Long-running study suggests lesbian parents raise children who behave and perform better than their peers
Children with lesbian parents grow into psychologically sound teenagers with fewer problem behaviours and better school results than their peers, say US researchers.
The children also had a more active social life, and were less likely than the children of heterosexual parents to break rules or show aggressive behaviour, reports the Telegraph.
The researchers suggested this is down to the mums being “committed parents” aware of the problems their kids could encounter at school because of their family set-up. This meant the mums took an active interest in their child’s education. They also tended to be older mums, attended parenting classes, and the children weren’t “accidental” as the mums had undergone artificial insemination to fall pregnant.
“Contrary to assertions from people opposed to same-sex parenting, we found that the 17-year-olds scored higher in psychological adjustment in areas of competency and lower in problem behaviours than the normative age-matched sample of kids raised in traditional families with a mum and a dad,” said Nanette Gartrell, from University of California, who headed up the study of 154 lesbian mums.
The researchers can’t say if the outcomes would be the same for gay dads, and that more research would be needed.
