A new American study has found gay fathers spend more quality time with their children than straight dads. “Public debate on same-sex marriage often focuses on the disadvantages that children raised by same-sex couples may face,” authors of the study published in the June issue of Demography say. “On one hand, little evidence suggests any difference in the outcomes of children raised by same-sex parents and different-sex parents. On the other hand, most studies are limited by problems of sample selection and size, and few directly measure the parenting practices thought to influence child development.” They say their research demonstrates how the 2003–2013 American Time Use Survey, which more than 44,000 people took part in, may help to address these limitations. They say women in same-sex couples were more likely than either women or men in different-sex couples to spend such time with children. Overall women, regardless of the gender of their partners, and men coupled with other men spent significantly more time with children than men in straight relationships. “These results support prior research that different-sex couples do not invest in children at appreciably different levels than same-sex couples. “We highlight the potential for existing nationally representative data sets to provide preliminary insights into the developmental experiences of children in non-traditional families.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Monday, 4th May 2015 - 3:59pm