This year, a Catholic University sociologist published results of a study of children of same-sex parents that runs counter to much of the happy talk on the subject emanating from academia.
“In the past two decades dozens of studies have concluded that children with same-sex parents fare as well or better than those in opposite-sex families on a wide range of outcomes related to child well-being and emotional health,” D. Paul Sullins wrote in a study which appeared in January. “So consistent and well-publicized has been this finding of “no differences” that it has been presented as a settled conclusion in judicial proceedings and public policy and professional settings.
“Recently, however, two developments have called this finding into question: Detailed critical reviews that have exposed substantial weaknesses in many of the studies of the same-sex parenting, and the emergence of studies designed to overcome those weaknesses which claim, not without controversy, to have discovered poorer outcomes on some measures for children in same-sex families.”
Sullins’ own study, “of 207,007 children, including 512 with same-sex parents, from the U. S. National Health Interview Survey” found that “for children with same-sex parents” “Emotional problems were over twice as prevalent.” His results appeared in the British Journal of Education, Society & Behavioral Science.
Sullins concluded that “Joint biological parentage, the modal condition for opposite-sex parents but not possible for same-sex parents, sharply differentiates between the two parent groups on child emotional problem outcomes. For child well-being the two groups differ by definition. Intact opposite-sex marriage ensures children of the persistent presence of their joint biological parents; same-sex marriage ensures the opposite. Further work is needed to determine the mechanisms involved.”
