Children raised in lesbian-mother families develop into psychologically healthy teenagers and have fewer social and behavioral problems, according to a new US study that followed over 70 such children from birth into adolescence.

A paper on the study, conducted by Dr Nanette Gartrell, a 2010 Williams Distinguished Scholar at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law and her colleague, Dr Henny Bos, of the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, was published online on 7 June in the journal Pediatrics.

Gartrell and Bos said their findings should help clinical and health care professionals who advise on matters relating to same-sex parenting.

The US National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS) is the longest running and largest prospective investigation of lesbian mothers and their children in the US.

The NLLFS recruited 154 prospective lesbian mothers from 1986 to 1992 and collected data on the social, psychological, and emotional development of the children, who were conceived using donor insemination.

For the current study, Gartrell and Bos analyzed data taken from questionnaires completed by 78 of the children when they were 10 and 17 years old, and from interviews and child behavior checklists that their mothers completed at the same time.

The results showed that:

  • The 17 year-old children of the lesbian mothers scored significantly higher in their parents’ assessments than age-matched counterparts in a normative US sample in social, academic, and total competence.

  • This pattern was also reflected in lower scores for social problems, rule-breaking, and aggressive behavior.

  • There were no significant differences among the child behavior checklist scores for teenagers who were conceived by known, as-yet-unknown, and permanently unknown donors.

  • There were also no significant differences between the checklist scores for children whose lesbian mothers were still together and mothers who had separated.

The researchers concluded that:

“Adolescents who have been reared in lesbian-mother families since birth demonstrate healthy psychological adjustment.”

“These findings have implications for the clinical care of adolescents and for pediatricians who are consulted on matters that pertain to same-sex parenting,” they added.

Speculating on why these children turned out so well-adjusted, Gartrell suggested in an interview with WebMD that it might because they were not “accidental”, the babies were all planned, and conceived through donor insemination.

The mothers were on average older, and went to parenting classes, and were all very involved with their children’s education she explained.

They also expected and prepared for the fact their children might be stigmatized. They talked about it with family members and teachers. Gartrell observed that the parents of these children were ”very committed”.

“US National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study: Psychological Adjustment of 17-Year-Old Adolescents.”
Nanette Gartrell and Henny Bos
Pediatrics, Published online June 7, 2010.
DOI:10.1542/peds.2009-3153

Additional sources: NLLFS, WebMD.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD