<As you indicate this is a controversial subject which has prompted a
huge amount of debate. There have been a number of studies in this
area and plenty of criticism of the studies.
Charlotte J. Patterson, psychology professor at the University of
Virginia has written a review of the research carried out on these
parenting issues. I have summarised the findings. The full text can be
read at http://www.apa.org/pi/parent.html
The majority of the research has been carried out on the children of
lesbian women. A few studies have looked at the children of gay
fathers.
Sexual identity
Three aspects of sexual identity have been studied.
Gender identity ? a person?s self identification as male or female.
Gender role behaviour ? activities that are regarded by culture as
masculine or feminine.
Sexual orientation ? a person?s choice of sexual partners.
Gender identity.
Studies have been carried out on children aged 5 to 14. Children of
lesbian mothers showed normal development of gender identity.
References:
Green 1978
Green, Mandel, Hotvedt, Gray & Smith 1986
Kirkpatrick, Smith & Roy 1981
Golombok, Spencer and Rutter 1983.
No evidence is available for the children of gay fathers.
Gender?role behaviour.
Studies of the children of lesbian mothers found that their behaviour
fell within the limits for conventional sex roles including toy
preferences, activities, interests and occupational choices. Rees
(1979) found that children of lesbian mothers reported greater
psychological femininity than children of heterosexual mothers.
References:
Golombok et al., 1983; Gottman, 1990; Green, 1978; Hoeffer, 1981;
Kirkpatrick et al., 1981; Patterson, 1994a.
No evidence is available for the children of gay fathers.
Sexual orientation.
In all studies the majority of children of both gay fathers and
lesbian mothers described themselves as heterosexual. Analysing all of
the data shows that there are not elevated rates of homosexuality.
Bailey studied the adult sons of gay fathers and found over 90% were
heterosexual.
References:
Bailey, Bobrow, Wolfe, & Mikach, 1995; Bozett, 1980, 1982, 1987, 1989;
Gottman, 1990; Golombok et al., 1983; Green, 1978; Huggins, 1989;
Miller, 1979; Paul, 1986; Rees, 1979
The sites also identifies other aspects of personal development which
fall within a normal range.
Social relationships.
Research has found normal development of peer relationships with
lesbian mothers. There is no data for the children of gay fathers.
Golombok et al (1983) found differences in the contact with divorced
parents. Children of divorced lesbian mothers were more likely to have
contact with their fathers than children of divorced heterosexual
mothers. However this difference was not found in the study conducted
by Kirkpatrick et al (1981). Research has also been carried out in
this area on gay fathers by Harris and Turner (1985/6). They found
heterosexual parents were more likely to report that their children?s
visits with the other parent presented problems for them.
Criticism of studies.
Much of the criticism of these studies tends to come from
organisations promoting their own anti-gay views.
No Basis: What the Studies Don?t Tell Us About Same Sex Parenting by
Robert Lerner PhD. and Althea Nagai PhD.
http://www.marriagewatch.org/publications/nobasis.pdf examines 49
parental studies on same sex parenting. They found at least one
?fatal? flaw in each study. http://www.narth.com/docs/lernernagai.html
However there is a criticism of this study at this site
http://mathpost.la.asu.edu/~boerner/gayparenting.html which says
the study was commissioned by the right-wing Marriage Law Project
which is operated by the law school of the Washington, D.C. ? based
Catholic University of America. ?It is an entity that is not
interested in sponsoring genuine scientific research, since it
subscribes to a preconceived ideological viewpoint that same-sex
relationships are immoral.?>
<Additional links:>
<The findings of various studies.>
<http://www.lethimstay.com/wrong_socscience_studies.html>
<Summaries of studies.>
<http://www.lethimstay.com/wrong_socscience_summaries.html>
<Chart of studies and what they measure.>
<http://www.lethimstay.com/wrong_socscience_chart.html>
<A conversation with Judith Stacey of the University of Southern California.>
<http://www.lethimstay.com/wrong_socscience_expert.html>
<Adopting the parent trap.>
<http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/06/1051987702147.html>
<This site provides information on literature related to gay parenting.>
<http://www.cga.state.ct.us/olr/2002Backgrounders/Gay_Parenting_0879.htm>
<Search strategy:>
<"children of gay couples" research >
<://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=%22children+of+gay+couples%22+research>
<Hope this helps.> |
