biological parent homes to saying there's no substantive difference to actually arguing that same-sex couples raising children are better than both biological parents raising children. He explains a bit about the problems with some of the studies used to make such a case. Studies that were used, it might be worth pointing out, in Vaughn Walker's Proposition 8 ruling declaring the social science settled on the matter.
Regnerus points out that even if you just isolate to adoption -- a common means for same-sex couples to obtain children -- social science indicates that such children have significant, important and wide-ranging differences, relative to biological children. That should give people pause when looking at these studies suggesting that children of gay parents fare better, he says.
His New Family Structures Study (NFSS), an overview article about which appears in the July issue of the journal Social Science Research, has some interesting results:
The basic results call into question simplistic notions of “no differences,” at least with the generation that is out of the house. On 25 of 40 different outcomes evaluated, the children of women who’ve had same-sex relationships fare quite differently than those in stable, biologically-intact mom-and-pop families, displaying numbers more comparable to those from heterosexual stepfamilies and single parents. Even after including controls for age, race, gender, and things like being bullied as a youth, or the gay-friendliness of the state in which they live, such respondents were more apt to report being unemployed, less healthy, more depressed, more likely to have cheated on a spouse or partner, smoke more pot, had trouble with the law, report more male and female sex partners, more sexual victimization, and were more likely to reflect negatively on their childhood family life, among other things. Why such dramatic differences? I can only speculate, since the data are not poised to pinpoint causes. One notable theme among the adult children of same-sex parents, however, is household instability, and plenty of it. The children of fathers who have had same-sex relationships fare a bit better, but they seldom reported living with their father for very long, and never with his partner for more than three years.
Regnerus goes into a bit of detail as to why the NFSS is a better study than others, which he chalks up to better methodology. Previous studies used self-selected samples, including from people who knew the studies could be used for political ends. And since large scale surveys were difficult to do, we saw quite a few data-collection efforts yielding interesting data on how well-educated, white lesbian partners were doing -- and comparisons to the general population. The NFSS found:
The differences, it turns out, were numerous. For instance, 28 percent of the adult children of women who’ve had same-sex relationships are currently unemployed, compared to 8 percent of those from married mom-and-dad families. Forty percent of the former admit to having had an affair while married or cohabiting, compared to 13 percent of the latter. Nineteen percent of the former said they were currently or recently in psychotherapy for problems connected with anxiety, depression, or relationships, compared with 8 percent of the latter. And those are just three of the 25 differences I noted.
Regnerus notes that there are many anecdotes of same-sex couples who have done a remarkable job of raising children. He acknowledges the limitations of his study, such as that even though it included more people than most studies of this nature do, they would have liked more data.
Still, what a fascinating study. What lessons, if any, should we draw from it?
Image of parents with child via Shutterstock.
- Comment (55)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (5)
Comments:
Mar '11
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
I would be cautious.
I think the key lesson that we should draw (and share with others) is that anytime someone messes with something that has more or less worked for thousands of years, there is a vast range of unintended consequences. And of course, most unintended consequences are also unforeseen and often unforseeable.
People should be careful before they leap into new social territory. Relationships are not simple, and they certainly are not simple to whimsically redefine.
Edited on June 13, 2012 at 5:19pmJun '10
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
Evolution works. Putting an opposite-sex couple in a traditional marriage creates a third thing, something greater and better than the sum of its parts. Men and women--just by the way their brains work--are sensitive to different dangers, and different opportunities. Together, they provide children exactly what they want, and what they need. You can fight Nature, but not for long.
Dec '10
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
Charles C.W. Cooke sums it up nicely in his piece about this on NRO:
My thoughts on the matter: I think this is a good first step toward accumulating the data required to make rational public policy concerning SSM and gay parenting.
Mar '11
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
Is there such a thing as rational public policy on social matters?
Oct '11
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
Anecdotally speaking (rather than on average, as any large-scale study would evaluate), my cousin and her wife have two absolutely adorable daughters who seem, from my point of view, to be doing just fine. My cousin gave birth to one of the girls, her wife to the other . They are related to each other biologically because the same sperm donor was used for both of them. They're 8 and 10 years old now, so I guess we'll have to see in 20 years if they're unemployed and or in therapy.
Oct '10
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
We won't know definitively for a long time the outcomes of same-sex parenting, which is one reason to proceed with great caution. It's not as if we can conduct controlled, laboratory experiments.
And even after a long time to gather mountains of data, people with political axes a to grind and their own choices to justify will dispute results they disagree with.
Just look at the never-ending disputes over free market v. statist approaches to the economy - we will never achieve final victory, and so we must plan to fight the good fight forever.
All we can do is manage the processes of learning and teaching to the best of our abilities.
Apr '11
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
But, why do they do worse? What I want to see is a study that looks at the homosexual families that raise children well vs. those that do not...the study doesn't say they all do worse, just on average they do worse...that means some do just as well and some may even do better than the heterosexual average. What do these homosexuals have that the others don't? Is it just stability?
I still feel that probably a lot of the problems are cultural, and thus they can probably be fixed.
May '12
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
The New Republic published a piece yesterday blasting this study (shocking, I know). http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/104001/are-gay-parents-really-worse-children-how-new-study-gets-everything-wrong
Specifically, Corvino criticizes the methodology, claiming that the study looked at same-sex couples, rather than limiting itself to same-sex "families." Rebuttal anyone? Or is he right about this?
May '12
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
I can't help but be very skeptical of these results. Adjustments were made for the social environment of the children, but was this also done for the parents? In my experience same-sex couples are more liberal in how they raise children than conservative (even if they themselves are conservative).
Not to mention the likely increase in pressure on these parents when they are viewed publically and socially as inept by default. Not consciously, mind you. Even with the support of some they still have something to prove as "pioneers in the field" of same-sex parenting. Was this need to prove something also a factor that drove the child further from their parents? Did they over-coddle and alienate as a result?
I would definitely love to see more data and investigation into the matter.
Dec '10
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
iWc
Is there such a thing as rational public policyon social matters? · 14 minutes ago
The state's support of traditional marriage since the inception of the state seems pretty rational to me. I don't think marriage just a social matter. I think it more a necessary condition of society.
Dec '10
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
The children of SSM were compared to the children of intact heterosexual couples. Can we see the results compared to the non-intact families?
Mar '11
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
Drusus:
Specifically, Corvino criticizes the methodology, claiming that the study looked at same-sex couples, rather than limiting itself to same-sex "families." Rebuttal anyone? Or is he right about this? · 5 minutes ago
The problem is that same-sex relationships are much more fleeting than are hetero marriages. Is it unavoidable?
My hunch is that gay men tend to be far more promiscuous, and less "familial", while lesbian couples often have the same longevity as do hetero marriages. But I don't know if this is fact. The study seems to suggest that it is not?
Edited on June 13, 2012 at 5:55pmApr '11
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
Drusus: The New Republic published a piece yesterday blasting this study (shocking, I know). http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/104001/are-gay-parents-really-worse-children-how-new-study-gets-everything-wrong
....Rebuttal anyone? Or is he right about this? · 2 minutes ago
Actually the phraseology..."children of parents who have had same-sex relationships" did strike me as odd when reading Molly's post. The claim in NR is that they counted any child whose parent has had sex with some one of the same sex as the child of a gay parent, even if that parent was raising the child in a heterosexual setting. This to me would seem to be enriching for heterosexual couples with problems, rather than homosexual couples....I think it is a fair critique of the methodology....
The true test is comparing homosexual couples with heterosexual ones which have equal levels of family stability (ie. cheating, drug abuse, divorce, etc.) it would be fair to point out that homosexuals are more prone to instability, but if you want to test the effects of same-sex family v. opposite-sex family you have to control for all the other variables.
Mar '11
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
The King Prawn
iWc
Is there such a thing as rational public policyon social matters? · 14 minutes ago
The state's support of traditional marriage since the inception of the state seems pretty rational to me. I don't think marriage just a social matter. I think it more a necessary condition of society. · 10 minutes ago
I don't want the state defining marriage, or deciding what is or is not supported. Individuals can make those decisions for themselves.
Just as free speech is not free unless we can offend someone, so, too, social freedom means having the freedom to make stupid decisions.
Apr '11
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
Del Mar Dave:
Just look at the never-ending disputes over free market v. statist approaches to the economy - we will never achieve final victory, and so we must plan to fight the good fight forever.
We have already won final victory: we strive to apply the truth wherever we can.
For example:
I reject the premise. This is probably the last time I need to be explicit about it: AA's cousin does not have a wife. She has a friend; they live together. I know two women cannot marry. I'll be teaching my kids this truth: I'll teach my kids not to live as they live, because it is morally wrong. I won't cast the first stone, but I do know the truth.
Final victory isn't getting everyone to agree with us: it's knowing and applying the truth as widely as possible in community with others, if possible.
It's worth fighting to conserve the legal enshrinement of truths that we know, but final victory is not winning worldly battles. Living truth is.
Dec '10
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
The study does say the outcomes are much more closely related to children of broken families. We have plenty of data on how bad instability is for children. One thing that stood out to me was how little stability the study found in SSM families. Out of the 175 lesbian families in the study only a handful of the children were raised for more than 3 years in that environment.
Dec '10
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
iWc
The King Prawn
iWc
Is there such a thing as rational public policyon social matters? · 14 minutes ago
The state's support of traditional marriage since the inception of the state seems pretty rational to me. I don't think marriage just a social matter. I think it more a necessary condition of society. · 10 minutes ago
I don't want the state defining marriage, or deciding what is or is not supported. Individuals can make those decisions for themselves.
Just as free speech is not free unless we can offend someone, so, too, social freedom means having the freedom to make stupid decisions. · 7 minutes ago
The state never really defined marriage; it merely provided protection for what society defined as marriage. Now the SSM advocates want the state to intervene to redefine it away from what society has always accepted it to be.
Sep '10
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
Valiuth
The true test is comparing homosexual couples with heterosexual ones which have equal levels of family stability (ie. cheating, drug abuse, divorce, etc.) it would be fair to point out that homosexuals are more prone to instability, but if you want to test the effects of same-sex family v. opposite-sex family you have to control for all the other variables. · 5 minutes ago
I have similar reservations about the study. After a quick read of the original paper, it's pretty clearly not a fair comparison.
This is hardly an apples-to-apples comparison.
Dec '10
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
drlorentz
Valiuth
The true test is comparing homosexual couples with heterosexual ones which have equal levels of family stability (ie. cheating, drug abuse, divorce, etc.) it would be fair to point out that homosexuals are more prone to instability, but if you want to test the effects of same-sex family v. opposite-sex family you have to control for all the other variables. · 5 minutes ago
I have similar reservations about the study. After a quick read of the original paper, it's pretty clearly not a fair comparison.
This is hardly an apples-to-apples comparison. · 8 minutes ago
Which is exactly why we can't change the status quo of traditional marriage. We don't have the price tag, so we shouldn't order the goods.
Sep '10
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
Mike Poliquin
I reject the premise. This is probably the last time I need to be explicit about it: AA's cousin does not have a wife. She has a friend; they live together. I know two women cannot marry. I'll be teaching my kids this truth: I'll teach my kids not to live as they live, because it is morally wrong. I won't cast the first stone, but I do know the truth.
...
This strikes me as a being a bit close to the edge of an ad hominem. There's no need to get personal to make one's point. Mr Arthur's anecdote is not data, but it's a useful reminder that we're discussing the lives, dreams, and aspirations of individuals.
Edit: correct a typo that changed my intended meaning.
Edited on June 13, 2012 at 6:36pm