What do know about the psychological characteristics or well-being of children of lesbian and gay parents? What do we know about same-sex parent headed families and the further psychosexual development (gender typed behavior) of boys and girls?
I don't have the references in front of me, but children raised by gay parents are no more likely to be gay than if raised by straight parents. I don't know of any data on life adjustment or psychopathology. I would expect no difference.
There is only one Review (French language Fond et al. 2012): They demonstrated that relationship quality, is currently considered more important for children's adjustment in (homosexual) families than sexual orientation. They summarize: Very little is known about psychological characteristics or well-being of adult children of lesbian and gay parents, and research should be pursued in the future. Therefore I am interested in empirical data about children in homosexual families (different ages), their experience of differences, their psychosexual development (triangulation), their discrimination, in cross-cultural studies and study designs (which questionnaires did they use?).
In addition to that: Someone downvoted my unbiased question. This demonstrates emotion not science.
Fond G, Franc N, Purper-Ouakil D. [Homosexual parenthood and child
The recent Australian study suggests that children in same-sex parent headed families are similar on certain measures, and more well-adjusted on others. Also, use of the term "homosexual" is generally discouraged in the academic literature; lesbian, gay, bisexual is more appropriate (see APA Style Guide, 6th edition).
Thanks for the advices. As you can see (Fond et al.2012) the European spelling about gay and lesbian parenthood is different. I thank you for the hint. This is the reason why I have changed the spelling in my question.
The references are very helpful, even when the samples are still small.
I have two further questiions:
Do we have any empirical data about discrimination of children in same sex parent headed families.
Whats about the development of triangulation, psychosexual development and gender-typed behavior?
I added one paper. For a further discussion, contributions.
Goldberg AE, Kashy DA, Smith JZ. Gender-Typed Play Behavior in Early
Childhood: Adopted Children with Lesbian, Gay, and Heterosexual Parents. Sex
Roles. 2012 Nov 1;67(9-10):503-515. Epub 2012 Aug 14. PubMed PMID: 23420542;
Egon, there are a lot of questions here, all about gay or lesbian children. That probably worry some people. Is like asking about development of black children.
You probably don´t see the "discrimination" in the eye of the scientific but some theories are, so... be carefull !!.
I think some people are sensitive to discrimination, and maybe some "scientific" aproaches still are... Don´t be angry, we have a lot for learn and is ok you made this questions. But we have to be prepared to find diferent answers that we learn from our past.
Second: You made interesting questions but changing teoretical frame and perspective. I think you have to go slowly....think one to one, and be aware of tautologic proposals. Look for some specialist in the field you are working, take some time to read ; if you fill the table of questions at the same time, probably you will answer none and conserve the same old knowledge....
If you intent of applying Triangulation -Psychoanalitic frame proposition that implies FATHER , MOTHER and SON by definition, at least as FUNCTION- (to gay couples?...) you will be in the same problem that if you have to understand psychological development of single mother childrens in terms of triangulation.
And from one population perspective, if you have time and money you will find thousands of diferent children covering all kinds of development and with all kinds of family backgrounds. Find patterns is not easy.
Kahneman have very helpfull ideas about biases....here I think his ideas are usefull; he says that we just can have some small number of variables at the same time in our head, so we are bad for intiutive statistics.
And finally Hamlet teach and mantein us aware " There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
First of all I want to thank you for your dedicated and benevolent contributions. But I am not asking about "gay or lesbian children". First of all, I'm interested in empirical data dealing with the issue of discrimination against children of gay or lesbian parents. Secondly, I am interested in questions of psychosexual development of children of different ages and parents with different gender roles or psychosexual identities. Because there is a lot of heteosexuell, gay and lesbian diversity. We should focus on competency of the parents rather than their sexual orientation. Therefore I am interested in a vigorous but not in a discriminating or biased debate.
Thanks for your contributions Egon and Mario. Another point to be made about lesbian and gay parent-headed families is that the typical heterosexist gender norms in the division of labor in the family (i.e., women are "supposed" to care for home and children; men are "supposed" to be primary breadwinners) are not experienced by children raised by lesbians and gay men. This is not to say that lesbians and gay men have not internalized society's sexist values, but with same-sex parent headed families the traditional gendered division of labor is not applicable, which benefits children (and parents and society). I am also (hopefully) attaching a short list of related references from my EndNote library.
for your contributions of empirical data about family caregiving responsibilities among lesbians and gay parents. This is part of the issues I am looking for.
I want to stimulate our further discusssion in adding four studies:
1. Franz et al. (2007) demonstrated: Subjects reporting a loss of father had consistently more psychiatric symptoms. Three out of the six subscales of the SCL-27 displayed highly significant differences (depressive symptoms, symptoms of social phobia, symptoms of mistrust). Vegetative symptoms were also higher, but the effect was less pronounced. Agoraphobic and dysthymic symptoms did not show significantly higher values. It can be concluded that growing up without a father may have life-long consequences.
Von Franz M, Hardt J, Brähler E. [Fatherless: long-term sequelae in German
children of World War II]. Z Psychosom Med Psychother. 2007;53(3):216-27. German.
PubMed PMID: 17883930.
2. Goldberg et al. (2012) demonstrated that sons of lesbian mothers were less masculine in their play behavior than sons of gay fathers and sons of heterosexual parents.
Goldberg AE, Kashy DA, Smith JZ. Gender-Typed Play Behavior in Early
Childhood: Adopted Children with Lesbian, Gay, and Heterosexual Parents. Sex
Roles. 2012 Nov 1;67(9-10):503-515. Epub 2012 Aug 14. PubMed PMID: 23420542;
PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3572788.
3. Cameron (2006) demonstrated that parents' sexual inclinations influence their children's.
Cameron P. Children of homosexuals and transsexuals more apt to be homosexual.
4. Data from ethnographic sources and from previous studies on gay and lesbian parenting were re-examined and found to support the hypothesis that social and parental influences may influence the expression of non-heterosexual identities and/or behaviour (Schummet et al 2010).
Schumm WR. Children of homosexuals more apt to be homosexuals? A reply to
Morrison and to Cameron based on an examination of multiple sources of data. J
Is their any evidence about differences in the psychosexual development of children with fatherlessness, heterosexual, lesbian or gay parents? Are their heterosexist and homophobic biases posed by psychological theory, judicial opinion, and popular prejudice ?
Not that Wikipedia is a peer-reviewed publication, but I recognized the name Paul Cameron. This is copied from the site (please note Cameron was expelled from the APA regarding an ethics inquiry):
[from Wikipedia] "Paul Drummond Cameron (born November 9, 1939) is an American psychologist and sex researcher. While employed at various institutions including the University of Nebraska he conducted research on passive smoking, but he is best known today for his claims about homosexuality. After a successful 1982 campaign against a gay rights proposal in Lincoln, Nebraska, he established the Institute for the Scientific Investigation of Sexuality (ISIS), now known as the Family Research Institute (FRI). As FRI's chairman, Cameron has written papers associating homosexuality with perpetration of child sexual abuse and reduced life expectancy.
In 1983, the American Psychological Association expelled Cameron for non-cooperation with an ethics investigation. Position statements issued by the American Sociological Association, Canadian Psychological Association and the Nebraska Psychological Association have accused Cameron of misrepresenting social science research."
As you know, it's often helpful to know not just what is being claimed, but who is making the claim and what agenda they might have. I learned about Cameron in the first year of my doctoral program when his work was used as an example in ethics and rigor in a methodology class. He published an article in a vanity journal (i.e., he paid to have it published) in which he "proved" that being gay was synonymous with being a drug addict, child molester, and prostitute. It was a useful exercise not just in analyzing the article, but also sources (both the author and the journal).
First, the Fritz, et.al. study mentioned above is studying the effects of LOSING a father, which I am assuming refers to the death of a father. These findings can not be assumed to apply to children raised in lesbian households because they are not experiencing the same thing. A child grieving the death of a parent is far different than a child growing up with two loving parents, regardless of their gender or sexual orientation.
Secondly, the Cameron "studies" are just bad research in general designed to create evidence to support an unsubstantiated claim. There are many well done studies that provide ample support for there being no negative effects of being raised in by homosexual parents.
Regarding Franz et al (2007), there ia also an abundance of evidence that growing up "with" a father (e.g., abuse, neglect) can have tremendous and life-long deleterious consequences for physical and mental health. Masculinity is a form of gender expression, both of which are cultural constructs; one might add, *heterosexual* constructs. Boys who are shamed because they are not sufficiently masculine (e.g., called sissies or crybabies when they are hurt) experience multiple psychological problems, from depressive and anxiety disorders, to being on death-row . I do believe that qualitative data is incredibly valuable, however, when "definitive conclusions" are based on studies in which people volunteered, or "10" narratives are analyzed, validity and reliability, two of the cornerstones of empirical science, are for all practical purposes absent.
I think the much more important question here is the underlying agenda in trying to "prove" that non-heterosexual parents "cause" children to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT), which implies that somehow there is something wrong with being LGBT. While this was the dominant discourse of most of the 20th century, it is now understood that these are normal variants of human desire, longing, and expression. The American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, and even the American Academy of Pediatrics all have reversed previous policies around human sexuality and gender. The American Academy of Pediatrics issued this statement regarding the U.S. Supreme Court's decision that LGBT have the right to marry:
“Today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued two historic decisions affirming the right of same-gender couples to marry. The American Academy of Pediatrics has advocated that civil marriage for same-gender couples is the best way to guarantee benefits and security for their children. If a child has two loving and capable parents who choose to create a permanent bond, it’s in the best interest of their children that legal institutions allow them to do so.
“Stable relationships with caring adults are important for children, and so are financial security, social support and access to health care. Scientific evidence shows that there is no cause-and-effect relationship between parents’ sexual orientation and children’s well-being. Indeed, in writing the majority opinion striking down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote: ‘(DOMA)… humiliates tens of thousands of children now being raised by same-sex couples. The law in question makes it even more difficult for the children to understand the integrity and closeness of their own family and its concord with other families in their community and in their daily lives.’
“The American Academy of Pediatrics has a long history of advocating for public policies that help all children and their parents—regardless of sexual orientation—build and maintain strong, stable and healthy families that meet the needs of their children. The Court’s decisions today affirm such policies and have paved a new way forward for all children.”
- See more at: http://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/Pages/AAPStatementSupremeCourtSameGenderMarriage.aspx#sthash.UBOLoT0e.dpuf
These institutions have changed their original stance of LGBT as disease to one of typical variance based on decades of accumulated, empirically-based research across disciplines.