Here are two important research reports I’ve just completed on the most recent published literature on same-sex parented families. It reveals very important aspects of the research that serious students of the family should know about, but that major media outlets have missed by clearly doing journalism by press-release.
The two reports are also here and here.
1) The first analysis looks at the current research (conducted by same-sex family friendly scholars) showing that girls raised by lesbian moms are dramatically more likely to report identifying as either bi- or lesbian than girls raised in heterosexual-headed households (49% vs. 7% respectively). The most recent study explains “daughters of lesbian mothers were significantly more likely to have had same-sex contact” compared with peers from heterosexual-parented homes. Boys in a few studies were more sexually reticent.
Another study showed that 64% of young adults from lesbian homes ever considered same-sex erotic relationships, while only 17% from heterosexual families did.
The lesbian-parented girls are also remarkably more likely to have used emergency contraception (35% vs. 5%) indicating a higher prevalence of careless and opportunistic sexual activity.
Specifically, young adults raised by lesbian moms are:
- More than 2xs more likely to have s-s attraction
- 2xs more likely to identify as gay/lesbian/bi
- 3xs more likely to consider s-s relationships
- 7xs more likely to have considered s-s relationships in past
- 6xs more likely to have had s-s relationships
2) The second analysis examines the background and methodology of the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS). This is the longest, largest study of same-sex families to date, and most of the research on same-sex parenting coming out today issues from this study.
Therefore, it’s important to examine the methodological strengths and weaknesses of this study. This makes for quite a story that’s not been told anywhere. The methodology is disturbingly poor.
All the lesbian couples (representing 84 families) are, by design of the study, strongly connected to lesbian political culture, as they were all drafted into the study through admitted lesbian-activist channels, coming only from the Boston, DC, and San Fran areas. Most are highly educated, 82% upper-to-middle class, and 94% are White. Most were in their mid-thirties at start of study and the birth of the children of the home. What’s more, 80% of the study participants said – when asked – they would choose to be lesbians if such a thing were a choice.
The study is structured so that the study population are highly politically-motivated mothers, knowing they are participating in an important lesbian study. And the methodology has the moms self-report much of their children’s well-being. Given this, the study shows – and has been reported widely – that these children do better in many ways than children with mothers and fathers! And while the break-up rates of these mothers were much higher than mom/dad homes (56% vs. 36%), the moms report their children showed NO adverse effects from the family break-up!! Of course, both of these findings are completely at odds with the larger body of literature on family form and child well-being.