Study: Children of same-sex parents turn out same as other kids

A comprehensive new study has confirmed that children of same-sex parents turn out no worse than those raised by heterosexual parents.

The research from the University of Colorado Denver concluded that scientists overwhelmingly agree that these children experience “no difference” on a range of social and behavioural outcomes compared to children of straight or single parents.

The research, published this month in Social Science Research, comes as the US Supreme Court prepares to rule whether same-sex marriage must be legalised across the US. One of the issues raised in arguments presented to the court was that of the impact of same-sex couples raising children.

The study provides weighty evidence against the idea that children of same-sex families suffer any disadvantages.

The study examined thousands of peer-reviewed articles by other researchers referencing same-sex parenting for patterns.

Lead author Jimi Adams, a health and behavioural studies professor at the University of Colorado, found a developing consensus among researchers about the effect of same-sex parenting over the years. And, by 2000, he discovered that researchers had reached “overwhelming” consensus on the issue.

Adams co-authored the study with Ryan Light in the Department of Sociology at the University of Oregon. Adams and Light believe their approach can provide courts with an accessible and objective measure of scientific consensus on same-sex parenting.

“As same-sex marriage has been debated in courts across the country, there has been the lingering question about the effects of same-sex parenting on children,” explained Adams.

“I wanted to analyse the research from the past decades to determine if there was consensus amongst researchers about that effect. I found overwhelming evidence that scientists agree that there is not a negative impact to children of same-sex couples.”

The authors told Thing Progress that even when there were differences found among children of same-sex couples in some studies, these were likely due to instability due to cultural stigma and legal inequality faced by these couples.

The argued that the legalisation and growing acceptance of marriage equality would most likely “lead to beneficial changes for these other sources of potential negative impacts on kids.”