How much does the lesbian parenting study really tell us?
Carolyn Moynihan
Right on cue for “lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender pride month” the journal of the American Academy of pediatrics has published a study purporting to show that the children of lesbian couples “do better than their peers” on some measures.
The data comes from the United States National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study and is based on 78 children who were all born to lesbian couples through donor insemination, and who were interviewed at age 17. These were “planned lesbian families”.
According to New Scientist:
Compared with a group of control adolescents born to heterosexual parents with similar educational and financial backgrounds, the children of lesbian couples scored better on academic and social tests and lower on measures of rule-breaking and aggression.
Study co-author Nanette Gartrell says the test results leave no doubt as to the success of these couples as parents. Another academic says the results confirm “what most developmental psychologists have suspected”. Gartrell says the study supports gay and lesbian adoption.
“It’s a great tragedy in this country,” says Gartrell. “There are so many children who are available for adoption but cannot be adopted by same-sex couples.”
But wait a minute. There are a number of limitations to this study, some of which the authors themselves acknowledge.
* The group with lesbian parents were not randomly selected from a larger population. The authors say:
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