Study confirms children’s behaviour is not impacted by parents sexual orientation
A study has confirmed what we already knew: children’s behavioural issues are not impacted by the sexual orientation of their parents.
Parents sexual orientation does not impact child behaviour, rather parenting stress and other adjustment issues have more of an effect.
The study is thought to be the first to follow children adopted by lesbian, gay and heterosexual parents from early to mid childhood.
Author of the study Rachel H. Farr said: “In these adoptive families diverse in parental sexual orientation, as has been found in many other family types, family processes emerged as more important than family structure to longitudinal child outcomes and family functioning.
“Regardless of parental sexual orientation, children in the study had fewer behaviour problems over time when their adoptive parents indicated experiencing less parenting stress.
“Longitudinal research like this offers insight into what factors may be the best or strongest predictors of children’s development, over and above information that can be gathered at only one time point,” she added.
The University of Kentucky assistant professor and psychologist explained that stress is a more imposing factor when it comes to behaviour.
“Family processes emerged as more important than family structure to longitudinal child outcomes and family functioning,” she explained.
She added that her research showed “no differences among family types” and that she hopes her research would help improve the discussion surrounding adoption rights for same-sex couples.
“These results, which support many positive outcomes among adoptive families headed by lesbian, gay or heterosexual parents over time, may be informative to legal, policy and practice realms,” she said.
