New Book On Gay Parenting Research Shows No Difference To Children Brought Up By Heterosexual Parents
For years there’s been debate about whether gay and lesbian couples can ever be as good parents as heterosexual couples, and finally with the release of Lesbian and Gay Parents and Their Children: Research on the Family Life Cycle by Dr Abbie E Goldberg, a book-length review and analysis of research carried out on the parenting of child by gay and lesbians parents we might be able to finally put these questions to sleep.
Designed to be both a comprehensive summary and analysis of the research that has been done on gay and lesbian parents and their families to date, this book begins in the 1970s and works right up to the present day.
And it’s conclusion? Well for the gay and lesbian world, it’s very positive. Research seems to suggest, as many of us would have predicted, that children raised by gay and lesbian parents end up being no different in terms of well being than heterosexual couples.
So why had Dr. Goldberg decided to find the findings as a book and not just another paper? Well she says she has done it as a response to the growing awareness about both equality in terms of marriage and gay parenting, and with it the lack of any one source of information that has brought together, and analysed the many research projects that have been done to show the impact same sex parenting can have.
But why should we listen to what Abbie E. Goldberg, PhD, has to say? Well there’s a number of reasons why. Having earned her docorate in clinical psychology, alongside her M.S in, Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Dr. Goldberg has spent a lot of time of research time focusing on these very issues, with lesbian parent families being a focus on her work on the transition to parenthood in diverse families, as well as being a feature of her look into how gender and sexual orientation figure into individuals’ adjustment and experience of parenthood. Add to this her work in studying the experiences of adults raised by lesbian, gay, and bisexual parents, and I think you could definitely say this is a woman more than qualified to effectively analyse studies in this area.
And for the looks of the topics that she goes into, this is a book that sparks my interest, (but hey I’m a Social Policy graduate) with all areas of the family family life cycle studied, from how same sex couples met and formed healthy relationships to how they then decided to have children and the parental roles they would adopt. On top of this, Goldberg also looks at the sadder end of the cycle such as divorce/relationship dissolution in lesbian/gay-parent households as well as a focus on the children, including the perspectives of non-heterosexual children of lesbian/gay parent, which sees discussion by both children now, and those who are now adults.
Combining both qualitative and quantitative research, this book covers a huge range of social science disciplines, including psychology, sociology, sexuality/gender studies, and human development to produce a depth of analysis that looks beyond what these studies have found, to offer insights and highlight the potential implications these findings could have on policy making, as well as offering more general understanding to those dealing with same sex parenting, whether it be as a parent, a school official or even a therapist.
The Lesbian and Gay Parents and Their Children: Research on the Family Life Cycle is available at the APA Books website.
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