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.
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Comments:
Feb '11
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
Tom Lindholtz
.....
So, as a society, all we can do is try to clean up the mess. We can't prevent it. Nor do I want to; just want to think clearly about the issue. · 8 hours ago
Yes, it's worthwhile to explore this topic of the effects on children being raised in alternative circumstances. But it's really quite beside the point when it comes to the SSM debate since one of the reasons society formalizes marriage is to support the relationships that replenish the population in an effort to avoid in the first place any "messes" to be cleaned up by the rest of us.
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
drlorentz
Tommy De Seno
drlorentz
Tommy De Seno: I'm curious about the sampling.
Does anyone know what percentage of the homosexual parents in the study were living together in committed relationships and how that compares to the percentage of heterosexual parents in the study? · 1 hour ago
A cursory reading of the comments in this thread answers the second of your questions (e.g., the first comment on this page). The short answer is 100%. For an answer to your first question can be found in the paper itself. If you defined 'committed relationship' as one lasting at least three years, the number is 23% for females and 2% for males. · 7 minutes ago
Edited 5 minutes ago
The 23% and 2% you cite - that refers to what? · 4 hours ago
Edited 4 hours ago
The answers to your question, "what percentage of the homosexual parents in the study were living together in committed relationships."
There are two different numbers because female and male homosexual relationships are distinct, whereas there is only one kind of heterosexual relationship possible (at least when only two people are involved). · 4 hours ago
That seems a big flaw comparing couples to single parents.
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
Pygmy Hippo:
"In his journal article, Regnerus says respondents who were labeled GF or LM originated most commonly from a “failed heterosexual union.” As evidence, he observes that “just under half of such respondents reported that their biological parents were once married.” "
Assuming he's telling the truth, it sounds like roughly half the kids with a homosexual parent came from a home where their homosexual parent was in a relationship with the other biological parent. Mom and Dad were together, but one or both were homosexual. Not sure this study can be useful for much.
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/human_nature/2012/06/new
_family_structures_study_is_gay_parenthood_bad_or_is_gay_marriage_good_.html
http://www.prc.utexas.edu/nfss/documents/NFSS-Survey-Instrument.pdf
Oddly, about half the children of gay parents I know would fit that definition -- product of a previous heterosexual union. The other half adopted. No donor children (although studies indicate they have problems of their own ....)
Sep '10
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
I don't think this study has any policy implications. If a study found that the children of the super-rich were better off than the children of middle class parents, would we wish to ban middle class parents from adopting? If a study showed that Cubs fans were more likely to raise depressed children, would we forbid Cubs fans from marrying?
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
Tommy De Seno
That seems a big flaw comparing couples to single parents. · 41 minutes ago
In the author's defense, that's what he claimed he was doing. And while the initial screening was quite large, he pointed out the small sample size of children of gay parents who were raised in long-term relationships, etc.
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
I don't care what the data say, I'm just for banning Cubs fans from doing anything.
Signed,
A Cardinals fan
Sep '10
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
We allow Cubs fans to marry and have children?!? Why isn't there legislation to forbid this? Are we that far gone?
Apr '11
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
Tommy De Seno
That seems a big flaw comparing couples to single parents. · 41 minutes ago
In the author's defense, that's what he claimed he was doing. And while the initial screening was quite large, he pointed out the small sample size of children of gay parents who were raised in long-term relationships, etc. · 13 minutes ago
So what is the authors point? Children do better if their families have less complications? That hardly seems like news....
Edited on June 14, 2012 at 7:17amSep '10
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
Valiuth
So what is the authors point? Children do better if their families have less complications? That hardly seems like news.... · 41 minutes ago
Edited 29 minutes ago
Like so many studies by social scientists, those masters of the obvious.
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
Valiuth
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
Tommy De Seno
That seems a big flaw comparing couples to single parents. · 41 minutes ago
In the author's defense, that's what he claimed he was doing. And while the initial screening was quite large, he pointed out the small sample size of children of gay parents who were raised in long-term relationships, etc. · 13 minutes ago
So what is the authors point? Children do better if their families have less complications? That hardly seems like news.... · 6 hours ago
Edited 6 hours ago
Exactly. Going back to the Moynihan Report it's clear that two parent households do better than single parent households.
This study has a massive variable in what should be a point of control. It's worthless.
I'm not saying I know there are no differences in the the children of heterosexual and homosexual parents. That there is a difference could make for a different result. I am saying this study doesn't prove it.
Dec '10
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
I think there are laws about mentally-defective people marrying.
Apr '12
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
The question is would marriage bring more stability and, hence, stability and mainstream acceptance? Would gay couples then go for longevity, monogamy and best practices for a solid family?
Dec '10
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
Here's an even handed bit about the study. As I said when I wrote about this earlier, this study is not arrival at the destination (of understanding the effects of homosexual parenting on children), but it is a step on the path leading to the destination.
Apr '11
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
I am still deeply unsatisfied by this whole issue...I haven't read other homosexual-parenting studies, so I can't offer any criticism of them. It sound like from the article you posted King Prawn that they are all poor. I am wondering is it even possible to do the proper comparison? If sample size is the issue...could you include foreigners? So you expand the data to non-US countries as well. That way you can get more homosexuals to boost your "n".
Apr '11
Re: Children Of Gay Parents Fare Worse
Tommy De Seno: I'm curious about the sampling.
Does anyone know what percentage of the homosexual parents in the study were living together in committed relationships and how that compares to the percentage of heterosexual parents in the study? · Jun 13 at 10:32am
This question addresses a quibble many have made. It is perhaps relevant to the apparent apples-to-oranges aspect that homosexual relationships are very unstable. Few of the subjects with homosexual fathers had the same "parental" configuration for three years; lesbians were even more unstable. The study found that the outcomes for SS "parenting" were about the same as for children with divorced/never married heterosexual parents.
Note: I'm writing from memory. Before you use or challenge this, check more responsible sources. I'm going to have to do that, because it may be that the deleterious factor is actually instability, or as we used to call it, unfaithfulness.