An interesting study has emerged about the effects on children from same-sex couples. The University of Melbourne has found no significant detriment to the health and wellbeing of kids with gay and lesbian parentage.
In fact, according to an article in the Washington Post, although the sample was necessarily small, the children in the study actually scored marginally higher (6 percent) on "general health and family cohesion" than others, regardless of socio-demographic factors. And both groups were on par with regard to "emotional behaviour and physical functioning."
While it's often presumed that children of a same-sex couple will miss the influence of a parent of the opposite gender, the study published in the BMC Public Health journal challenges this assumption. The research involved 500 children in Australia, 80 percent of whom had female parents and about 18 percent male.
Lead author Simon Crouch speculates that the cohesiveness at home may be as a result of more egalitarian distribution of domestic duties in same-sex households.
“It is liberating for parents to take on roles that suit their skills rather than defaulting to gender stereotypes, where mom is the primary care giver and dad the primary breadwinner,” said Crouch.
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