ask dr. read      Idaho Statesman columns      new articles      biography      formal resume      philosophy      services offered      contact dr. read      psychology links      other links      forms      pictures		Gay Parents Do Not Impair Normal Psychosocial Development by James M. Read, Ph.D. It's a subject of considerable interest these days, perhaps especially here in conservative Idaho. In one school district it even appears dangerous, if you are a teacher, to expose the students to discussion about the subject. One of the many questions is, can gay or lesbian parents raise children without impairing their psychosocial development in some way? From currently available research the answer appears to be yes. We need some scientific evidence to help us understand better, and free ourselves of prejudice and fear. There's a lot of that, and too little awareness of the factual data when it comes to issues of sexual orientation and lifestyle. In a recent literature review published in the well respected journal Child Development, a researcher at the University of Virginia found no evidence that the psychosocial development of children with lesbian and gay parents is compromised. C.J. Patterson reviewed studies that compared various aspects of sexual identity, gender role behavior and sexual orientation and found no differences between the children raised by gay and/or lesbian parents and those raised by heterosexual parents. Nor did he find any differences in measures of self-concept, moral judgment, or the incidence of behavior problems. One thing he did find was that children in the custody of divorced lesbian mothers spent more time with their fathers than did children living with their divorced heterosexual mothers. Subjects in these studies ranged in age from 5 to 64. Because this is what is most available for research most of the work compared children in families headed by divorced lesbian mothers with children in families headed by divorced heterosexual mothers. There are some limitations to this research (and we need more) but even so, I think we can safely conclude, as Dr. Patterson did, that the quality of family relationships is more important than sexual orientation or the number of parents. The same is found in research on the effects of heterosexual divorce. Children are more affected by process than structure. The quality of relationships, communication, and how we treat each other within the family is more important than numbers or gender. So for the sake of the children, let's stop worrying so much about the gender of the parents, and pay more attention to the quality of the experience for the children. And let's keep an open mind. Keep up the research on child development, family variables, and what produces healthy people. Originally published in The Idaho Statesman, Date April 8, 1993 For more information, or to contact the author (that's me!), write to James M. Read, Ph.D., jread@jread.com