Same-Sex Parents Offer Better Life Outcomes Than Heterosexual Parents

Same-Sex Parenting Heterosexual parents Same Sex Parents sexual minority parent families LGBTQ couples Family Outcome Disparities Between Sexual Minority and Heterosexual Families better psychological adjustment enjoy much better relationships relationship satisfaction parental mental health family and parenting stress physical health better school outcomes for kids under same-sex family sexual minority parenting better education outcomes more likely to graduate

By Jo Anne Hubert , Parent Herald Mar 09, 12:23 am

Photo: (Photo : Pexel/Karolina Grabowska)

Kids from same-sex parenting convey good or better home lives and outcomes as compared to the ways of heterosexual parents, a study reveals.

Recent research, "Family Outcome Disparities Between Sexual Minority and Heterosexual Families," published in the BMJ Global Health Journal, looked into children's development and studied the comparison between those raised by gay, lesbian, queer, or transgender parents with those raised by heterosexual parents.

Findings showed that children who grew up with LGBTQ couples have better psychological adjustment, especially the ones in their preschool age. It was also found that these kids display and enjoy much better relationships with their parents.

Other outcomes were the same for both families

On the other hand, regarding relationship satisfaction, parental mental health, family and parenting stress, and physical health, the study showed the same outcomes from same-sex and heterosexual families.

According to the researchers, the poor family outcomes were due to social risk factors such as insufficient social support, stigma and discrimination, and marital status, The Hill reported.

"The next step is to integrate multiple aspects of support and multilevel interventions to reduce the adverse effects on family outcomes with a long-term goal of influencing policy and law making for better services to individuals, families, communities and schools," the research concluded.

The study was created because of the significant increase in the number of children raised by untraditional, sexual minority parenting. Analyzed data came from 34 different research works from countries where same-sex marriage is legal. Sixteen of the 24 studies became part of the meta-analysis.

'Champion equality'

Studies on children in same-sex families showing better outcomes are not new. One study in 2020 by the American Sociological Review found that these kids outperform those raised by heterosexual parents when it comes to school outcomes.

The researchers utilized data from the Netherlands, the first country to legalize same-sex marriage. They gathered data from 2,786 children raised by lesbian couples, 185 raised by gay male couples, and over one million who grew up under different-sex parents.

The findings implied that children with same-sex parents from birth outperformed those with different-sex parents by .139 standard deviations based on test results. Further, the former continued to outperform the latter during secondary education.

The study also showed that children who grew up in same-sex families are five percent more likely to graduate than kids in heterosexual families.

Researchers concluded that literature on children's outcomes being raised by parents under the sexual-minority group lack "statistical power and the inability to distinguish children born to same-sex parents from children of separated parent," as they only rely on small and selective samples as compared to their study that has over a million data coming from a country which has long embraced same-sex parenting.