The first-ever study tracking children raised by lesbians from birth to adolescence has found they may actually be doing better than their peers. The research, to be published in the July issue of the journal Pediatrics, followed 78 teens since their lesbian mothers were planning their pregnancies. The adolescents with lesbian parents rated significantly higher in social, academic and total competence. They also rated significantly lower when it came to social problems, rule-breaking and aggressive behaviour than those raised heterosexual-parent families. Even in homes where the lesbian parents had split up, the children still fared better. The study was carried out by Nanette Gartrell, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco and Henry Bos, a behavioural scientist at the University of Amsterdam. Most previous research has involved children who were born to women in heterosexual marriages, who later divorced and came out as lesbians. They indicated that children with same-sex parents show no significant differences compared with children in heterosexual homes when it comes to social development and adjustment. Gartrell says one of the things that opponents of the equalities of gays and lesbians often bring up is the so-called 'gold standard' of parenting, which defined by them is the traditional family where children are conceived in traditional ways and not through insemination or surrogates. "But, when we compared the adolescents in our study to the so-called gold standard, we found the teens with lesbian mothers were actually doing better." Gartrell believes this is because lesbian mothers are 'very committed, very involved parents'. She expects the findings would also translate to the children of gay male parents.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 8th June 2010 - 3:00pm