Gay parents' kids 'different'
2001-04-30 20:12
Los Angeles - Children raised by homosexual couples have different attitudes toward gender roles and sexual preferences than children raised by heterosexuals, according to a University of Southern California (USC) analysis of studies on the subject published last week.
USC sociologists Timothy Biblarz and Judith Stacey examined
21 studies on the subject dating back to 1980 and found that
children of lesbians and gays are more likely to depart from
traditional gender roles than children of heterosexual couples.
Their findings were published in the American Sociological
Review.
In an interview on Friday, Biblarz said that the study
found that information on the subject had previously been
stifled and the differences played down.
"Social research hasn't been fully free to explore
differences among children. Research has been stifled and
researchers have downplayed almost any finding of difference at
all between children raised in gay and lesbian families versus
straight families. Unfortunately, this produces a consequence
in the science arena of not advancing knowledge," he said.
"One of the things we are calling for in the paper is that
sometimes a difference really is a difference and we ought to
be exploring them and acknowledging them," Biblarz added.
Biblarz said there were some modest "but very interesting
differences ... as we would expect there should be."
Boys raised by lesbians 'more nurturing'
For example, he said, teenage boys with homosexual parents
were more sexually restrained than their counterparts who were
raised by heterosexual couples. And boys raised by lesbian
couples exhibited less aggressive and more nurturing social
behaviour than boys raised in heterosexual families.
On the other hand, teenage girls showed an opposite trend.
Girls raised by lesbians gravitated toward less stereotypically
feminine dress, play and occupations, Biblarz said.
Teenage girls raised by lesbians also appeared to be more
sexually adventurous and less chaste than girls raised by
heterosexuals.
The study also showed that more children from homosexual
households gravitated toward same-sex relationships although
they were not statistically more likely to identify themselves
as lesbian, gay or bisexual.
No difference in mental, emotional health
There seemed to be no difference in the mental and
emotional health of children based on whether their parents
were homosexual or heterosexual, or in the quality of the
parent-child relationships, the analysis said.
"They are doing extremely well," Biblarz said. "There's no
evidence that in terms of their adjustment and development and
well being ... that kids [from homosexual families] are suffering
greater harm."
He added that, "Children brought up by lesbians and gay men
are well adjusted, have good levels of self-esteem, are as
likely to have high educational attainments as children raised
in more traditional heterosexual families".
Biblarz said the USC study focused mainly on children
raised by lesbians, because fewer studies of co-fathers exist.
He added that there seemed to be advantages to lesbian over
heterosexual parenting in that co-mothers tend to be more
involved in their children's lives and more nurturing than
heterosexual couples. They also exhibited greater harmony in
their parenting approaches, he said.
"Co-moms seem to spend more time with their children than
their hetero male counterparts," Biblarz said. "Women in
general seem to come out [higher] in many dimensions having to
do with care of children relative to men, and that's a function
of gender differences," he said. - Reuters