Study: Gay Adoptive Parents as Capable as Traditional Heterosexual Parents in Raising Children

Controversies surrounding the ability of same-sex couples in raising well-adjusted children have been under fire in the last few years. Conservatives argue that having same-sex individuals for parents have a negative impact in the development of a child. Nevertheless, it seems like scientific research negate this assumption.

Rachael H. Farr, from the University of Kentucky, have followed several gay and lesbian parents and their adoptive children for almost ten years in order to study the impact of a non-traditional family setting to young people. Her research, which was recently published in Developmental Psychology journal, revealed that children raised by homosexual adoptive parents grow up to be well-adjusted as much as children who grow up in a more traditional setting.

The research followed 100 adoptive families, lesbian, gay and heterosexual, from the time the children are toddlers until they reach middle childhood. Farr explains that her study is quite possibly the first to tackle the longitudinal effect of either homosexual or heterosexual rearing as factors for child development.

"To the best of my knowledge This is the first study that has followed children adopted by lesbian, gay, and heterosexual parents over time from early to middle childhood. Longitudinal research (like this) offers insight into what factors may be the best or strongest predictors of children's development, over and above information that can be gathered at only one time point" explained far as reported by Science Daily.

The research could not have arrived at a better time especially considering the upward trend in gay couples opting to adopt. According to statistics, two million LGBT people are interested in adopting. At present, 65000 children have been adopted by same-sex parents. Farr notes that she is hopeful her research would foster diversity in adoption laws:

"The findings may also help to move public debate forward about parenting and child outcomes across a diversity of family forms."