A recent study has investigated data of children raised by same-sex couples or heterosexual couples, to get a better understanding of the children’s outcomes in the 2 household types. Researchers found no differences.
Investigation and data research through the NSCH
The team was formed by researchers from the Williams Institute at UCLA School Law, University of Amsterdam and from Columbia University, who were interested in the development of children being raised in different types of households
Researchers studied 95 different marriages with children, using data drawn from a national representative study called the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) from 2013.
Around 690,000 same-sex couples are currently living in the United States and 19 percent of them are raising kids underage, says the NSCH. The team aimed to investigate if children being raised by female same-sex couples had different psychological outcomes than kids being raised by heterosexual couples.
In the 1980’s same-sex couple adoption became legalized in the United States and with it, sperm banks gave lesbian couples the opportunity to form a family. History recalls this as the “lesbian baby boom.” Numbers of gay men becoming fathers also increased leading this to the next “gay baby boom.”
After the 80’s passed there has been quite some research on same-sex parent families, since in the last two decades debates have been made about the impact of varied family forms on kid’s developments.
Investigators in the last few decades have found that kids raised in lesbian marriages are comparable in subjects such as wellbeing, health and problem behavior with kids raised in heterosexual households.
Thanks to the NSCH previous study, researchers were able to investigate marriages who remain together raising children between 6 and 17 years old. The NSCH contain previously asked questions that provide family relationship, parenting stress and child outcome answers.
The results
Researchers found that kids being raised by lesbian couples were equally physical and emotionally healthy as kids raised by straight couples. They found no differences in either of the raised children, no matter of their parents’ sexual orientation.
Kids were found to be equal in the given subjects: Emotional difficulties, coping behavior, and learning behaviors.
“This study is the first to use nationally representative survey to compare the two types of households by focusing only on those with parents that have been in a continuous relationship,” Henny Bos, lead author of the study assured in a published statement.
The recent study disproves previous investigations that assured same-sex marriages occasioned stress under the children.
In other findings, researchers proved that lesbian couples had higher parenting stress levels, according to Dr. Nanette Gartrell who was a part of the study this could be related to perceived homophobia.
Source: Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics