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Abstract
This study investigated child development and parenting in 106 families headed by 27 lesbian, 29 gay, and 50 heterosexual couples (80% White, M = 42 years) with young adopted children (41% White, M = 3 years). Parents and teachers reported that, on average, children were developing in typical ways. Measures of children's adjustment, parenting approaches, parenting stress, and couple relationship adjustment were not significantly associated with parental sexual orientation. However, several family process variables—parenting stress, parenting approaches, and couple relationship adjustment—were found to be significantly associated with children's adjustment, regardless of parental sexual orientation. Implications for understanding the role of gender and sexual orientation in parenting, as well as for legal and policy debates, are discussed.
This research was supported in part by grants from the Williams Institute at UCLA to Charlotte J. Patterson. We also wish to thank: Amori Yee Mikami, Monica Erbacher, Jacqueline Wheeler, Kathleen Doss, Dylan Comstock, Timothy Tuan, Katherine Jetton, Brittany Shean, Chalatwan Vasontara, Janine Beha, Scott Kraiterman, Carly Roberts, Charlotte Blutstein, Claudia Amendola, Lindsay Walter-Cox, Thomas Lotito, Justin Spiro, and Michael Kohn for their contributions to this research.
Notes
Note: Standard deviations are given in parentheses.
*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.
Note: ns for the CBCL include 106 averaged parent reports (for 106 children), and 76 teacher reports (for 76 children). For the PSAI, ns include 106 averaged parent reports (for 106 children).
For the parent and couple measures, ns include 212 individual parent reports.
BP = behavior problems. Standard deviations are reported in parentheses.
*n = 16 girls, 11 boys with lesbian mothers; 11 girls, 18 boys with gay fathers; 26 girls, 24 boys with heterosexual parents (n = 53 girls; n = 53 boys).
Note: Pearson product moment correlations calculated for all variables.
*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.
Note: Level 2 was included to account for parents nesting into children (two parents reported for each child), but no predictors were tested.
*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.
Note: Level 2 was included to account for parents nesting into children (two parents reported for each child), but no predictors were tested.
*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.