This year, a Catholic University sociologist published results of a study of children of same-sex parents that runs counter to much of the happy talk on the subject emanating from academia.
![homeschooling kids](https://www.academia.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/homeschooling-kids-300x240.jpg)
“In the past two decades dozens of studies have concluded that children with same-sex parents fare as well or better than those in opposite-sex families on a wide range of outcomes related to child well-being and emotional health,” D. Paul Sullins wrote in a study which appeared in January. “So consistent and well-publicized has been this finding of “no differences” that it has been presented as a settled conclusion in judicial proceedings and public policy and professional settings.
“Recently, however, two developments have called this finding into question: Detailed critical reviews that have exposed substantial weaknesses in many of the studies of the same-sex parenting, and the emergence of studies designed to overcome those weaknesses which claim, not without controversy, to have discovered poorer outcomes on some measures for children in same-sex families.”
Sullins’ own study, “of 207,007 children, including 512 with same-sex parents, from the U. S. National Health Interview Survey” found that “for children with same-sex parents” “Emotional problems were over twice as prevalent.” His results appeared in the British Journal of Education, Society & Behavioral Science.
Sullins concluded that “Joint biological parentage, the modal condition for opposite-sex parents but not possible for same-sex parents, sharply differentiates between the two parent groups on child emotional problem outcomes. For child well-being the two groups differ by definition. Intact opposite-sex marriage ensures children of the persistent presence of their joint biological parents; same-sex marriage ensures the opposite. Further work is needed to determine the mechanisms involved.”