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Same-Sex Parents and Children’s School Progress:An Association That Disappeared Over Time,
Abstract
Research is divided as to whether children living in same-sex parent familiesachieve different outcomes compared with their peers. In this article, weimprove on earlier estimates of such differences and subsequently study wheth-er and why the association between parental union sex composition and chil-dren’s school progress changed over time. Data from the American CommunitySurvey waves 2008– 2015 (N = 1,952,490 including 7,792 children living witha same-sex couple) indicate that children living with same-sex couples werehistorically more likely to be behind in school but that this association disap-peared over time. Changes in socioeconomic characteristics of same-sex couplesplayed a minor role. In 2008, it was only in areas with unfavorable laws andattitudes toward same-sex couples that children living with same-sex coupleswere more likely to be behind in school. This was especially the c ase foradopted children. In more recent periods, no effect of parental union sexcomposition on school progress is observed within any area or among anygroup studied. Based on where and when these changes took place, it issuggested that changing attitudes toward same-sex couples might have playedan important role in equalizing school progress across groups.
... Subsequent studies using nationally representative data with even larger sample sizes consistently found no difference or even a positive difference in educational outcomes between children with same-sex versus different-sex parents. Using the 2012-2014 and 2008-2015 waves of the American Community Survey (ACS) respectively, Watkins (2018) and Boertien and Bernardi (2019) examined the likelihood of grade retention for all 12th-grade students in the United States. Both studies confirmed that children with same-sex parents were advancing in school at the same pace as those with different-sex parents. ...
... Many reported studies do not distinguish between female and male same-sex families (Aldén et al., 2017;Allen et al., 2013;Reczek et al., 2017;, and others have too little statistical power and precision to derive meaningful comparisons (Cenegy et al., 2018;Kabátek & Perales, 2021;. Nonetheless, among studies that have sample sizes large enough to distinguish between the two groups (albeit based on cross-sectional data), it appears that children with male same-sex parents do not perform differently than children with female same-sex parents (Allen, 2013;Boertien & Bernardi, 2019;Watkins, 2018). ...
... First, patriarchal gender norms generally favour female same-sex parenting over male same-sex parenting, as women are usually assigned caretaking and mothering roles whereas men are deemed less suitable to raise children (Biblarz & Stacey, 2010a;Stambolis-Ruhstorfer, 2020). Second, reproductive technologies (such as artificial insemination) provide more options for women than for men (Boertien & Bernardi, 2019). Finally, the legal procedures for obtaining joint parenthood are more easily facilitated for female same-sex couples than for male same-sex couples. ...
... Pero en todo esto hay algo que Pablo omite: ¡SI SE HAN HECHO NUMEROSOS ESTUDIOS CON MUESTRAS REPRESENTATIVAS!. ¿Y cuál es la conclusión de estos estudios? Exacto, que los padres homosexuales son igual de capaces de cuidar a los niños que las familias heterosexuales (ej Potter, 2012;Potter & Potter, 2017;Watkins, 2018;Boertien & Bernardi, 2019;Cenegy.et.al, 2018;Mazrekaj.et.al, 2020Mazrekaj.et.al, , 2022Kabátek & Perales , 2021, Bos.et.al, 2016,2018Calzo.et.al, 2019;Reczek.et.al, 2016;Wainright.et.al, 2004;Wainright & Patterson, 2006;Rivers.et.al, 2008;Rosenfeld, 2010), otros muestran resultados mixtos indicando que los niños en parejas homoparentales tienen tanto similitudes como desventajas, pero que estas no se atribuyen a la composición (Reczek.et.al, 2017): ...
... Finalmente, me gustaría señalar que Pablo omite muchas revisiones publicadas donde se dan evidencia en contra de lo que él afirma (Allen y Burrell, 1997;Fitzgerald, 1999;Anderssen et al , 2002;Herek, 2006;Crowl y Baker, 2008;Dempsey, 2013;Moore y Stambolis-Ruhstorfer, 2013;Caron y Heilbrun, 2014;Manning et al , 2014;Adams y Light, 2015;Powel et al, 2016;Miller et al , 2017;Juroš, 2017;Imrie y Golombok, 2020;Reczek, 2020;Suarez et al, 2022;Patterson, 2022), a excepción de Suarez et al, (2022) y Patterson, (2022) el resto de revisiones fueron publicadas antes de que Pablo publicara su libro, esto, en combinación con los estudios que solventan las limitaciones que pablo usa para desestimar los estudios (Potter, 2012;Potter & Potter, 2017;Watkins, 2018;Boertien & Bernardi, 2019;Cenegy.et.al, 2018;Mazrekaj.et.al, 2020Mazrekaj.et.al, , 2022Kabátek & Perales , 2021, Bos.et.al, 2016,2018Calzo.et.al, 2019;Reczek.et.al, 2016;Wainright.et.al, 2004;Wainright & Patterson, 2006;Rivers.et.al, 2008;Rosenfeld, 2010) indican que la posición de Pablo es insostenible. ¿Pero entonces, en que se apoya Pablo para afirmar que la crianza es perjudicial? ...
... Esto dio como resultado que las niñas de "madres" lesbianas mostraron una tasa de graduación todavía dramáticamente más baja." (Iturrieta, 2021;pp 224-225) Como comentamos previamente Allen no controla la inestabilidad familiar en su análisis principal que es el que más discute, cosa que le lleva a concluir lo contrario a Rosenfeld (2010), Allen en el material suplementario si que ajusta por la inestabilidad familiar, y , tal y como han señalado previamente varios expertos que han analizado el estudio, cuando se controla esta variable confusora, no hay diferencias entre los distintos tipos de familias (Gates, 2015;Goldberg ,2014;Herek, 2014),esto es algo que, como dijimos indica el propio Allen en su paper en la tabla del material suplementario que, por algún motivo no lo discute en el cuerpo del estudio, además, es necesario señalar que el estudio de Allen es un outlier, hay otros muchos estudios omitidos por Pablo que indican que el progreso escolar es similar (Rosenfeld , 2010;Watkins, 2018;Boertien & Bernardi, 2019;Mazrekaj et al , 2020;Wainright et al, 2004), por lo tanto podemos ver que Pablo está haciendo cherry picking de evidencia. ...
En esta entrada comentamos el apartado que Pablo le dedica a la adopción homoparental en su nuevo libro. Tras analizar el capítulo, se concluye que este capítulo se basa en una colección selectiva de evidencia que no representa el conocimiento actual.
... Research fo cus ing on same-sex-parented fam i lies is par tic u larly concerned with whether pa ren tal sex com po si tion, in and of itself, con trib utes to the abil ity to serve as good par ents (Biblarz and Stacey 2010). When the onus is on ascertaining whether pa ren tal gen der com po si tion ex erts an in de pen dent ef fect on chil dren's ed u ca tional out comes, the prevailing view is that dif fer ences in pa ren tal re sources and path ways to par ent hood must be treated as con founds be cause they rep re sent ex trin sic factors that of ten pre date fam ily for ma tion, rather than con sti tut ing in trin sic fea tures of same-sex or dif fer ent-sex par ent ing (Boertien and Bernardi 2019;Rosenfeld 2010). ...
... These ar gu ments stress that the ab sence of male or fe male pa ren tal role mod els and par ents' ten dency to make lower in vest ments in chil dren that are not bi o log i cally re lated to them may im pair par ent ing by same-sex cou ples (for a re view, see Powell et al. 2016). A sep a rate strand of work points out that dif fer ences in child well-be ing be tween same-sex-parented and dif fer ent-sexparented fam i lies may also stem from fac tors out side of the con trol of par ents, such as stigma and dis crim i na tion against same-sex cou ples and their chil dren, or lack of ac cess to the leg is la tive and fis cal ad van tages of mar riage (see, e. g., Boertien and Bernardi 2019;Reczek et al. 2016;Rosenfeld 2010). ...
... should be treated as con founds or me di a tors of the as so ci a tions be tween pa ren tal sex com po si tion and child out comes. The dom i nant view is that such dif fer ences are bet ter con cep tu al ized as con founds (Boertien and Bernardi 2019;Potter 2012;Rosenfeld 2010Rosenfeld , 2013Rosenfeld , 2015, which is con sis tent with how they are treated in the broader field ex amin ing the out comes of chil dren in other non tra di tional fam ily forms (Fomby and Cherlin 2007;McLanahan et al. 2013;Powell et al. 2016). Proponents of this per spec tive stress that chil dren liv ing in same-sex-parented fam i lies are more likely to have ex peri enced the dis so lu tion of a pre vi ous-usu ally dif fer ent-sex-parented-fam ily (Gates 2015;Potter 2012;Rosenfeld 2013Rosenfeld , 2015, and that fam ily in sta bil ity is of ten trau matic to chil dren and a ma jor con trib ut ing fac tor to sub op ti mal child out comes (Fomby and Cherlin 2007;McLanahan et al. 2013). ...
Although numerous studies have examined how children raised in same-sex-parented families fare relative to children in different-sex-parented families, this body of work suffers from major methodological shortcomings. By leveraging linked administrative data from several population registers from the Netherlands covering the 2006–2018 period (n = 1,454,577), we overcome most methodological limitations affecting earlier research. The unique features of the data include complete population coverage, reliable identification of same-sex-parented families, a large number of children in same-sex-parented families (n = 3,006), multiple objective and verifiable educational outcomes, and detailed measures of family dynamics over children's entire life courses. The results indicate that children in same-sex-parented families outperform children in different-sex-parented families on multiple indicators of academic performance, including standardized tests scores, high school graduation rates, and college enrollment. Such advantages extend to both male and female children, and are more pronounced among children in female than male same-sex-parented families. These findings challenge deficit models of same-sex parenting.
... Findings from this research were crucial in the U.S. Supreme Court decision to legalize same-sex marriage in 2015. The empirical literature suggests children raised by same-sex parents perform just as well as children raised by different-sex parents on a range of outcomes, including health (Cenegy, Denney, and Kimbro 2018;Reczek et al. 2016), social skills (Fedewa and Clark 2009;Gartrell and Bos 2010), behavior problems (Reczek et al. 2017), psychological wellbeing (Wainright, Russell, and Patterson 2004), and education (Boertien and Bernardi 2019;Rosenfeld 2010;Watkins 2018) (for contrary findings, see Allen 2013;Regnerus 2012;Sarantakos 1996;Sullins 2015a). ...
... More recently, using the 2012, 2013, and 2014 waves of the American Community Survey (ACS), Watkins (2018) reanalyzed progress through school as an outcome and found no significant differences between children with samesex versus different-sex parents. Extending the analyses to 2008 to 2015 ACS waves, Boertien and Bernardi (2019) confirmed these findings and found no differences between children with same-sex versus different-sex parents regardless of how socioeconomic status is accounted for. Their study also showed that children with same-sex parents used to be more likely to be behind in school in areas with unfavorable legal environments and attitudes toward same-sex couples, but this association has disappeared over time. ...
... Given the time-consuming and costly procedures to have children, the literature has often found that same-sex parents have higher socioeconomic status (e.g., higher levels of income and education) than do different-sex parents (Aldén et al. 2017;Boertien and Bernardi 2019;Watkins 2018). Moreover, samesex couples may be highly motivated to become parents and may therefore take additional steps, such as considerable family planning. ...
Although widely used in policy debates, the literature on children’s outcomes when raised by same-sex parents mostly relies on small selective samples or samples based on cross-sectional survey data. This has led to a lack of statistical power and the inability to distinguish children born to same-sex parents from children of separated parents. We address these issues by using unique administrative longitudinal data from the Netherlands, which was the first country to legalize same-sex marriage. These data include 2,971 children with same-sex parents (2,786 lesbian couples and 185 gay male couples) and over a million children with different-sex parents followed from birth. The results indicate that children raised by same-sex parents from birth perform better than children raised by different-sex parents in both primary and secondary education. Our findings are robust to use of cousin fixed effects and coarsened exact matching to improve covariate balance and to reduce model dependence. Further analyses using a novel bounding estimator suggest the selection on unobserved characteristics would have to be more than three times higher than the selection on observed characteristics to reduce the positive estimates to zero.
... Likewise, as stated by other studies, higher rates of emotional problems are evident in children of same-sex parents [12,13], though there have been concerns regarding the validity of such conclusions because, in the words of some critics, they have failed to account for family stability, or other comparable issues [14,15]. Furthermore, some studies have concluded a negative association between same-sex parents and kids' progress through school and stated that children with same-sex parents were less likely to graduate from high school than children with different-sex parents [16,17]. Besides, according to other studies, children who were born in heterosexual households but later, due to parental separation, lived with same-sex parents, may perform worse in school, in comparison with children raised by different-sex parents [5]. ...
... Other scholars, as well, found an undesirable association between residing with samesex parents and school outcomes [15,16]. Though it was not confirmed by other researchers [17,18], an investigation on the adult attachment style dimensions of adult women who had gay or bisexual fathers proposed that they were meaningfully less comfortable with intimacy and closeness, less able to trust or depend on others, and experienced more fretfulness in interactions, in comparison with women with heterosexual fathers [7]. ...
... Neuropsychiatrie de l'enfance et de l'adolescence xxx (xxxx) xxx-xxx de manière significative [57]. Ce changement a été attribué à des facteurs socioéconomiques, à l'acceptation de ces familles, à la réduction de la stigmatisation et à l'amélioration des ressources financières [57]. ...
... Neuropsychiatrie de l'enfance et de l'adolescence xxx (xxxx) xxx-xxx de manière significative [57]. Ce changement a été attribué à des facteurs socioéconomiques, à l'acceptation de ces familles, à la réduction de la stigmatisation et à l'amélioration des ressources financières [57]. De plus, faire face aux comportements liés aux sentiments de diversité, de discrimination et d'harcèlement dans le contexte scolaire, peut augmenter la probabilité d'isolement et le stress chez les enfants [58]. ...
Résumé
En France, plus de trois millions de personnes se revendiquent homosexuelles ou bisexuelles et de 200 à 300 000 enfants auraient un parent homosexuel. L’homoparentalité est au centre de nombreux débats sociopolitiques. On repère également une intensification de la recherche scientifique, dans ce domaine, au cours de ces dernières décennies. Cette revue systématique de la littérature visait deux principaux objectifs : 1) identifier les effets de l’homophobie intériorisée sur la santé mentale et l’adaptation sociale des parents homosexuels ; 2) identifier les effets de l’homophobie intériorisée sur le développement psychologique et social des enfants de parents homosexuels. La recherche a été effectuée sur un total de 87 840 publications scientifiques, portant sur l’homoparentalité, extraites des bases de données scientifiques informatisées : SciELO, PubMed, PsycINFO, SCOPUS, Medline, ProQuest et Web of Science. Dans cette étude, 79 études empiriques et expérimentales, publiées entre 1971 et 2020, ont été retenues. L’analyse des données montre que l’homophobie intériorisée est à l’origine de perturbations psychologiques chez les parents homosexuels et chez leurs enfants. L’orientation sexuelle des parents n’a pas d’effets négatifs, sur le développement cognitif et émotionnel de l’enfant, ni sur son orientation sexuelle. L’intériorisation de l’homophobie est un obstacle à l’adaptation sociale et à la santé perçue des familles homosexuelles. De nouvelles études, dans ce domaine, sont nécessaires afin de mieux identifier les facteurs qui favorisent l’intériorisation de l’homophobie.
... The literature either finds a negative association between residing with a same-sex family and school outcomes (Allen 2013, Allen, Pakaluk and Price 2013), or no association at all (Rosenfeld 2010, Watkins 2018, Boertien and Bernardi 2019. We attribute this difference to the crosssectional nature of the census data and to the Dutch institutional context. ...
... This introduces a measurement error when constructing the progress through school variable. Although the recent ACS data provide more detailed information, it is difficult to account for academic redshirting, where parents may purposefully delay the entry of their child into school to increase school readiness(Boertien and Bernardi 2019). ...
This doctoral dissertation employs quasi-experimental empirical methods on administrative population data to investigate the causal relationship between high school dropout and its selected predictors, labour market consequences, and policies. Within this broad research agenda, contributions are made in four specific research topics. I first use coarsened exact matching and treatment effect bounds and find that children who were raised in a relatively modern family structure, a same-sex family, have a lower probability to drop out of high school than children who were raised in a different-sex family. I then consider the consequences of school dropout, by comparing the labour market outcomes of high school dropouts with labour market outcomes of high school graduates in both Belgium and the Netherlands. In Belgium, I use parental educational background as an instrumental variable and find no returns to a high school diploma. Conversely, in the Netherlands, I exploit standardized exit exams in a fuzzy regression discontinuity design and find that, unlike in Belgium, the returns to a high school diploma are positive and can be explained by a high school diploma serving as an important signal of productivity on the labour market. Finally, I evaluate modular education in Belgium, a dropout prevention policy in which conventional courses are divided into smaller components or modules. Using a difference-in-differences framework, I find that modular education is an effective policy to tackle high school dropout, with largest effects on the foreign origin students.
... [63][64][65] Discrimination and stigma related to parental sexual orientation are an important risk factor. 44 Therefore, sexual-minority parents were more likely to consider racial diversity of school than heterosexual parents. 54 Parental instability has been found to be detrimental for their children's educational outcomes. ...
Background
The number of children in sexual minority parent families has increased. This systematic review aims to synthesise the evidence of disparities in family outcomes between sexual minority and heterosexual families and to identify specific social risk factors of poor family outcomes.
Methods
We systematically searched PubMed, the Web of Science, Embase, the Cochrane Library and APA PsycNet for original studies that compared family outcomes between sexual minority and heterosexual families. Two reviewers independently selected studies and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Narrative synthesis and meta-analysis were conducted to synthesise evidence.
Results
Thirty-four articles were included. The narrative synthesis results revealed several significant findings for children’s gender role behaviour and gender identity/sexual orientation outcomes. Overall, 16 of 34 studies were included in the meta-analyses. The quantitative synthesis results suggested that sexual minority families may perform better in children’s psychological adjustment and parent–child relationship than heterosexual families (standardised mean difference (SMD) −0.13, 95% CI −0.20 to −0.05; SMD 0.13, 95% CI 0.06 to 0.20), but not couple relationship satisfaction (SMD 0.26, 95% CI −0.13 to 0.64), parental mental health (SMD 0.00, 95% CI −0.16 to 0.16), parenting stress (SMD 0.01, 95% CI −0.20 to 0.22) or family functioning (SMD 0.18, 95% CI −0.11 to 0.46).
Conclusion
Most of the family outcomes are similar between sexual minority and heterosexual families, and sexual minority families have even better outcomes in some domains. Relevant social risk factors of poor family outcomes included stigma and discrimination, poor social support and marital status, etc. 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.
... Regarding same-sex parenting outcomes, Adams and Light (2015) find that the limited scholarly analyses before the mid-1980s showed mixed results, but by the 1990s scholarship had reached a consensus of "no differences" in the outcomes of children from same-sex parent families compared to children from other parental configurations (also see Boertien & Bernardi, 2019;Goldberg & Gartrell, 2014;Reczek, 2020). Some studies on same-sex parenting were critiqued for relying on small or unrepresentative samples, but more recent analyses using large, representative samples also reach the conclusion that children from same-sex parent families fare at least as well as their counterparts (Manning et al., 2014;Patterson & Wainright, 2012;Potter, 2012;Reczek, 2020;Rosenfeld, 2010). ...
Objective
The aim of this study is to compare public opinion regarding single and same‐sex parents.
Background
Comparing attitudes about the effectiveness of single‐parents to same‐sex parents shows how much importance the public places on the number of parents compared to the sex of the parents; however, surprisingly little research examines attitudes about single and same‐sex parenting ability.
Method
We use data from the 2012 General Social Survey “Family‐and‐Changing‐Gender‐Roles” module (N ~ 1200) to compare perceptions of the effectiveness of single parents (vs. two parents) and same‐sex parents (vs. a mother and a father). We construct a measure that captures whether individuals hold more positive attitudes about single parents or same‐sex parents. We then rely on multivariate models to examine the impact of sociodemographic characteristics on these perceptions, and explore the influence of attitudes regarding gender, sexuality, and childcare policy.
Results
Approximately half of the respondents provided similarly positive or negative responses regarding the effectiveness of single and same‐sex parents; of the remaining half, slightly more provided higher ratings to single parents. Several sociodemographic factors—gender, age, marital status, region, and sexual minority status—significantly shape attitudes about same‐sex and single parents in similar directions—although, in some cases, these factors also predict differences in these attitudes. For example, compared to men, women are more positive about both single parents and same‐sex parents, but they still rate single parents higher. In contrast, other sociodemographic factors—notably, race/ethnicity and education—predict attitudes about same‐sex and single parents, as well as the difference between these two parental types. Some of these patterns occur via respondents' religiosity. Of the attitudinal factors, attitudes regarding gender, sexuality, and childcare policy are linked to views regarding single parents and same‐sex parents; however, only sexuality attitudes significantly and consistently differentiate views regarding single parents and same‐sex parents.
Conclusion
Views of single parents and same‐sex parents often are not consistent with each other. Public assessments and comparisons of same‐sex and single parents are shaped by sociodemographic and attitudinal factors, notably, attitudes regarding sexuality.
... Because parenthood is rarer for male than for female couples, there is less research on gay fathers than on lesbian mothers (Doucet and Lee 2014;Moore and Stambolis-Ruhstorfer 2013). Among the common themes that emerged in earlier research are identity formation (e.g., Hequembourg and Farrell 1999), the desire to procreate (e.g., Bos et al. 2003), paths to parenthood (e.g., Chabot and Ames 2004;Malmquist and Nelson 2014), well-being and school outcomes among children (e.g., Aldén et al. 2017;Boertien and Bernardi 2019;Mazrekaj et al. 2019), parental stress (e.g., Bos 2010), encounters with health-care providers (e.g., Malmquist 2015), and experiences navigating the legal system (e.g., Compton and Baumle 2015;Park et al. 2016). In this chapter, we focus on the division of work and care in same-sex parent families and couples, and examine the extent to which the research findings map onto or challenge traditional family sociological theories and perspectives. ...
In this chapter, family sociological theories and research on different-sex couples are discussed from the perspective of same-sex couples’ division of work and care before and after (any) transition to parenthood. Our focus is primarily on research from the United States, the Netherlands, and the four bigger Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. These were among the first countries to legalise same-sex marriage and parenthood. Theories and previous research indicate that the partners in same-sex couples are less likely than the partners in different-sex couples to specialise in paid and unpaid work, and are more likely to share childcare responsibilities and family leave entitlements. Still, identity formation and gender influence these couples as well, even if these factors are less likely to determine the division of work and care between the partners. In
conclusion, we call for more synergies of disciplines and for traditional family sociology to acknowledge the important inroads made by research on same-sex couples.
... Same-sex couples who live together can be identified in household grids if the gender and the nature of the relationship between household members are recorded [21]. Findings based on this work draw similar conclusions to the nonprobability literature, namely small or no differences in terms of health, psychological and behavioral adjustment, delinquency, and school outcomes between children raised by same-sex and different-sex parents [22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. ...
Same-sex parents face substantial stressors due to their sexual orientation, such as experiences of prejudice and prohibitive legal environments. This added stress is likely to lead to reduced physical and mental health in same-sex parents that, in turn, may translate into problematic behavioral outcomes in their children. To date, there are only a few nationally representative studies that investigate the well-being of children with same-sex parents. The current study takes a closer look at children’s behavioral outcomes, reported by a parent, using an adapted version of the emotional, conduct, hyperactivity, pro-social, and peer problems subscales of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). We take advantage of unique data from the Netherlands based on a probability sample from population registers, whereby findings can be inferred to same-sex and different-sex parent households with parents between the ages of 30 and 65, and with children between the ages of 6 and 16 years (62 children with same-sex, and 72 children with different-sex parents). The findings obtained by coarsened exact matching suggest no significant disadvantages for children with same-sex parents compared to different-sex parents. We contextualize these findings in their wider cultural context, and recommend a renewed focus in future research away from deficit-driven comparisons.
... Because parenting skills are not dichotomous or exclusive, the gender of parents is not determinant for children's psychological adjustment and social success. It has been shown the role of sexual orientation is not a significant variable for children's well-being (Araldi & Serralta, 2016;Boertien & Bernardi, 2019;Farr, Forssell & Patterson, 2010). ...
This article examines same-sex couples as a sign of the Second Demographic Transition, investigating how gay and lesbian couples living together in Brasília build their family, whether they intend to have children, and what challenges they face. We conducted semi-structured interviews online to investigate the family formation process and parenting intentions of 42 couples living together in Brasília in 2019, 20 lesbian and 22 gay couples. The organizing themes in the interviews were marriage, children, work, and stigma. This study advances existing scholarship on families by articulating points of connection between the legal institution of same-sex marriage in Brazil, changing social norms regarding family life, and parental gender expectations as signs of the Second Demographic Transition. Studying same-sex couples contribute to a more complex understanding of the family, the gendered division of labor, and the dimension of fertility and parenting intentions.
... Even though the GSS is a nationally representative survey, we are confident that state-level estimates are useful. State-level characteristics in the GSS (e.g., average educational attainment and racial composition of the state) are highly correlated with characteristics based on the ACS [Boertien and Bernardi (2019)]. Figure 1 shows that tolerance of homosexuality increased substantially from 2003 to 2015. The share of the population that is tolerant rose from about 38% in 2003 to about 56% in 2015. ...
Tolerance of sexual minorities is presumed to matter, but its effects are under-studied. Because tolerance can affect both experiences at work and division of labor in the household, we study the relationship between tolerance and the time cohabiting gay men and lesbian women spend in paid work across the United States. In the average state, the increase in tolerance between 2003 and 2015 is associated with an increase in paid work of about 1 week per year among cohabiting gay men. Though not robustly statistically significant, the increase in tolerance is associated with a decrease in paid work among cohabiting lesbian women relative to heterosexual women.
... Furthermore, family structure, biological relatedness, and prenatal environment are also noted confounders in studies of the associations of parents' sexual orientation with other outcomes (e.g., early life wellbeing (20) and educational attainment (21,22)). Marriage has been unavailable to samesex couples until very recently. ...
It is unknown if birthing people in same-sex relationships have different perinatal outcomes than people in different-sex relationships, despite differences in risk factors such as use assisted reproductive technologies, obesity, smoking, and poor mental health. Marriage equality has established birth certificates as a promising new source of population-based data on births to same-sex married parents. We used birth certificate data from Massachusetts for 201,873 singleton births to married parents from 2012 to 2016. We estimated the association between several birth outcomes and having a birth parent in a same-sex marriage, using a propensity-score matched and unmatched sample. We also tested whether these associations were modified by use of assisted reproductive technologies. Birthing people in same-sex marriages had similar perinatal outcomes related to decreased fetal growth and preterm birth compared to their peers in different-sex marriages. Use of assisted reproductive technology was associated with decreased fetal growth and increased risk of preterm birth for infants with different-sex parents, but not for infants with same-sex parents. More research is needed across other states, and to understand why use of assisted reproductive technology is not a risk factor for poor birth outcomes for those in same-sex marriages.
... c Although not specified in the study protocol, this also includes studies that investigate the impact of having to use different legal means than mixed-sex parent families, e.g., second-parent adoption by the non-birth mother after the birth of a child conceived via donor insemination. Scholar) and backward searches of (i) studies eligible for inclusion retrieved via our database search, as well as (ii) unsystematic reviews on same-sex parenting (Biblarz and Savci, 2010;Reczek, 2020) and associated legal vulnerabilities (Kazyak and Woodell, 2016;Kazyak et al., 2018). We deemed this approach reasonable given the extensive coverage of Google Scholar (including thesis and other gray literature databases) as well as the comprehensiveness of our database search. ...
Globally, parents and children in same-sex parent families are impacted by many laws related to the parental sexual orientation. These laws vary considerably from one country to another, ranging from full legal recognition to criminalization. The psychological consequences of living in an ambiguous or hostile legal climate likely interfere with parental health, family functioning, and child development. However, a systematic evidence synthesis of the pertinent literature and its placement within a broader psychological model are currently lacking. The aims of this review were thus (1) to systematically review qualitative and quantitative evidence on the impact of sexual orientation laws on same-sex parent families in key domains and (2) to place these findings within a broader model informed by minority stress and family theories. Our review was preregistered and conducted in line with PRISMA guidelines. We searched for qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods studies on the impact of sexual orientation laws on target outcomes (parental health, family functioning, child outcomes) via systematic database search (PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science) and forward-backward searches. Fifty-five studies published between 1999 and 2020 were eligible for inclusion and were synthesized using a data-based convergent synthesis design. Thirteen descriptive and three overarching analytical themes were identified through thematic synthesis. Linking our findings with minority stress and family theories, we propose a novel legal vulnerability model for same-sex parent families. The model posits that legal vulnerability constitutes an increased risk for parental and child health as well as family functioning through individual and shared pathways between family members. Additionally, the model introduces counteractions that families engage in on the personal, familial, and systemic level to mitigate the impact of legal vulnerability, as well as moderators on the contextual, familial, couple, and individual level that modulate this impact. Implications for research and clinical practice are discussed.
... The perceived acceptability of parenthood among transgender women and gender diverse people assigned male at birth also impacts an individual's desire to pursue fertility preservation (American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child Family and Health, 2013; Boertien & Bernardi, 2019;Bos et al., 2016;Gartrell & Bos, 2010;Pennings, 2011;Wainright et al., 2004). Social acceptance and legislation regarding raising a gender diverse family and LGBTQ parenting differ among countries. ...
Objective: To explore the desires and barriers to fertility preservation among transgender women and gender diverse people assigned male at birth in Thailand.
Material and methods: This study is a cross-sectional study in clinic-based setting. The data was obtained from a questionnaire. Three hundred and three participants visiting the Gender Care Clinic at Chiang Mai University Hospital and Mplus clinics between April 2019 and December 2019 were included. Of these, 199 were transgender women and 104 were gender diverse people assigned male at birth.
Results: The overall parental desire was 30.4% which was similar across the 2 groups (p = 0.897). A genetically related child was preferred in 40.9% of transgender women and 50.5% of gender diverse group (p = 0.115). Factors impacting a parental desire were a good relationship with family (OR 2.905, 95%CI 1.315–6.420, p = 0.008), being in a stable relationship (OR 4.183, 95%CI 1.738–10.069, p < 0.001) and belief in a positive attitude of society toward LGBTQ parenting (OR 2.572, 95%CI 1.207–5.479, p = 0.014). Access to fertility preservation services was low. The majority of transgender women (75.3%) and gender diverse people (95.2%) never received a consultation regarding fertility. The utilization rate of fertility treatments was 5.3% in our study.
Conclusion: Transgender women and gender diverse people assigned male at birth have parental desires for a genetically related child. However, access to reproductive information, consultation and services were very limited. Social support along with competent health services might increase access to reproductive services in transgender and gender diverse populations.
On June 26, 2015, the United States Supreme Court extended nationwide legal access to same‐sex marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges , following a series of court cases and legislative activities at the state and district levels. Similar policies have diffused throughout other countries, especially in western Europe and the Americas. Researchers have used the staggered rollout of legal same‐sex marriage and related policies in the U.S. and elsewhere, along with improved data on lesbian, gay, and bisexual people, to study the effects of marriage equality. In this paper, we review this evidence, focusing on outcomes such as societal attitudes, marriage take‐up, family formation, employment, time use, health insurance coverage, and health. We discuss conceptual frameworks for understanding the likely effects of same‐sex marriage; methodological considerations for studying treatment effects; the policy context surrounding legal same‐sex marriage, including the 2023 Respect for Marriage Act; and important areas for future research.
This article reviews the growing literature on the economics of sexual orientation and gender identity, a field that did not exist thirty years ago. We summarize, evaluate, and synthesize the literature on LGBTQ+ peoples’ economic lives and livelihoods across key decision points in the life course: human capital investments, family formation and dissolution, and labor market activities. We identify common themes and patterns in the literature and outline important areas for further inquiry. (JEL D13, I26, I31, J12, J13, J16, J24)
Researchers have long documented the impact of social inequalities on family life. Most family research has focused on inequalities at the individual and family levels, and extant studies on macro‐level conditions have primarily examined economic conditions and specific family‐focused social policies. Yet, an emerging body of largely conceptual research suggests that structural inequities also have enormous power to shape families. Structural racism, structural sexism, and structural sexual and gender minority oppression, and other forms of structural injustice operate across various levels (macro, meso, and micro) and systems (e.g., educational, economic, political, criminal‐legal, etc.), to influence individuals' social environments and everyday lives in ways that may impact how, when, and where people form families. Structural oppression, moreover, may influence relationship quality, caregiving patterns, child outcomes, and various other aspects of family life. Yet, the consequences of these structural forces for families have not yet been thoroughly examined. In this article, we (1) develop a conceptual framework linking structural oppression to family characteristics and outcomes, (2) outline innovative approaches for conceptualizing and measuring structural oppression and describe how incorporating these approaches can move the field of family science forward, and (3) make several recommendations regarding best practices and fruitful avenues for future research.
Public attitudes and policies toward LGBTQ individuals have improved substantially in recent decades. Economists are actively shaping the discourse around these policies and contributing to our understanding of the economic lives of LGBTQ individuals. In this paper, we present the most up-to-date estimates of the size, location, demographic characteristics, and family structures of LGBTQ individuals in the United States. We describe an emerging literature on the effects of legal access to same-sex marriage on family and socioeconomic outcomes. We also summarize what is known about the size, direction, and sources of wage differentials related to variation in sexual orientation and gender identity. We conclude by describing a range of open questions in LGBTQ economics.
Adoptive parents are often well-educated, and potentially highly involved in children’s schooling. At the same time, adopted youth tend to struggle more academically than non-adopted youth. Amidst this reality, of interest is how adoptive parents perceive and make sense of their children’s academic performance, and form expectations for the future. This study of 63 parents in 33 families (11 lesbian mother, 11 gay father, 11 heterosexual parent) with school-aged children (mean age = 10) adopted via private domestic, public domestic, and international adoption, explores parents’ ideas about (a) children’s academic functioning, (b) the relative role of “nature” versus “nurture” in their abilities and challenges, and (c) children’s educational and vocational futures. Findings indicated a typology of parents: “inspired,” “pragmatic,” and “concerned.” “Inspired” parents described their children as bright and high-performing and were generally optimistic about their educational futures. Parents often acknowledged the positive contributions of birth family to, and downplayed their own role in, their children’s talents. “Pragmatic” parents described their children as academically average but bright, and as possessing learning or behavioral challenges. They acknowledged the role of birth family and genetics when describing their children’s aptitude, and also emphasized their own role in shaping and hopefully improving their children’s academic performance. “Concerned” parents had significant worries about children’s self-esteem and emotional/behavioral challenges, and these often outweighed academic concerns. Concerned parents tried to provide adequate supports to their children, but, unlike pragmatic parents, perceived an upper limit to how much school interventions could optimize their children’s abilities. Across the sample, as parents’ concerns about their children’s challenges increased, parents were less focused on academic success (e.g., college) and more on them living a happy, independent life. Some parents—especially male parents—struggled to adapt to or accept the reality that their own academic interests, orientation, and/or achievement were fairly different from those of their children. Results have implications for teachers and therapists who may need to help adoptive parents reconcile their perspectives on and experiences with school with those of their children.
Deze studie vergelijkt de schooluitkomsten in het basis-en secundair onderwijs van kinderen met homoseksuele ouders met de schooluitkomsten van kinderen met heteroseksuele ouders. Eerder onderzoek naar schoolresultaten van kinderen met homoseksuele ouders is gebaseerd op kleine steekproeven. Het kon niet bepalen of kinderen zijn opgegroeid met homoseksuele ouders of in dit gezin zijn terechtgekomen door echtscheiding. Wij volgen alle Nederlandse kinderen vanaf de geboorte tot het einde van het basisonderwijs, en ongeveer een derde van de kinderen ook tot het einde van secundair onderwijs. De resultaten tonen aan dat kinderen met homoseksuele ouders in zowel het basis-als in het secundair onderwijs beter presteren dan kinderen met heteroseksuele ouders.
Objective:
To review research on sexual and gender minority (SGM) families-including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, asexual, and intersex (LGBTQAI+) families- from 2010-2020.
Background:
Research on the SGM population has increased and diversified in the past decade.
Results:
This paper reviews three subareas that make up the majority of research on SGM families today: (1) SGM family of origin relationships, (2) SGM intimate relationships, and (3) SGM-parent families. This review also highlights three main gaps in the existing literature: (1) a focus on same-sex and gay and lesbian families (and to a lesser extent bisexual and transgender families) and a lack of attention to the families of single SGM people as well as intersex, asexual, queer, polyamorous, and other SGM families; (2) an emphasis on white, socioeconomically advantaged SGM people and a failure to account for the significant racial-ethnic and socioeconomic diversity in the SGM population; and (3) a lack of integration of SGM experiences across the life course, from childhood to old age.
Conclusion:
The next decade should aim to examine the full range of SGM family ties, include more vigorous examinations of race-ethnicity and socioeconomic status, and develop more robust accounts of family across the life course with novel theory and data sources across the methodological spectrum.
The authors examined whether the perception of unequal relationship recognition - a novel couple-level minority stressor - has negative consequences for mental health among same-sex couples. Data were analyzed from a dyadic study of 100 same-sex couples (200 individuals) in the United States. Being in a legal marriage was associated with lower perceived unequal recognition and better mental health; being in a registered domestic partnership or civil union—but not also legally married—was associated with greater perceived unequal recognition and worse mental health. Actor partner interdependence models tested associations between legal relationship status, unequal relationship recognition, and mental health (nonspecific psychological distress, depressive symptomatology, and problematic drinking), net controls (age, gender, race and ethnicity, education, and income). Unequal recognition was consistently associated with worse mental health, independent of legal relationship status. Legal changes affecting relationship recognition should not be seen as simple remedies for addressing the mental health effects of institutionalized discrimination.
Most public opinion attitudes in the United States are reasonably stable over time. Using data from the General Social Survey and the American National Election Studies, I quantify typical change rates across all attitudes. I quantify the extent to which change in same-sex marriage approval (and liberalization in attitudes toward gay rights in general) are among a small set of rapid changing outliers in surveyed public opinions. No measured public opinion attitude in the United States has changed more and more quickly than same-sex marriage. I use survey data from Newsweek to illustrate the rapid increase in the 1980s and 1990s in Americans who had friends or family who they knew to be gay or lesbian and demonstrate how contact with out-of-the-closet gays and lesbians was influential. I discuss several potential historical and social movement theory explanations for the rapid liberalization of attitudes toward gay rights in the United States, including the surprising influence of Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign.
Previous research has documented that children who do not live with both biological parents fare somewhat worse on a variety of outcomes than those who do. In this article, which is the introduction to the Special Issue on “Family dynamics and children’s well-being and life chances in Europe,” we refine this picture by identifying variation in this conclusion depending on the family transitions and subpopulations studied. We start by discussing the general evidence accumulated for parental separation and ask whether the same picture emerges from research on other family transitions and structures. Subsequently, we review studies that have aimed to deal with endogeneity and discuss whether issues of causality challenge the general picture of family transitions lowering child well-being. Finally, we discuss whether previous evidence finds effects of family transitions on child outcomes to differ between children from different socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds, and across countries and time-periods studied. Each of the subsequent articles in this Special Issue contributes to these issues. Two articles provide evidence on how several less often studied family forms relate to child outcomes in the European context. Two other articles in this Special Issue contribute by resolving several key questions in research on variation in the consequences of parental separation by socioeconomic and immigrant background, two areas of research that have produced conflicting results so far.
What if any influence does parents' sexual orientation have on children's development? Research suggests that, contrary to concerns voiced by many observers, parents' sexual orientation has little if any direct impact on children's development. Even so, some distinctive qualities of experiences in families of lesbian and gay parents have been noted, and their implications are not fully understood. Moreover, research on individual differences among families headed by lesbian mothers and gay fathers, and their possible impact on children, is still in its early phases. In this article, I provide an overview of research in this area and offer suggestions for further studies.
The children of different-sex married couples appear to be advantaged on a range of outcomes relative to the children of different-sex cohabiting couples. Despite the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States, whether and how this general pattern extends to the children of same-sex married and cohabiting couples is unknown. This study examines this question with nationally representative data from the 2004-2013 pooled National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). Results reveal that children in cohabiting households have poorer health outcomes than children in married households regardless of the sex composition of their parents. Children in same-sex and different-sex married households are relatively similar to each other on health outcomes, as are children in same-sex and different-sex cohabiting households. These patterns are not fully explained by socioeconomic differences among the four different types of families. This evidence can inform general debates about family structure and child health as well as policy interventions aiming to reduce child health disparities.
We use the British Cohort Study 1970 to show that the proportion of children achieving a tertiary education degree is 8 percentage points lower for the offspring of separated parents than for children from intact families. Moreover, the children of highly educated parents experience a two times larger ‘separation penalty’ than the children of less educated parents. We find a similar pattern of heterogeneity in effects for the likelihood of participation in academic education (A-Levels) beyond school leaving age but not for school grades at age 16. We test three different explanations for heterogeneity in the parental separation penalty: changes in family relations, changes in income, and negative selection into separation based on unobserved characteristics. We address the potential endogeneity of parental separation by including pre-separation observable characteristics, individual fixed effects models, and a placebo test. Our key finding is that changes in family income, but not those in family relations or selection, explain a large part of heterogeneity in the effects of parental separation. Children with more highly educated parents face a larger decline in family income if parents separate and, in addition, declines in family income of equal amounts entail more negative consequences for their educational attainment.
This analysis revisits recent controversial findings about children of gay and lesbian parents, and shows that family instability explains most of the negative outcomes that had been attributed to gay and lesbian parents. Family transitions associated with parental loss of custody were more common than breakups of same-sex couples among family transitions experienced by subjects who ever lived with same-sex couples. The analyses also show that most associations between growing up with a single mother and later negative outcomes are mediated by childhood family transitions. I show that many different types of childhood family transitions (including parental breakup and the arrival of a parent’s new partner) are similarly associated with later negative outcomes.
The aim of this study was to explore the relationship of minority stress with experiences of parenthood (e.g. parental stress and parental justification) and child adjustment in lesbian mother families. Three components of minority stress were examined, namely, experiences of rejection as a result of the non-traditional family situation, perceived stigma, and internalized homophobia. A total of 100 planned lesbian families (100 biological mothers and 100 social mothers) were involved in this study. Data were collected by means of a written questionnaire. The lesbian mothers in this sample generally described low levels of rejection, they perceived little stigmatization, and they also manifested low levels of internalized homophobia. However, minority stress was significantly related to experiences of parenthood. Lesbian mothers with more experiences of rejection experienced more parental stress, and appeared to defend their position as mother more strongly (e.g. parental justification). Furthermore, mothers with higher levels of perceived stigma and internalized homophobia felt significantly more often that they had to defend their position as mother. Finally, mothers who reported more experience of rejection were also more likely to report behaviour problems in their children. Our findings emphasize the importance of the effect of minority stress on the lives of lesbian mothers and their children.
This paper describes the results of a study that examined the prevalence of the delay of kindergarten entry, also known as academic redshirting. Utilizing a representative sample of Wisconsin school district, the authors examined the school records of more than 8,000 students to depict patterns of school entry, promotion, subsequent special services, and student achievement. Results indicate that approximately 7% of the sample bad delayed school entry and that those children were primarily boys with birthdates immediately before the entrance cutoff. Redshirts and retainees are more likely to receive special education services than their peers who enter and are promoted on time. The achievement of redshirts is comparable to their normally entered peers; whereas retainees perform at lower levels. Although the interpretations of these results depend on the perspective taken on extra-year interventions, they can be read in the context of other literature on extra-year interventions. We suggest next steps for the development of empirical knowledge on redshirting and for evaluating the efficacy of this practice. Given its lack of empirical efficacy, we do not support widespread use of this strategy for increasing readiness.
Students who repeat a grade prior to high school have a higher risk of dropping out of high school than do students who are continuously promoted. This study tested whether standard theories of dropout--including the participation-identification model and the social capital model--explain this link. Although the presence of variables, including academic achievement and disciplinary problems, reduces the higher probability of retained students dropping out, existing models of dropping out do not adequately explain the markedly higher probability of dropping out for retained students. Regression decomposition reveals differences between promoted and retained students in the importance of resources and illustrates that various resources hold different levels of importance for white, black, and Latino students.
▪ Abstract Until recently, social scientists were headed to consensus over the impact of the structural parameters of the sibling group, especially size and birth order, on educational and other status outcomes. New developments challenge this conventional wisdom, thus offering an opening for dialogue on this topic. We identify the utility and implications of studying the consequences of sibling configuration within sociology, across disciplines, and for public policy. Revisiting the association between sibship size and educational advancement, we evaluate challenges to long-held beliefs regarding this relationship. We then discuss the effects of birth order, highlighting recent declarations that these effects are more profound than previously believed. We next summarize scholarship on two less-explored components of the sibling matrix: spacing and sex composition. Finally, we consider generalizability of research done mostly in the United States to other countries. We hope examining and critiquing this r...
Since the start of the 21st century, the literature on same-sex couple relationships and families headed by single parents who identify as lesbian or gay has grown exponentially, and research published in the past ten to fifteen years tackles many new questions about sexual minority families. This review concentrates on four topics that have dominated the sociological arena: who counts as family and how/whether changing definitions of family incorporate lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people; how lesbians and gay men come to have children—the biological, social, and legal obstacles that influence family formation for this population, and the outcomes for youth raised with openly gay parents; family dynamics and relationship quality in same-sex couple and transgender partner households; and future directions for the sociological study of LGBT sexuality and families. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Sociology Volume 39 is July 11, 2013. Please see http://www.a...
We reexamine Rosenfeld's (2010) study on the association between child outcomes and same-sex family structure. Using the same data set, we replicate and generalize Rosenfeld's findings and show that the implications of his study are different when using either alternative comparison groups or alternative sample restrictions. Compared with traditional married households, we find that children being raised by same-sex couples are 35 % less likely to make normal progress through school; this difference is statistically significant at the 1 % level.
Most research examining the efficacy of early grade retention has been limited to outcomes during elementary school. A notable gap in the retention literature is the dearth of studies examining outcomes during late adolescence. The results of this prospective longitudinal study include comparisons among four unique samples: (1) early grade retainees; (2) students retained in a transition classroom; (3) students recommended for transitional placement but promoted; and (4) regularly promoted students, through the eleventh grade. Results of this study failed to demonstrate the effectiveness of grade retention on academic achievement. Moreover, analyses of behavior suggest that retained students display more aggression during adolescence. Furthermore, the group of students recommended for transitional placement, but promoted, were comparable to the control group on all achievement and behavior measures during high school. The results of this study may be further understood considering a transactional model of development, emphasizing the importance early experiences on subsequent development. The results of longitudinal studies of grade retention warrant further consideration in developing educational policies and implementing effective prevention and early intervention strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This study uses logit regressions on a pooled sample of children from the 2012, 2013, and 2014 American Community Survey to perform a nationally representative analysis of school progress for a large sample of 4,430 children who reside with same-sex couples. Odds ratios from regressions that compare children between different-sex married couples and same-sex couples fail to show significant differences in normal school progress between households across a variety of sample compositions. Likewise, marginal effects from regressions that compare children with similar family dynamics between different-sex married couples and same-sex couples fail to predict significantly higher probabilities of grade retention for children of same-sex couples. Significantly lower grade retention rates are sometimes predicted for children of same-sex couples than for different-sex married couples, but these differences are sensitive to sample exclusions and do not indicate causal benefits to same-sex parenting.
Given the recent skyrocketing rates of grade retention and their adverse effects, better understanding is needed to identify intervention practices that ameliorate risk factors across school and family domains. This prospective, longitudinal study examines the relationship between material hardship, school engagement, and grade retention among at-risk elementary school children (N = 4329) from 410 public elementary schools in Louisiana. The study utilized multilevel logistic regressions with a two-level hierarchical structure to address the nesting effects of children within schools. Baron and Kenny's mediation analysis approach was used to identify the mediating effect of school engagement on the relationship between material hardship and grade retention. Results show that 42.34% of children in the sample repeated at least one grade over the four school years examined in this study. Material hardship was associated with a greater likelihood of grade retention, and this association was partially mediated by levels of school engagement. This study suggests that children in families experiencing material hardship need interventions not only for basic needs, but also for interventions that increase levels of engagement in school. Addressing material hardship and low levels of school engagement may have profound implications on school success.
Increasing family diversity during the past half century has focused national attention on how children are faring in nontraditional family structures. Much of the limited evidence on children in same-sex couple families suffers from several shortcomings, including a lack of representative data. We use the National Health Interview Survey (2004–2012) and the National Survey of Children's Health (2011–2012) to identify children in different-sex married and cohabiting families, never and previously married single-parent families, and same-sex couple families. Considering important characteristics such as the child's race or ethnicity and adoption status, household socioeconomic standing, family stability, and parent health, we examine the relationship between family type and parent-rated overall child health. The results suggest that poorer health among children in same-sex couple as well as different-sex cohabiting couple and single-parent families appears to be largely the product of demographic and socioeconomic differences rather than exposure to nontraditional family forms.
This study examines the association between marriage and economic wealth of women and men. Going beyond previous research that focused on household wealth, I examine personal wealth, which allows identifying gender disparities in the association between marriage and wealth. Using unique data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (2002, 2007, and 2012), I apply random-effects and fixed-effects regression models to test my expectations. I find that both women and men experience substantial marriage wealth premiums not only in household wealth but also in personal wealth. However, I do not find consistent evidence for gender disparities in these general marriage premiums. Additional analyses indicate, however, that women’s marriage premiums are substantially lower than men’s premiums in older cohorts and when only nonhousing wealth is considered. Overall, this study provides new evidence that women and men gain unequally in their wealth attainment through marriage.
Families in the United States are increasingly diverse, which has given rise to questions about the consequences these new family forms have for children’s outcomes. This study uses a life course perspective to examine the association between family transitions, nontraditional family structures (with particular attention to same-sex parent families), and children’s psychosocial well-being. The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten cohort was used to examine children’s externalizing well-being, internalizing well-being, and interpersonal skills. Results indicate that nontraditional family structures are associated with poorer psychosocial well-being, but this is largely accounted for by changes and transitions experienced in the creation of new families. The findings provide a critical look at the assumptions embedded in arguments focused solely on family structure, and joins other research in calling attention to the importance of family processes for understanding the well-being of children.
This chapter presents a literature review of empirical findings on lesbian-mother families in which all children were conceived through donor insemination (planned lesbian-mother families). Major findings are discussed, clustered into three categories, namely (a) comparisons between planned lesbian-mother families and two-parent heterosexual families on family characteristics, parenting, and child outcomes; (b) differences and/or similarities between biological mothers and nonbiological mothers (or “social mothers”) on aspects such as motives to become a mother, parenting, and division of labor; and (c) the diversity within planned lesbian-mother families (in areas such as experiences of stigmatization and donor status) and the consequences of this diversity on parenting and child outcomes. Based on these findings, challenges and opportunities for future investigations are proposed.
Increasing numbers of lesbian and gay adults are becoming parents through adoption. The adoption of children by lesbian and gay adults does, however, remain a controversial topic across the USA and around the world. Several questions have been raised in these debates. For instance, to what extent do lesbian and gay adults make capable adoptive parents? Are children who have been adopted by lesbian and gay parents growing up in healthy ways? What factors contribute to positive family functioning in adoptive families with lesbian and gay parents? In this chapter, we present a growing body of social science research that has begun to address such questions. Findings from this research suggest that lesbian and gay adults are successful in adoptive parent roles and that their children are developing in positive directions. Research on these families has, however, been subject to criticism on methodological grounds, and we therefore consider the issues raised by such critiques. Further, in light of the existing literature, we point out directions for future research. Overall, the findings to date suggest that parental sexual orientation should not be a deciding factor in placing children with permanent adoptive families. We discuss various implications of this research for the legal system and for child welfare agencies.
Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals and their families are often presumed to live in urban “gay Meccas” rather than nonmetropolitan and more rural parts of the USA. However, this urban stereotype is simply not true, particularly for LGB-parented families. LGB parents and their children live in a diversity of community settings, and these communities vary in their levels of support for LGB families. The purpose of this chapter is to document what is known about how the daily lives of LGB families are differentially impacted by where they live. Using minority stress theory, we examine the influences of geographical and demographic diversity as well as community climate, which includes legal, religious, political, workplace, and educational dimensions. Furthermore, we discuss how communities can change to be more LGB affirming.
Although grade retention may be consequential for a number of important educational and socioeconomic outcomes, we know surprisingly little about the actual rate at which students are made to repeat grades. We build on Hauser, Frederick, and Andrew’s 2007 measure of grade retention using data from the 1995 through 2010 Current Population Surveys. We make technical improvements to their measure, provide more recent estimates, and validate the measure against external criteria. Our measure describes large disparities in grade retention rates by sex, race/ethnicity, geographic locale, and students’ socioeconomic circumstances. However, both absolute retention rates and disparities in retention rates have declined markedly since 2005. We conclude by describing how our measures might be used to model the impact of economic and policy contexts on grade retention rates.
Though estimates vary, as many as 2 million to 3.7 million U.S. children under age 18 may have a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender parent, and about 200,000 are being raised by same-sex couples. Much of the past decade’s legal and political debate over allowing same-sex couples to marry has centered on these couples’ suitability as parents, and social scientists have been asked to weigh in. After carefully reviewing the evidence presented by scholars on both sides of the issue, Gary Gates concludes that same-sex couples are as good at parenting as their different-sex counterparts. Any differences in the wellbeing of children raised in same-sex and different-sex families can be explained not by their parents’ gender composition but by the fact that children being by raised by same-sex couples have, on average, experienced more family instability, because most children being raised by same-sex couples were born to different-sex parents, one of whom is now in the same-sex relationship. That pattern is changing, however. Despite growing support for same-sex parenting, proportionally fewer same-sex couples report raising children today than in 2000. Why? Reduced social stigma means that more LGBT people are coming out earlier in life. They’re less likely than their LGBT counterparts from the past to have different-sex relationships and the children such relationships produce. At the same time, more same-sex couples are adopting children or using reproductive technologies like artificial insemination and surrogacy. Compared to a decade ago, same-sex couples today may be less likely to have children, but those who do are more likely to have children who were born with same-sex parents who are in stable relationships. In the past, most same-sex couples raising children were in a cohabiting relationship. With same-sex couples’ right to marry now secured throughout the country, the situation is changing rapidly. As more and more same-sex couples marry, Gates writes, we have the opportunity to consider new research questions that can contribute to our understanding of how marriage and parental relationships affect child wellbeing. © 2015 by The Trustees of Princeton University, All rights reserved.
Previous research suggests that students' social skills and achievement are interrelated, and some findings support bi-directional effects between the two constructs. The purpose of this research study was to estimate the possible longitudinal and reciprocal effects of social skills and achievement for kindergarten through eighth grade students. Data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study program were analyzed; teachers' ratings of students' social skills and students' standardized math and reading achievement performance were collected 4 and 5 times, respectively. Latent variable structural equation modeling was used to test a panel model of reciprocal, longitudinal effects of social skills and achievement. The results suggest that the effects of students' social skills and achievement are bi-directional, but the effects of students' achievement on their later social skills are stronger than the effects of social skills on achievement. The significant effects of students' social skills on their later achievement are mostly indirect. These findings suggest that the future social skills of students who struggle academically may be of particular concern to educators, and intervention and prevention efforts aimed to address both social and achievement skills may help remediate the other skill in the future.
Scholars have noted that survey analysis of small subsamples-for example, same-sex parent families-is sensitive to researchers' analytical decisions, and even small differences in coding can profoundly shape empirical patterns. As an illustration, we reassess the findings of a recent article by Regnerus regarding the implications of being raised by gay and lesbian parents. Taking a close look at the New Family Structures Study (NFSS), we demonstrate the potential for misclassifying a non-negligible number of respondents as having been raised by parents who had a same-sex romantic relationship. We assess the implications of these possible misclassifications, along with other methodological considerations, by reanalyzing the NFSS in seven steps. The reanalysis offers evidence that the empirical patterns showcased in the original Regnerus article are fragile-so fragile that they appear largely a function of these possible misclassifications and other methodological choices. Our replication and reanalysis of Regnerus's study offer a cautionary illustration of the importance of double checking and critically assessing the implications of measurement and other methodological decisions in our and others' research.
Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Thousands of children are awaiting placement with adoptive families in the United States. However, agency practices in selecting appropriate families are slow to change, with gay men and lesbians often facing various barriers. As such, the decision-making model often used by child-placement agencies does not adequately consider the impact of the social workers’ socialization factors and attitudes when making placement recommendations. In this article, the current theoretical model used in determining placements is critically examined and the fundamental determinants influencing social workers’ placement recommendations are empirically examined from a social constructionist perspective. Using a path analysis, significant socialization factors are identified, potential implications for practice and policy are discussed, and questions for further research are posed.
Triggering events and the scarring, or status-dependence, process they induce are an important cornerstone of social stratification theory that is rarely studied in the context of the educational career. However, the decades-old high-stakes environment that ties many educational outcomes to a test score or other singular achievement underscores the potential importance of scarring in the contemporary educational career. In this paper, I study scarring in the educational career in the case of primary-grade retention. Using propensity score matching and sibling fixed-effects models, I evaluate evidence for primary-grade retention effects on high school completion and college entry and completion. I find consistent evidence of a causal effect of early primary school grade retention on high school completion. These effects operate largely through middle school academic achievements and expectations, suggesting that students who recover from the scar of grade retention on high school completion largely do so earlier rather than later in the educational career. Students can continue to recover from the effects of grade retention through early high school, not only through their academic achievements but through their expectations of high school completion as well. Models suggest that early primary grade retention scars the educational career mainly at high school completion, though there are important, unconditional effects on college entry and completion as a result. I conclude by placing these findings in the larger grade-retention literature and discussing future research on heterogeneities in and mechanisms of retention effects.
Recent legal cases before the Supreme Court of the United States were challenging federal definitions of marriage created by the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s voter approved Proposition 8 which limited marriage to different-sex couples only. Social science literature regarding child well-being was being used within these cases, and the American Sociological Association sought to provide a concise evaluation of the literature through an amicus curiae brief. The authors were tasked in the assistance of this legal brief by reviewing literature regarding the well-being of children raised within same-sex parent families. This article includes our assessment of the literature, focusing on those studies, reviews and books published within the past decade. We conclude that there is a clear consensus in the social science literature indicating that American children living within same-sex parent households fare just, as well as those children residing within different-sex parent households over a wide array of well-being measures: academic performance, cognitive development, social development, psychological health, early sexual activity, and substance abuse. Our assessment of the literature is based on credible and methodologically sound studies that compare well-being outcomes of children residing within same-sex and different-sex parent families. Differences that exist in child well-being are largely due to socioeconomic circumstances and family stability. We discuss challenges and opportunities for new research on the well-being of children in same-sex parent families.
Children in traditional families (i.e., married, 2 biological parents) tend to do better than their peers in nontraditional families. An exception to this pattern appears to be children from same‐sex parent families. Children with lesbian mothers or gay fathers do not exhibit the poorer outcomes typically associated with nontraditional families. Studies of same‐sex parent families, however, have relied on a static conceptualization of the family and discounted the importance of the timing and number of family transitions for understanding children's outcomes. To examine whether same‐sex parent families represent an exception among nontraditional families, the author used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten cohort (N = 19,043) to create a dynamic indicator of children's family structure and tested its association with math assessment scores. The results indicated that children in same‐sex parent families scored lower than their peers in married, 2‐biological parent households, but the difference was nonsignificant net of family transitions.
We use two nationally representative data sets to estimate the prevalence of kindergarten “redshirting”—the decision to delay a child’s school entry. We find that between 4% and 5.5% of children delay kindergarten, a lower number than typically reported in popular and academic accounts. Male, White, and high-SES children are most likely to delay kindergarten, and schools serving larger proportions of White and high-income children have far higher rates of delayed entry. We find no evidence that children with lower cognitive or social abilities at age 4 are more likely to redshirt, suggesting parents’ decisions to delay entry may be driven by concerns about children’s relative position within a kindergarten cohort. Implications for policy are discussed.
Almost all studies of same-sex parenting have concluded there is ``no difference'' in a range of outcome measures for children who live in a household with same-sex parents compared to children living with married opposite-sex parents. Recently, some work based on the U.S. census has suggested otherwise, but those studies have considerable drawbacks. Here, a 20% sample of the 2006 Canada census is used to identify self-reported children living with same-sex parents, and to examine the association of household type with children's high school graduation rates. This large random sample allows for control of parental marital status, distinguishes between gay and lesbian families, and is large enough to evaluate differences in gender between parents and children. Children living with gay and lesbian families in 2006 were about 65% as likely to graduate compared to children living in opposite sex marriage families. Daughters of same-sex parents do considerably worse than sons.
In this article, I propose a three-stage estimation model to examine the effect of parental divorce on the development of children’s cognitive skills and noncognitive traits. Using a framework that includes pre-, in-, and post-divorce time periods, I disentangle the complex factors affecting children of divorce. I use the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class 1998 to 1999 (ECLS-K), a multiwave longitudinal dataset, to assess the three-stage model. To evaluate the parameters of interest more rigorously, I employ a stage-specific ordinary least squares (OLS) model, a counterfactual matching estimator, and a piece-wise growth curve model. Within some combinations of developmental domains and stages, in particular from the in-divorce stage onward, I find negative effects of divorce even after accounting for selection factors that influence children’s skills and traits at or before the beginning of the dissolution process. These negative outcomes do not appear to intensify or abate in the ensuing study period.
Most analyses of postmodern transformations of intimacy feature adult unions, often placing gays and lesbians on the frontier. The contemporary pursuit of parenthood evinces a similar shift from obligation to desire and from an economic to an emotional calculus. Here too, gay men and lesbians serve as pioneers, with planned gay male parenthood occupying particularly avant-garde terrain and Los Angeles County. This article analyzes gay male narratives of parental desire and decision-making drawn from ethnographic research on gay male intimacy and kinship in Los Angeles, the unlikely global epicenter of gay paternity. It identifies a ‘passion for parenthood’ continuum in which most men occupy an intermediate zone which leads them to situational paternity or childlessness contingent upon intimate relationships. Heterosexual ‘situations’ lead most straight men to paternity, while homosexual ‘situations’ lead a majority of gay men to childlessness. Yet the very success gay men achieve pursuing parenthood against enormous odds exposes conditions governing contemporary family life that represent the decline of paternity as we knew it. This does not augur the demise of male parenthood, however, but its creative, if controversial, reconfiguration.
Results from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth indicate that marriages contracted after 1980 are becoming more stable. This article examines several individual characteristics in search of an explanation for increasing stability. A person-year file is created and logistic regression is used to determine which covariates account for the negative effect of year in a model predicting the likelihood of marital dissolution. Increasing experience of premarital sex, premarital birth, cohabitation, and racial and religious heterogamy are detracting from marital stability. However, rising age at marriage and, to a lesser degree, increased education are associated with increasing marital stability. These latter effects more than counterbalance the factors associated with instability leading to an overall decline in the rate of marital dissolution.
Research on divorce during the past decade has focused on a range of topics, including the predictors of divorce, associations between divorce and the well-being of children and former spouses, and interventions for divorcing couples. Methodological advances during the past decade include a greater reliance on nationally representative longitudinal samples, genetically informed designs, and statistical models that control for time-invariant sources of unobserved heterogeneity. Emerging perspectives, such as a focus on the number of family transitions rather than on divorce as a single event, are promising. Nevertheless, gaps remain in the research literature, and the review concludes with suggestions for new studies.
Claims that children need both a mother and father presume that women and men parent differently in ways crucial to development but generally rely on studies that conflate gender with other family structure variables. We analyze findings from studies with designs that mitigate these problems by comparing 2-parent families with same or different sex coparents and single-mother with single-father families. Strengths typically associated with married mother-father families appear to the same extent in families with 2 mothers and potentially in those with 2 fathers. Average differences favor women over men, but parenting skills are not dichotomous or exclusive. The gender of parents correlates in novel ways with parent-child relationships but has minor significance for children's psychological adjustment and social success.
Stigma operates at multiple levels, including intrapersonal appraisals (e.g., self-stigma), interpersonal events (e.g., hate crimes), and structural conditions (e.g., community norms, institutional policies). Although prior research has indicated that intrapersonal and interpersonal forms of stigma negatively affect the health of the stigmatized, few studies have addressed the health consequences of exposure to structural forms of stigma. To address this gap, we investigated whether structural stigma—operationalized as living in communities with high levels of anti-gay prejudice—increases risk of premature mortality for sexual minorities. We constructed a measure capturing the average level of anti-gay prejudice at the community level, using data from the General Social Survey, which was then prospectively linked to all-cause mortality data via the National Death Index. Sexual minorities living in communities with high levels of anti-gay prejudice experienced a higher hazard of mortality than those living in low-prejudice communities (Hazard Ratio [HR] = 3.03, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] = 1.50, 6.13), controlling for individual and community-level covariates. This result translates into a shorter life expectancy of approximately 12 years (95% C.I.: 4-20 years) for sexual minorities living in high-prejudice communities. Analysis of specific causes of death revealed that suicide, homicide/violence, and cardiovascular diseases were substantially elevated among sexual minorities in high-prejudice communities. Strikingly, there was an 18-year difference in average age of completed suicide between sexual minorities in the high-prejudice (age 37.5) and low-prejudice (age 55.7) communities. These results highlight the importance of examining structural forms of stigma and prejudice as social determinants of health and longevity among minority populations.
General measures of ideology and partisanship derived from national survey data concatenated to the state level have been extremely important in understanding policy and political processes in the states. However, due to the lack of uniform survey data covering a broad array of survey questions, we know little about how specific state-level opinion relates to specific policies or processes. Using the General Social Survey (GSS) disaggregated to the state level, we develop and rigorously test specific measures of state-level opinion on tolerance, racial integration, abortion, religiosity, homosexuality, feminism, capital punishment, welfare, and the environment. To illustrate the utility of these measures, we compare the explanatory power of each to that of a general ideology measure. We use a simulation to clarify conditions under which a national sample frame can produce representative state samples. We offer these measures to advance the study of the role public opinion plays in state politics and policy.
Social science research on stigma has grown dramatically over the past two decades, particularly in social psychology, where researchers have elucidated the ways in which people construct cognitive categories and link those categories to stereotyped beliefs. In the midst of this growth, the stigma concept has been criticized as being too vaguely defined and individually focused. In response to these criticisms, we define stigma as the co-occurrence of its components–labeling, stereotyping, separation, status loss, and discrimination–and further indicate that for stigmatization to occur, power must be exercised. The stigma concept we construct has implications for understanding several core issues in stigma research, ranging from the definition of the concept to the reasons stigma sometimes represents a very persistent predicament in the lives of persons affected by it. Finally, because there are so many stigmatized circumstances and because stigmatizing processes can affect multiple domains of people's li...
Objectives:
We examined whether same-sex marriage was associated with nonspecific psychological distress among self-identified lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults, and whether it had the potential to offset mental health disparities between lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons and heterosexuals.
Methods:
Population-based data (weighted) were from the 2009 adult (aged 18-70 years) California Health Interview Survey. Within-group analysis of lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons included 1166 individuals (weighted proportion = 3.15%); within-group heterosexual analysis included 35 608 individuals (weighted proportion = 96.58%); and pooled analysis of lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons and heterosexuals included 36 774 individuals.
Results:
Same-sex married lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons were significantly less distressed than lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons not in a legally recognized relationship; married heterosexuals were significantly less distressed than nonmarried heterosexuals. In adjusted pairwise comparisons, married heterosexuals had the lowest psychological distress, and lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons who were not in legalized relationships had the highest psychological distress (P < .001). Psychological distress was not significantly distinguishable among same-sex married lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons, lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons in registered domestic partnerships, and heterosexuals.
Conclusions:
Being in a legally recognized same-sex relationship, marriage in particular, appeared to diminish mental health differentials between heterosexuals and lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons. Researchers must continue to examine potential health benefits of same-sex marriage, which is at least in part a public health issue.
Allen et al.'s results depend on their inclusion of children whose family at the time of their grade retention is unknown, plus adopted and foster children whose selection process into families is unknown. Children whose family has been through upheavals or transitions are less likely to make good progress in school than children from stable families. Children raised by stable same-sex couples do remarkably well in school.
Using General Social Survey data from 1973 to 1998, changing American attitudes toward homosexuality are examined. Two hypotheses are tested: (1) Can changes in attitudes be accounted for by the changing demographics of the population? (2) Are changing attitudes toward homosexuality embedded within larger cultural ideological shifts? The data indicate that Americans distinguish between the morality of homosexuality and the civil liberties of homosexuals. Americans became increasingly negative regarding the morality of homosexuality through 1990, but since then their attitudes have become increasingly liberal. The same 25-year period witnessed a steady decline in Americans' willingness to restrict the civil liberties of homosexuals, Changes in American demographics-particularly increasing educational levels-and changing cultural ideological beliefs can account for only about one-half of the change over time in attitudes toward homosexuality. Several theories are put forth to explain these patterns of change and the distinction made between morality and civil liberties. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The July 2012 publication of my study on the outcomes of young adults who report parental same-sex relationship behavior raised a variety of questions about the New Family Structures Study and my analyses and interpretations of it. This follow-up article seeks to address a variety of the more common criticisms that have been raised, to offer new commentary and analyses, and to pose questions for future analysts of the NFSS and other datasets that are poised to consider how household dynamics are associated with youth and young-adult outcomes. The new analyses I present here still reveal numerous differences between adult children who report maternal same-sex behavior (and residence with her partner) and those with still-married (heterosexual) biological parents. Far fewer differences appear between the former and several other groups, most notably never-married single mothers.
The New Family Structures Study (NFSS) is a social-science data-collection project that fielded a survey to a large, random sample of American young adults (ages 18-39) who were raised in different types of family arrangements. In this debut article of the NFSS, I compare how the young-adult children of a parent who has had a same-sex romantic relationship fare on 40 different social, emotional, and relational outcome variables when compared with six other family-of-origin types. The results reveal numerous, consistent differences, especially between the children of women who have had a lesbian relationship and those with still-married (heterosexual) biological parents. The results are typically robust in multivariate contexts as well, suggesting far greater diversity in lesbian-parent household experiences than convenience-sample studies of lesbian families have revealed. The NFSS proves to be an illuminating, versatile dataset that can assist family scholars in understanding the long reach of family structure and transitions.
In 2005, the American Psychological Association (APA) issued an official brief on lesbian and gay parenting. This brief included the assertion: "Not a single study has found children of lesbian or gay parents to be disadvantaged in any significant respect relative to children of heterosexual parents" (p. 15). The present article closely examines this assertion and the 59 published studies cited by the APA to support it. Seven central questions address: (1) homogeneous sampling, (2) absence of comparison groups, (3) comparison group characteristics, (4) contradictory data, (5) the limited scope of children's outcomes studied, (6) paucity of long-term outcome data, and (7) lack of APA-urged statistical power. The conclusion is that strong assertions, including those made by the APA, were not empirically warranted. Recommendations for future research are offered.
This study estimates how much children's family instability is missed when we do not count transitions into and out of cohabitation, and examines early life course trajectories of children to see whether children who experience maternal cohabitation face more family instability than children who do not. Using data from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth, analyses show that adding transitions into and out of cohabitation to those into and out of marriage increases our measure of family instability by about 30% for White children (N = 1575) and over 100% for Black children (N = 774). We conclude that future research on the impact of children's family composition while growing up should take into account transitions into and out of cohabitation.
The current qualitative study of 35 pre-adoptive gay male couples (70 men) examined gay men's motivations to parent and their reasons for pursuing parenthood at the current time. Similar to heterosexual couples, gay men described a range of psychologically-oriented reasons as shaping their decision to become parents. Some of these (e.g., desire to teach a child tolerance) may have been uniquely shaped by their sexual minority status, and others (e.g., desire to give a child a good home) in part reflect their adoptive status. Men named age, finances, and relationship factors, as well as unique contextual factors such as the need to find and move to gay-friendly neighborhoods, as influencing their readiness to pursue parenthood at the current time. Gay men's motivations to parent echo normative life course decision-making processes, but also reflect concerns that are uniquely informed by their sexual minority status.