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New study finds adoptive children of same-sex parents are thriving by Dana Rudolph
contributing writerWednesday Jul 28, 2010A new study of adoptive families has found -- no surprise to most readers here -- that "young children adopted early in life by lesbian and gay parents were as well-adjusted as those adopted by heterosexual parents." The study, by University of Virginia psychology professor Dr. Charlotte Patterson and her colleagues, supports the findings of earlier work on same-sex parents, but also expands our knowledge in several ways.
Patterson, also a research scientist at the Fenway Institute’s Center for Population Research in LGBT Health in Boston, is the first to look at same-sex adoptive parents (as opposed to biological parents) with a focus on the children’s development. She has attempted to address issues that have caused some to question earlier research on lesbian and gay families, such as bias in choosing participants, lack of a comparison group of opposite-sex parents, a focus on lesbian mothers and not gay fathers, and a lack of multiple perspectives on the children. The findings appear in the August issue of the peer-reviewed journal Applied Developmental Science.
Her team used a sample of 106 families in eleven states across the U.S., recruited from five domestic adoption agencies in jurisdictions where same-sex couples could adopt. The families had each adopted their children at or near birth, and the children were about three years old at the time of the study. Patterson explained in an interview that they didn’t want to mix early- and late-adopted children because children adopted later in life might be influenced by different factors, such as foster parents.
In order to obtain their sample, the researchers solicited every family that had adopted at birth from the agencies in the correct time period, hoping to cut out biases that can creep in when participants are recruited more selectively. The final sample consisted of 29 lesbian, 27 gay, and 50 opposite-sex couples. The children were 41 percent white and 59 percent non-white. Forty-two percent of the families had done transracial adoptions, where the parents adopted a non-white child into a family that includes at least one white parent. (Eighty percent of the parents were white.)
The researchers then conducted in-person interviews using various standard assessment questionnaires used by child development professionals.
They also interviewed 76 teachers and childcare providers of the children, making it the first study of its kind, they believe, to include data from sources outside the family. Patterson explained, "If you were skeptical, you’d say, ’Who can trust those parents? ...Maybe they just want to make their family look good.’ I think it’s very helpful to have a different perspective from outside the family. ...Teachers see all kinds of kids, so they know how this particular child compares to other kids that they’ve worked with. I think that’s valuable." The study found that the parents and teachers/childcare providers tended to agree in their assessments of the children, lending weight to the conclusion that the sexual orientation of the parents made no difference in child adjustment -- and it wasn’t just the parents who thought so.
What did matter? Good parenting and greater happiness in the couple relationships. Patterson explained in a press release, "How well children were adjusted was significantly associated with how warmly their parents were oriented to them."
"How well children were adjusted was significantly associated with how warmly their parents were oriented to them." Patterson also looked closely at gender development in the children, because of some people’s belief that parent sexual orientation has an effect here. She found no differences based on parent sexual orientation.
This new study adds to the positive picture of children in same-sex families that is emerging from other academic research. In early June, new results from the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS), the longest-running study of lesbian families, showed that the teen biological children of lesbian parents "were rated higher than their peers in social, academic, and overall competence, and lower in aggressive behavior, rule-breaking, and social problems," again using standardized psychological assessments.
Patterson’s work expands these positive results to cover adoptive families, including ones with gay dads, and tries to silence critics through use of a heterosexual control group and the input of teachers as well as parents. She says she hopes to continue following the families who participated in her study, but that it will depend on finding funding.
Because courts across the country are hearing cases that question the ability of gay and lesbian people to parent, legitimate research on the topic is of more than just academic interest. From the federal trial to decide the constitutionality of California’s marriage equality ban to the Florida Appeals Court deciding whether to overrule the state’s ban on adoption by gay men and lesbians, research on lesbian and gay families has played a big part.
Patterson and her colleagues are aware of this aspect of their work, and assert in their paper, "From a policy perspective, our results provide no justiļ¬cation for denying lesbian and gay adults from adopting children. Indeed, barring adoptions to prospective lesbian and gay parents seems likely to produce a number of undesirable outcomes."
Patterson added by phone, "Our findings suggest that if we recruit and allow lesbian and gay adults to think about becoming adoptive parents, that in the end children in need of homes are going to benefit. ...When you think about all the kids needing permanent homes...you realize that cutting out a whole group of prospective adoptive parents is really not a good idea, unless there’s an important reason to do that -- which I think our study suggests there is not."
Bay Windows’ Family Guide: Family Week Edition is out July 29.
Dana Rudolph is the founder and publisher of Mombian, a blog and resource directory for LGBT parents. She can be reached at drudolph@mombian.com.
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