Does Parental Gender Impact Child Development?
“More than two decades of research has failed to reveal important differences in the adjustment or development of children or adolescents reared by same-sex couples compared to those reared by other-sex couples,” according to researcher Charlotte J. Patterson. Yet politicians and religious groups are up in arms about allowing same-sex couples to adopt and to marry. Intuition might lead some people to believe that children need both a mother and a father, but research clearly demonstrates that the family environment and not parental gender is what is critical in child development.
Consistent with general parenting research findings, when parent-child relationships are characterized by warmth and affection, children tend to develop well. The quality of day-to-day interactions is far more influential than gender in determining the well-adjustment of an individual. The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, conducted on an ethnically diverse and representative sample of American children, concluded that not only is it possible for children and adolescents reared by same-sex couples to develop healthily, but most of them actually do.
The American Psychological Association (APA), the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Bar Association, and many other professional organizations have issued statements consistent with Patterson’s conclusions. The APA recently filed briefs in support of gay marriage and described homosexuality as a normal expression of human sexuality. In addition, they stated that homosexual couples are in no way less capable parents and their children are no less well-adjusted. Research on this topic began in the 1990’s and continues to be replicated and expanded upon currently in the US and abroad. Results indicate that children of gay and lesbian parents have self-concepts comparable to children of heterosexual parents. In these studies, the children of homosexual couples chose similar play activities and playmates as the children of heterosexual couples. The children were also equally exposed to both male and female role models. In addition, both sets of children had relatively low levels of behavior problems and high levels of social competence according to both parent and teacher ratings. In adolescence, measures of school success, delinquency, and psychological well-being such as self-esteem, anxiety, and substance abuse, yielded no significant differences. And, importantly, measures of peer victimization were similar between the groups.
In many states, laws purporting to help children have been based on intuition rather than science. Millions of children who live in loving and stable homes are denied health care and legal protections because their parents are not legally married. If a child is sick, one parent may be denied access to the hospital. In the case of parental death, laws affect custody arrangements, inheritance, and Social Security survivor benefits. Failing to recognize parental rights is not only inconsistent with the evidence, it has the potential to cause much undue harm. Furthermore, when same-sex couples are able to adopt, at least half of them provide homes for children in foster care and 60% adopt transracially, according to a new study by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute. Many children could be saved from the deleterious effects of a foster care childhood if loving homosexual parents were allowed to adopt. The only negative finding reflected in Patterson’s research was that some children encountered anti-gay sentiments, but there was no evidence suggesting these encounters affected children’s overall adjustment. In fact, denying gay parents the right to parent in the first place may serve to perpetuate discriminating attitudes. And shouldn’t we, as a society, try to eliminate prejudice?
Jaime Black earned her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Yeshiva University. She works in a private practice doing psychotherapy and evaluations. Jaime’s specialty is in working with individuals of all ages on the autism spectrum. www.spectrumservicesnyc.com. JaimeBlackPsyD@gmail.com. (914) 712-8208.
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