The Guardian reports on a geographically broad study – a study of studies from many different countries – that looked at same-sex couples and found that their children are pretty much like children anywhere else, raised by anyone else:
The latest study, published in the journal BMJ Global Health by researchers in the US and China, is based on analysis of 34 studies from countries where same-sex relationships are legal, including the US, UK and parts of Europe. These studies compared the development of children raised by heterosexual parents with those brought up by lesbian and gay parents – and some studies also included the families of bisexual, queer or transgender parents.
The team analysed data from 16 of the studies and found that sexual minority parents reported significantly fewer psychological problems among preschool-age children than heterosexual parents, although no difference was found among older, school-age children.
While family functioning, couple relationship satisfaction, parental mental health and parenting stress showed no differences based on parents’ sexual orientation, in some areas sexual minority families appear to fare better.
“Sexual minority parent groups showed higher levels of parent-child relationship quality, such as higher levels of warmth, greater amounts of interaction and more supportive behaviour, when compared with the heterosexual parent groups,” the researchers wrote.
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You can read the research here, in BMJ Global Health.