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Child Well-Being in Same-Sex Parent Families: Review of Research Prepared for American Sociological Association Amicus Brief

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Abstract

Recent legal cases before the Supreme Court of the United States were challenging federal definitions of marriage created by the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s voter approved Proposition 8 which limited marriage to different-sex couples only. Social science literature regarding child well-being was being used within these cases, and the American Sociological Association sought to provide a concise evaluation of the literature through an amicus curiae brief. The authors were tasked in the assistance of this legal brief by reviewing literature regarding the well-being of children raised within same-sex parent families. This article includes our assessment of the literature, focusing on those studies, reviews and books published within the past decade. We conclude that there is a clear consensus in the social science literature indicating that American children living within same-sex parent households fare just, as well as those children residing within different-sex parent households over a wide array of well-being measures: academic performance, cognitive development, social development, psychological health, early sexual activity, and substance abuse. Our assessment of the literature is based on credible and methodologically sound studies that compare well-being outcomes of children residing within same-sex and different-sex parent families. Differences that exist in child well-being are largely due to socioeconomic circumstances and family stability. We discuss challenges and opportunities for new research on the well-being of children in same-sex parent families.

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Notes

  1. Rosenfeld (2010) further reports similar findings are observed when drawing similar sized samples of different-sex couples as well as employing propensity score matching.

  2. Regnerus (2012a): “From when you were born until age 18 (or until you left home to be on your own), did either of your parents ever have a romantic relationship with someone of the same sex?’’ Response choices were ‘‘Yes, my mother had a romantic relationship with another woman,’’ ‘‘Yes, my father had a romantic relationship with another man,’’ or ‘‘no.’’ (Respondents were also able to select both of the first two choices.) If they selected either of the first two, they were asked about whether they had ever lived with that parent while they were in a same-sex romantic relationship.”

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by the Center for Family and Demographic Research, Bowling Green State University, which has core funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R24HD050959). Additional support was provided by the American Sociological Assosication.

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  1. Department of Sociology and Center for Family and Demographic Research, Bowling Green State University, Williams Hall, Bowling Green, OH, 43403, USA

    Wendy D. Manning, Marshal Neal Fettro & Esther Lamidi

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  1. Wendy D. Manning
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Correspondence to Wendy D. Manning.

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Manning, W.D., Fettro, M.N. & Lamidi, E. Child Well-Being in Same-Sex Parent Families: Review of Research Prepared for American Sociological Association Amicus Brief. Popul Res Policy Rev 33, 485–502 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-014-9329-6

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