Date: Sat, 15 Apr 1995 13:29:30 +0200 (MSZ) From: Bj|rn Skolander Subject: REDIFING FAMILIES REDIFING FAMILIES REDEFINING FAMILIES: Implications for Children's Development by Adele Eskeles Gottfried and Alan W.Gottfried, eds. (New York: Plenum Press, 1994 [Library of Congress catalogue no. HQ536.R4335 1994; Dewey decimal catalogue no. 306.85'0973--dc20; ISBN 0-306-44559-X]). Married to each other, Dr. Adele Gottfried is a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling at California State University, Northridge, and Dr. Alan Gottfried is a professor in the Department of Psychology at California State University, Fullerton. The Gottfrieds, along with their colleague Kay Bathurst, have conducted a longitudinal study over many years (the Fullerton study) on the effect of maternal employment on children's development. One of the chapters in _Redefining Families_ is devoted to that study, the conclusion of which, after many years of testing and statistical analysis so boring I won't attempt to describe it, was that there were no statistically significant effects upon children's development related to maternal employment (with the sole exception that when mothers went to work early in a child's life the child's father tended to become more involved in child rearing which often produced positive developmental results). For _Redefining Families_ the Gottfrieds invited other scholars and researchers to contribute chapters which analyze the research done on several family forms varying from the supposed "norm" of the working father, nonworking mother, nuclear family. The Gottfrieds' reason for doing so is that statistically the married working father, unemployed mother, nuclear family is now a minority family form. The chapters in the book include "Primary Caregiving Fathers in Intact Families"; "Role of Maternal and Dual-earner Employment Status in Children's Development: a Longitudinal Study from Infancy through Early Adolescence" (the Gottfrieds' own studies); "Revolution and Reassessment: Child Custody in Context"; "The Gap between Psychological Assumptions and Empirical Research in Lesbian-Mother Child Custody Cases"; "Gay Dads"; and "Custodial Grandparenting: Implications for Children's Development." The studies on children raised by lesbians referred to but not named by Tony Quirke in this thread are all reviewed in the chapter of _Redefining Families_ on lesbian mothers. Contrary to Sharon Astyk's claim that "there is *lots* of evidence that the children of gays and lesbians grow up just as well as any other children," the chapters on lesbian moms and gay dads emphasize that there are precious few research studies in this area, and that it is extremely fertile ground for some well-constructed studies. I, too, share Sherman Miller's concern that these kind of social science studies be "done by credible social scientists, so it will not have the taint of being perceived as merely a ruse to underpin the hidden agenda of a special interest group that is espousing an unpopular sensitive issue." In the field of child custody research, perhaps more than in any other field, "political" studies abound. It is well for policy makers and the general public to be suspicious that any given study might be "cause" research commissioned by one special interest group or another or undertaken by a researcher or group of researchers with their own personal agenda and a point to prove. Since I do not know the researchers of the studies reviewed within the chapters on gay dads and lesbian moms in _Redefining Families_, I cannot vouch that some of the research reviewed might not be "cause" research. I can, however, vouch for the integrity and objectivity of the Gottfrieds. Moreover, the individual authors of the chapters within _Redefining Families_ seem to have the same kind of solid academic and professional credentials and objectivity. The author of the chapter on lesbian mothers, Patricia Falk of the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, presents estimates that the number of lesbian mothers residing with children range from 3 to 5 million, and that the number of children residing with a gay parent of either sex range from 6 to 14 million. Robert L. Barret and Bryan E. Robinson, both of the Human Services Department of the University of North Carolina, the authors of the chapter on gay dads, estimate that over 1 million gay fathers reside in the United States and Canada. They frankly recognize that the majority of those who are separated from their heterosexual female partners usually do not have custody of their children and frequently have a difficult time gaining access to their children. These numbers, particularly Professor Falk's estimates of the number of children being raised by lesbian mothers, suggest that there is more involved here than "lesbians playing house" or a "social experiment" as Lenny Schafer and Sherman Miller variously expressed it. Rather, we are involved with day-to-day living issues touching the lives of a significant number of people. Professor Falk's chapter commences by examining a number of conceptions, misconceptions, and prejudices found in the reported custody decisions of various jurisdictions in the United States concerning lesbians as custodial parents. In the balance of the chapter she proceeds to address through a review of the available social science research each of the standard concerns expressed by the courts. Professor Falk reviewed between 15 and 20 research papers touching on a variety of topics relating to homosexual parenting, primarily involving lesbian mothers. She drew the conclusions from the available research that lesbian mothers are no more crazy or unbalanced than the general population but that they tend to score higher than heterosexual women on measures of their self-confidence, independence and self-sufficiency, and that one study showed them scoring higher on tender-mindedness and lower on depression, submission and anxiety than did the heterosexual women in the same study. Both the chapters on lesbian moms and on gay dads reported findings that those parents who expressed their homosexuality tended to be psychologically healthier than those who stayed in the closet. Some of the studies reflected that lesbian mothers measured higher on child orientation in tests measuring parenting skills and attitudes than did their heterosexual counterparts. One interesting finding of one study was that lesbian mothers were more concerned about providing male role models than were their heterosexual counterparts. Another study reported that for both homosexual and heterosexual mothers motherhood was a more salient factor in their lives than was their sexual orientation. Other studies found no difference between lesbian and heterosexual mothers in their self-reported parenting behaviors. Another researcher opined that homosexual parents of either gender were likely to be highly motivated parents, not because they were necessarily *better* parents than were heterosexuals, but because of the high individual and social costs of asserting their intent to be parents publicly and through the courts. Falk next reported on several studies measuring the mental health of children raised by lesbian mothers. In none of the studies were any statistically significant differences in the mental health of children raised by homosexual or heterosexual mothers reported with the exception of one study in which the children's reported psychiatric problems and referrals for treatment were higher in the heterosexual group. Regarding sexual molestation Falk noted that it is very difficult to get anyone to talk about the subject in any type of population. Reports from national crime statisticians, however, reveal that pedophilia is, as some of the posters to this thread have commented, substantially and primarily a male heterosexual problem. Falk noted that one researcher could find no reported cases of lesbian pedophilia in judicial records, and another researcher reported an inability to find any reported instances of female pedophilia, heterosexual or homosexual, in the human services literature. Falk reported on 11 studies which included research on the gender roles of the children raised by lesbian mothers. In none of the studies were any significant differences found in the gender identity of children raised by lesbian or heterosexual mothers. Boys tended to be traditionally masculine, although in several of the studies the daughters of lesbian women tended to be less traditionally feminine in their gender behaviors including dress and activity preference. In another study sons of heterosexual mothers tended to be slightly more aggressive than the sons of lesbian mothers. Although Falk was surprised at how little research has been done on the sexual orientation of children raised by lesbian mothers, given the almost knee-jerk assumption that many courts have in making custody decisions involving a homosexual parent that the children's gender identity will be influenced by the parent's, she did report on four studies and two other reports on the issue. Although these studies were limited in scope, all came to the conclusion that the children in both lesbian and heterosexual households developed normally and had primarily heterosexual orientation and sexual preferences. The only homosexual child found in one of the studies was raised in a heterosexual household. These studies and the general research regarding homosexuals lends support to the views of various posters to this thread who have asserted that homosexuality is not something that one "catches from another person," much less from one's parent. Professor Falk lastly examined the element of social stigma which the children of homosexual parents are likely to face from their peers and from society. Professor Falk noted that protecting children from such social stigma was a rationale frequently seized upon by many courts in denying custody to a homosexual parent. That is also the element which seems to bother poster Sherman Miller the most. Although the child respondents in one of the reported studies said they did not experience much social stigma from their peer group, other studies revealed that the children had experienced moderate to severe social stigma in about 60% of the cases. Society at large being relatively intolerant of deviations from the norm, and children in general being notoriously cruel to anyone who does not "fit in," such a result is hardly surprising. Nor is it surprising that the younger the children were, the less stigmatized they were by their parent's homosexuality. Needless to say, it was adolescents, being at a stage when they are embarrassed by almost anything a parent does or says, who were the most discomfited about the possibility of their peer group discovering that one of their parents was homosexual. Yet Professor Falk points out that it is not enough to know that children do suffer social stigmatization when raised by a homosexual parent. In terms of policy making it is far more important to know what the effects on the child are of such stigmatizing. In both the chapter on lesbian mothers and the chapter on gay dads the conclusion from most of the studies which remarked on it was that the effects of such stigmatization were overwhelmingly positive in terms of the humanizing influence on the children of homosexual parents. More often than not it brought them closer to their gay parent. It made the children more tolerant and less judgmental of others who were different than they. It caused them to take care in making friendships and to avoid forming intimate relationships with shallow people. For the most part, the children who were asked generally expressed a great deal of pride in their openly gay parent for being true to who the parent was, for standing up for what the parent believed in, and for being able to take a courageous stand in the face of personal adversity. As even the authors of these two chapters were willing to admit, most of the studies reported have been based on relatively small samples and it is not prudent to generalize too many conclusions from them. Long term studies of larger samples definitely need to be made in this area. However, this much may safely be said at this time: although the studies in the area of homosexual parents are not numerous, neither are they nonexistent. And of those that do exist, none has uncovered any long term detrimental effects upon children from being raised by a homosexual parent. Assuming Professor Falk to be an honest reporter in that she has left no important study uncommented upon, while the collection of existing studies may not conclusively prove that children cannot be harmed by being raised by a homosexual parent, there appear to be no studies whatsoever which prove that children are or can be so harmed. One of the most important points that Adele and Alan Gottfried make in summarizing all the chapters of _Redefining Families_ is that social scientists do children and policy makers a great disservice when they design studies isolating one or two factors' effects upon child development. Rather, they point out, social science researchers must be willing to design multivariate studies which attempt to examine the interplay of the multiplicity of factors which have influence on children's development. I apologize for the length of this post. I hope the readers of this newsgroup(s) will agree that it was helpful and not inappropriate in the face of some of the comments which have been passing through this thread on both sides of the issue. C.J.