Study backs same-sex
parenting
By Jack Aubry,
canada.com from the Web, May 7, 2007
Parenting by same-sex families is
just as good if not slightly advantageous for children when compared to
heterosexual families, a Justice Department study has concluded.
Commissioned by the then-Liberal federal government in 2003 at the height of the
same-sex marriage debate, the academic study was not released until recently
when its main author, Professor Paul Hastings at Concordia University, obtained
it by making a request using the Access to Information Act.
Prof. Hastings, with the assistance of research students, reached the study's
conclusion after reviewing existing research relating to the impact on children
of being raised in different family types.
The report says the strongest conclusion that can be drawn from empirical
literature is that the vast majority of studies show that children living with
two mothers and children living with a mother and father have the same levels
and qualities of social competence.
"A few studies suggest that children with two lesbian mothers may have
marginally better social competence than children in 'traditional nuclear'
families, even fewer studies show the opposite, and most studies fail to find
any differences," says the $25,000, 74-page study.
The paper references about 100 studies on parenting.
The study found that most of the available research on gay parents is on lesbian
mothers, which fits into other studies that conclude women generally spend more
time with their children than men.
|
