Same-sex parented families

A study conducted by Australia’s University of Melbourne has found that children of gay parents are actually happier and healthier than their peers! This is amazing news for LGBTQ families, who usually have a stigma that their children are unhappy because of the same-sex union of their parents or that they’re missing out on having a traditional family. This new study aimed to “describe the physical, mental and social well-being” of kids who have LGBTQ parents and if there was any impact that the “stigma” had on them. The study was comprised of 500 children, 315 of them from same-sex parents.

According to the study, these children with same-sex parents scored 6% higher than their peers when it came down to their overall health. This just proves that same-sex families are just has happy as traditional families and the children are thriving. The researchers believe this could be a result of same-sex parent’s focus on skills as opposed to traditional gender roles, which means the family dynamics are much happier. These children aren’t don’t have to worry about gender stereotypes so they are less stressed at conforming to them. This translates to a more harmonious family, which then results in better wellbeing and health.

The study proved that it doesn’t matter if a child has a traditional family, they don’t need both a mom and dad to thrive. It’s more about a family’s processes – parenting styles, parental wellbeing and the quality of satisfaction with the different family relationships – that the kids care about. These things have a bigger impact on a child’s life than whether or not they have a traditional family unit.

There was another study in 2015 that reported that same-sex parents invest more time into their kids than straight parents, further demonstrating why children of gay parents are happier than their peers. According to lead researcher Dr. Kate Prickett from the University of Texas theorizes that this can be a result of how children of same-sex families come about. The process is more labor intensive, involving things like adoption, surrogacy or insemination, which suggests they have such a strong passion for being a parent and thus put their all into their children.