According to a new study from researchers at the Catholic University of America, children of same-sex parents are more likely to suffer from emotional issues than children of heterosexual couples. The researchers define "emotional issues" generally, but note that it can include ADHD, learning disabilities and seeking help from mental health professionals.
The study found children from same-sex parents suffer emotional issues because they are being raised by two people who they may or may not be biologically related to. The study said children who are raised by their biological parents often suffer the least amount of emotional stress.
The reduced risk of child emotional problems with opposite-sex married parents compared to same-sex parents is explained almost entirely by the fact that married opposite-sex parents tend to raise their own joint biological offspring, while same-sex parents never do this, wrote the studys author Donald Sullins, according to The Christian Post. The primary benefit of marriage for children, therefore, may not be that it tends to present them with improved parents (more stable, financially affluent, etc., although it does do this), but that it presents them with their own parents.
The study asked more than 200,000 children and 512 same-sex parents from across the country questions about their experiences in the home, but the questions weren't made available to the public in the research. The majority of children surveyed were the biological offspring of at least one of their same-sex parents.
Children adopted by parents of the same sex reported having more emotional problems than children adopted by opposite-sex parents, according to the study.
The emotional issues for children raised by same-sex parents are specifically tied to biological relationships and how their parents treat them at home. Other factors, like bullying and financial instability, didnt impact how the children felt emotionally, the study said.
Biological relationship, it appears, is both necessary and sufficient to explain the higher risk of emotional problems faced by children with same-sex parents, wrote the author of the study, D. Paul Sullins, according to World magazine.
Sullins wrote in his paper that biological parents are important for children since they help them understand their family history.
"Every child who is the biological child of a same-sex parent also has an absentee parent somewhere," Sullins said in the paper. "[A]s the child comes to understand where babies come from, it is inevitable that she will wonder about her own origins, and may experience rejection or stress at the relative absence of her other parent."
The study found children from same-sex parents suffer emotional issues because they are being raised by two people who they may or may not be biologically related to. The study said children who are raised by their biological parents often suffer the least amount of emotional stress.
The reduced risk of child emotional problems with opposite-sex married parents compared to same-sex parents is explained almost entirely by the fact that married opposite-sex parents tend to raise their own joint biological offspring, while same-sex parents never do this, wrote the studys author Donald Sullins, according to The Christian Post. The primary benefit of marriage for children, therefore, may not be that it tends to present them with improved parents (more stable, financially affluent, etc., although it does do this), but that it presents them with their own parents.
The study asked more than 200,000 children and 512 same-sex parents from across the country questions about their experiences in the home, but the questions weren't made available to the public in the research. The majority of children surveyed were the biological offspring of at least one of their same-sex parents.
Children adopted by parents of the same sex reported having more emotional problems than children adopted by opposite-sex parents, according to the study.
The emotional issues for children raised by same-sex parents are specifically tied to biological relationships and how their parents treat them at home. Other factors, like bullying and financial instability, didnt impact how the children felt emotionally, the study said.
Biological relationship, it appears, is both necessary and sufficient to explain the higher risk of emotional problems faced by children with same-sex parents, wrote the author of the study, D. Paul Sullins, according to World magazine.
Sullins wrote in his paper that biological parents are important for children since they help them understand their family history.
"Every child who is the biological child of a same-sex parent also has an absentee parent somewhere," Sullins said in the paper. "[A]s the child comes to understand where babies come from, it is inevitable that she will wonder about her own origins, and may experience rejection or stress at the relative absence of her other parent."
