Study: Children of Committed Lesbian Couples As Well Adjusted As Children of Straight Couples

Posted Thursday, February 2, 2012 by Candice Bernd

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  • Study: Children of Committed Lesbian Couples As Well Adjusted As Children of Straight Couples
Study: Children of Committed Lesbian Couples As Well Adjusted As Children of Straight Couples

SOURCE: Flickr / Sara+Ryan

A couple spends time with their baby boy. A recent study finds that children of committed lesbian couples are just as well adjusted as children of straight couples.

A recent study [PDF] conducted by the University of Amsterdam shatters claims by some anti-gay marriage spokespeople and organizations that children of gay Americans have a worse childhood or are negatively impacted.

The study was conducted in conjunction with the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study and found that the quality of life for 17-year-olds brought up by lesbian couples matched the quality of life for teens raised by straight couples.

Among the researchers’ discoveries were that children of lesbian couples adjust better to separation between their parents than children of straight couples, simply because lesbian couples are more likely to share custody. The researchers found that social stigmatization of lesbian family make-ups was one of the only differences exhibited between the sets of teens studied. According to the study:

Nearly half of the … adolescents reported that they had been treated unfairly as a result of having a lesbian mother. They reported a variety of forms of stigmatization, such as being teased or ridiculed, excluded from activities, or stereotyped as being different. Classmates were most often mentioned as the source of these experiences, suggesting a need for schools to educate students in the appreciation of diversity and to enforce a zero-tolerance policy on bullying and stigmatization. Such changes to the educational system would benefit youths from all family types.

The research exposes the heinousness of some groups’ rhetoric around same-sex marriage and highlights the lengths that same-sex marriage opponents will go to cling onto false narratives about family structure—narratives that don’t accept research showing that children of committed same-sex couples are perfectly happy and healthy.

Candice Bernd is a staff writer with Campus Progress. Follow her on Twitter @CandiceBernd.

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