Children of lesbian parents not only perform better academically, but are kinder and more well-behaved than peers who were raised by male-female couples, reports a recently-concluded study.
The U.S. National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study, conducted over the course of 24 years, tracked the academic and social performance of children raised by lesbian parents from conception through adolescence - the first such study ever conducted. The researchers responsible for the study - Henny Bos, a behavioral scientist from the University of Amsterdam, and Nanette Gartrell, a psychiatry professor at the University of California San Francisco - published their findings in the journal Pediatrics on June 7th.
While the scientists expected the findings that children of lesbian couples were on-par with their peers in social adjustment and development, the discovery that "daughters and sons of lesbian mothers, all conceived through donor insemination, were rated higher than their peers in social, academic, and overall competence, and lower in aggressive behavior, rule-breaking, and social problems, on standardized assessments of psychological adjustment," was a revelation. "I was surprised to find that on some measures we found higher levels of [psychological] competency and lower levels of behavioral problems, said Gartrell. "It wasn't something I anticipated."
Although the exact combination of factors that contribute to the improved performance is unknown, more than two decades of studying lesbian familes has yielded a few insights. "They are very involved in their children's lives," notes Gatrell. "And that is a great recipe for healthy outcomes for children. Being present, having good communication, being there in their schools, finding out what is going on in their schools and various aspects of the children's lives is very, very important."
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