“Adult children of parents who have been in same-sex relationships are different than children raised in intact biological families on a number of social, emotional and relationship measures, according to research from the University of Texas at Austin. Among other things, they reported lower income levels, poorer mental and physical health and more troubled current romantic relationships. The study found 25 differences across 40 measures.”
The research was undertaken by Mark Regnerus, associate professor of sociology at University of Texas Austin’s Population Research Center. The article continues, “Regnerus used data from the New Family Structure Study (NFSS) to see how adults ages 18 to 39 who were raised by same-sex parents do on various outcomes compared to those raised by married biological parents, co-habiting adults, a single parent, step-parents or adoptive parents, among others. NFSS has data from more than 3,000 adults, including 175 who said their mother had a same-sex romantic relationship and 73 who said their father did.
“Regnerus said his findings were more valid on lesbian-mom households than gay-father households because they included more families and also because those studied were far less likely to have actually lived in gay-dad households. A cursory look might lead some to conclude incorrectly the study found gay dads were better parents than lesbian moms. The sample wasn’t large enough to draw strong conclusions about the men….
“He eliminated socioeconomics, age, politics, gender, geography, race and bullying as explanations for the gaps he found between family structure types. Is it the stigma the parents felt? He doesn’t know. ‘We didn’t talk to parents, and I can’t measure stigma.’ Single-parent and step-families have, much like same-sex parents, ‘a higher degree of instability’ compared to intact biological families, he said. It’s probably not just having a man and woman, either, since step-families have those and the kids don’t fare as well.”
And in the same journal that the Regnerus study appears, there is a second piece confirming his findings: “A separate analysis in the same journal edition by Loren Marks, associate professor at Louisiana State University, more directly challenges previous same-sex parenting studies as inadequate, biased and unreliable. He lists seven concerns with the science, including the fact that ‘well-educated, relatively wealthy lesbian couples have been repeatedly compared to single-parent heterosexual families instead of two-parent marriage-based families.’
“Single-parent families typically have poorer child outcomes across several measures, so it’s easier to look better against them, he said. W. Bradford Wilcox of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia said biological married families are the gold standard for better outcomes for children.”
“Adult children of parents who have been in same-sex relationships are different than children raised in intact biological families on a number of social, emotional and relationship measures, according to research from the University of Texas at Austin. Among other things, they reported lower income levels, poorer mental and physical health and more troubled current romantic relationships. The study found 25 differences across 40 measures.”
The research was undertaken by Mark Regnerus, associate professor of sociology at University of Texas Austin’s Population Research Center. The article continues, “Regnerus used data from the New Family Structure Study (NFSS) to see how adults ages 18 to 39 who were raised by same-sex parents do on various outcomes compared to those raised by married biological parents, co-habiting adults, a single parent, step-parents or adoptive parents, among others. NFSS has data from more than 3,000 adults, including 175 who said their mother had a same-sex romantic relationship and 73 who said their father did.
“Regnerus said his findings were more valid on lesbian-mom households than gay-father households because they included more families and also because those studied were far less likely to have actually lived in gay-dad households. A cursory look might lead some to conclude incorrectly the study found gay dads were better parents than lesbian moms. The sample wasn’t large enough to draw strong conclusions about the men….
“He eliminated socioeconomics, age, politics, gender, geography, race and bullying as explanations for the gaps he found between family structure types. Is it the stigma the parents felt? He doesn’t know. ‘We didn’t talk to parents, and I can’t measure stigma.’ Single-parent and step-families have, much like same-sex parents, ‘a higher degree of instability’ compared to intact biological families, he said. It’s probably not just having a man and woman, either, since step-families have those and the kids don’t fare as well.”
And in the same journal that the Regnerus study appears, there is a second piece confirming his findings: “A separate analysis in the same journal edition by Loren Marks, associate professor at Louisiana State University, more directly challenges previous same-sex parenting studies as inadequate, biased and unreliable. He lists seven concerns with the science, including the fact that ‘well-educated, relatively wealthy lesbian couples have been repeatedly compared to single-parent heterosexual families instead of two-parent marriage-based families.’
“Single-parent families typically have poorer child outcomes across several measures, so it’s easier to look better against them, he said. W. Bradford Wilcox of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia said biological married families are the gold standard for better outcomes for children.”
“Adult children of parents who have been in same-sex relationships are different than children raised in intact biological families on a number of social, emotional and relationship measures, according to research from the University of Texas at Austin. Among other things, they reported lower income levels, poorer mental and physical health and more troubled current romantic relationships. The study found 25 differences across 40 measures.”
The research was undertaken by Mark Regnerus, associate professor of sociology at University of Texas Austin’s Population Research Center. The article continues, “Regnerus used data from the New Family Structure Study (NFSS) to see how adults ages 18 to 39 who were raised by same-sex parents do on various outcomes compared to those raised by married biological parents, co-habiting adults, a single parent, step-parents or adoptive parents, among others. NFSS has data from more than 3,000 adults, including 175 who said their mother had a same-sex romantic relationship and 73 who said their father did.
“Regnerus said his findings were more valid on lesbian-mom households than gay-father households because they included more families and also because those studied were far less likely to have actually lived in gay-dad households. A cursory look might lead some to conclude incorrectly the study found gay dads were better parents than lesbian moms. The sample wasn’t large enough to draw strong conclusions about the men….
“He eliminated socioeconomics, age, politics, gender, geography, race and bullying as explanations for the gaps he found between family structure types. Is it the stigma the parents felt? He doesn’t know. ‘We didn’t talk to parents, and I can’t measure stigma.’ Single-parent and step-families have, much like same-sex parents, ‘a higher degree of instability’ compared to intact biological families, he said. It’s probably not just having a man and woman, either, since step-families have those and the kids don’t fare as well.”
And in the same journal that the Regnerus study appears, there is a second piece confirming his findings: “A separate analysis in the same journal edition by Loren Marks, associate professor at Louisiana State University, more directly challenges previous same-sex parenting studies as inadequate, biased and unreliable. He lists seven concerns with the science, including the fact that ‘well-educated, relatively wealthy lesbian couples have been repeatedly compared to single-parent heterosexual families instead of two-parent marriage-based families.’
“Single-parent families typically have poorer child outcomes across several measures, so it’s easier to look better against them, he said. W. Bradford Wilcox of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia said biological married families are the gold standard for better outcomes for children.”
