Study: High-Risk Kids Do Well w/Gay or Straight Parents
A new study finds that high-risk children adopted from foster care do equally well when raised by gay, lesbian, or heterosexual parents. The study was conducted by UCLA psychologists in the first multi-year study of children adopted by these three groups.
Lead study author Justin Lavner says the study was not meant to compare the groups, but hopes the findings will help eliminate the stigma that gays and lesbians feel when dealing with the child welfare system.
LAVNER: “I hope that this study provides some scientific evidence in terms of how these families are faring over time. And saying that from this study, and from others like it, that even with this really high-risk population, gay and lesbian parents are doing just as well as heterosexual parents are, and that the kids of these parents are doing just as well, I should say.”
The psychologists studied 82 foster children ranging from four months old to eight years old over the course of two years and found very few differences in the children raised by straight parents and those raised by gay or lesbian parents. The childrens’ cognitive growth was tested three times-after two months, one year, and two years and showed “substantial growth” with an average IQ growth of ten points- from about 85 to 95. Lavner also said the parents reported stable behavior and social development.
There are currently over one-hundred-thousand children in foster care in the United States awaiting adoption.
-Chasen Stern
It is great that there is a study to prove what everyone should have known anyway!
5kidswdisabilities
October 28, 2012 at 4:56 pm