Same-sex parents spend more time with their children than different-sex parents, according to a new study by the University of Texas.
Based on U.S. Census Bureau data from over 40,000 parents, the study found that families headed by two mothers spent the most amount of time together — in fact, they spent 40 percent more time with their children than parents spend on average.
Study author says, “Our findings support the argument that parental investment in children is at least as great — and possibly greater — in same-sex couples as for different-sex couples.”
The study of American families by The Population Research Center at UT also analyzed the type of time parents spent with their children. For example, it didn’t count time children were playing alone while parents happened to be around, time watching television, or other passive activities. Instead, the study focused on time spent studying, playing, bathing, and even attending appointments with doctors.
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“Our study suggests that … children with two-parents-of-the-same-sex families received more focused time from their parents,” Prickett says. 3.5 hours a day, compared with 2.5 hours by children with different-sex parents.”
H/t: LGBTQ Nation
Jonathan Vincenzo Romero V
Why do you think that is? Regarding hetero parents,it’s usually the father (typical straight guy) who lacks in the parenting department. Especially when it comes to raising a son. The mother is usually the one who does most of the parenting work (in many cases). However,contrary to what most uneducated,dumb ass straight people think,there’s no such thing as “male and female” roles when we’re talking about gay/lesbian couples and parents. It should be no surprise that both dads and both moms in gay families share an equal part in parenting and are more attentive to their children. Hey,it’s the truth. For any gay who thinks this is a “flawed” study,I bet your mind would change if you actually were raising a child instead of hitting circuit parties all the time.
Blackceo
I can definitely see the validity of that study. I think in same sex relationships you do not have the kind of defined gender roles that you do in heterosexual relationships where more often the female partner is the nurturer and deals more with the children than the male partner who is more the provider and less hands on. This has changed greatly in more recent times though as you see more fathers in hetero relationships be more hands on with their children, but I still see it a lot in my family and in my hetero friends who have children where the fathers spend less quality time with their children.
In same sex relationships I think there is also a degree of extra effort in being attentive to the children because of society’s historical view that a child shouldn’t have two moms or two dads. So there is that extra time spend as a way of normalizing more and molding that child from influences in tv and print media, and from what they will see in school and in their community when they will see more mommies with daddies. There may be a degree of feeling overprotective of the child(ren) as well. I also think that in same sex relationships, in most of the cases both individuals are truly invested in wanting a child in the first place. It has to be planned. There are no unplanned pregnancies. Both have the desire to be parents and I also think want to prove to the naysayers that there is nothing abnormal about it and so they can say look at how good at parenting we are.
meghanada
Studies on same-sex parenting are a mixed bag, showing both positive and negative associations. But only the ones with a positive conclusion make the press. It’s important to notice that children who live with their biological parents fare better than anyone else. As in gay families, the children are by necessity not living with both their biological parents, gay families should not be compared to those ‘biological families’ but with heterosexual households in a similar arrangement (step or adoptive families). In such comparisons, the ‘negative’ associations of gay parenting disappear.
Jane Freeman
I know couples that are same sex parents and the kids are wonderful well adjusted, brilliant and tolerant! And I am honourary Auntie. I love them all.
Masc Pride
I’m very skeptical of studies and statistics these days, especially ones that seemed drenched in subjectivity. It’s fairly easy to spin them however you want in order to prove what you want to prove. If another university finds that heteros raise happier kids than gay couples, we will call the findings homophobic. But when a study finds that gays are somehow better than heteros, it’s totally okay and time to get the message out. That is pure hypocrisy. To even conduct such studies seems petty, immature and unnecessary. There are great hetero parents and shitty hetero parents just like there are great gay parents and shitty gay parents. It’s not a contest.
Avery Alvarez
@meghanada: Can you give examples of the negative associations? I’m curious now.
Will Glitzern
No surprise. We tend to do everything a little bit better.
Valentina Vitale
What did you say? I wasn’t paying attention.
meghanada
@Avery Alvarez:
Grade retention is more of a problem to the children of cohabitating gay families than to children of married heterosexual couples. However, they do similarly (or better) than children of cohabitating heterosexual couples or divorced heterosexuals. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3000058/
I think this is a totally expected outcome, as studies show that adoptive children as a whole are not as well adjusted as the children of standard households, and as said before, the child of a gay couple is the adoptive child to at least one of his/her parents.
GayEGO
@Jonathan Vincenzo Romero V: Right on!
GayEGO
@meghanada: With all of the divorced, remarried straight couples that have children, it is not unusual for the children to be adopted. Good parenting is the real benefit to children regardless of parent genders.
Desert Boy
Totally true.
nocibur61739
@meghanada: Sorry to say but, the link you supplied is almost 5 years old. Too old to be referenced. If you can find a study that is more current, I would love to entertain your thoughts. Other than that, it is irrelevant to this article let alone hence being included in this conversation. Studies over 2 years are now disputatious in these times… Progress in action.
DaturazChild
@nocibur61739: That linked study is especially irrelevant when you consider that there are newer forms of adoption such as open adoption (like in my case) that are gaining momentum. In our case, my daughter is not living with either biological parent. However, she does know them, has a “distant” relationship with them and we talk about any of her feelings that come up around it. In addition, I am a stay at home dad so most of my time is specifically dedicated to her. It’s been that way since she was a day old. She is very close to my nephews and both sets of her grand parents. Time will tell with the grade thing but she is also at a private school here in Montreal that has a strong emphasis on academics. My point is that the world is changing faster than these studies can remain relevant and I wonder how useful they are on either side beyond advancing a specific agenda. I personally never leap to buy in to any specific study with out knowing why the study was conducted and who funded it. All of that matters.
meghanada
@nocibur61739:
“Sorry to say but, the link you supplied is almost 5 years old. Too old to be referenced”
That’s ridiculous. A study can only be refuted in its own merits – pointing out flaws in its design or conclusions. A study’s year of publication has nothing to do with that. In fact, it’s not rare to find researches published in the 70s and 80s be referenced today. Plus, society has not changed enough from 2010 to 2015 for you to make that argument.
The study posted above has been referenced over a dozen times in 2015 only.(See link below.) Maybe you should contact all those research teams and inform them that all studies have a 5 year expiration date.
https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?as_ylo=2015&hl=fr-FR&as_sdt=0,5&sciodt=0,5&cites=6612403800829106406&scipsc=
Bauhaus
Not surprised. Same-sex parent here.
@meghanada:
Not the case for my child.
DaturazChild
@Bauhaus: Not the case for my child either, but then we are real parents not a statistic with an agenda attached to it.
Bauhaus
@DaturazChild:
Exactly. Enjoyed reading your first comment. Kudos for staying home. I did for a few years and loved it. Mine is an adult now – you blink and they’re grown (cliche, but true).
JackFknTwist
We did not need a study to tell us this.
Many gay Dads go through sheer hell and expense to have kids…….they have the motivation and devotion to put the effort into education and nurturing.
Many kids of straight parents don’t get the same deliberate focus of attention.
Melissa Kelly Campbell
totally see it… lots of work goes in to getting the kids…never taken for granted
Arconcyyon
Suprisse the pesquiçe ! yes yes very same family ilgbtt (just marreid gays male gays fameli ) ! they family heterossex Womem Mem Kids Teen Childs ! Hause Home puf lar diferteion very more very oky ! City País Adaticiuon the byby teen kids childs is littel littel .Goood Luck future just MALE FAMELE Marreid FAMILY Star Soceity .
Ed Chambers
Father, give us WISDOM in Love. Prepare Us For The Prophetic Events To Come. In God We Trust…
Glücklich
Study says studies warrant continued study.
Jaroslaw
@meghanada: others have said this in a roundabout way, but I will say it explicitly – I cannot believe the statement “children fare best with their biological parents” under any circumstances. First of all most states have at least 5K to 30K children (depending on the size of the state) in foster care. Then you have all the “oops” children (drunken party, forgot to use birth control etc. etc.) children. Then as others have said, children are taken for granted. This is not the case with the vast majority of Gay parents due to the efforts to have/adopt them. Many children will fare well with their bio parents, of course, but not “best”.
Giancarlo85
Children fare best with their biological parents? What a crock. This is where meghanada has lost its mind once again. This right wing troll citing a well refuted and debunked study… can’t explain the hundreds of thousands of kids left in the adoption system in this country. Right wing crock of crap… and meghanada knows it. Same sex parents with adopted children raise children just as well as those kids who are raised by their biological parents.
BeauBoi69
@ meghanada You didn’t even read the article you claim supports you assertion! Know how I know? Because the article you linked to says the EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT YOU CLAIM!!! From your linked article, in the FIRST PARAGRAPH:
“Heterosexual married couples are the family type whose children have the lowest rates of grade retention, but the advantage of heterosexual married couples is mostly due to their higher socioeconomic status.”
You don’t have a ideological bias, huh? Well, I am calling you out! Your either self-hating, or your a divisive ideological shill! Either way, we don’t have time for your nonsense. Go blow smoke up someone else’s backside.
Avery Alvarez
@meghanada: Yes, well sometimes kids don’t end up with their bio parents because their bio parents abandon them. They drop the kids off at an orphanage and forget about them. That’s the best case scenario. Sometimes they have the baby in their room, or in their high school bathroom, on the street, then what do they do? The only thing a biological parents would – they wrap the baby in a plastic bag and throw it in the garbage.
So I have to add to the choir of people who disagreed with you and your statement “children fare best with their bio parents under any circumstances.”
Joe
Homosexuals don’t take parenting for granted as heterosexuals do.
Shannon
Of course this study makes sense…..since gay couples have so much more time invested in the planning and wanting of a child; unlike the majority of hetero couples who don’t have to think about it. Taking the ability to reproduce for granted…. Oops we’re pregnant basically.
Giancarlo85
@BeauBoi69: Nobody how the troll has gone silent. The shill can’t justify anything it has said.
@meghanada:
Time and time again studies have proven same sex parents are just as effective as their heterosexual counterparts.
The troll goes up against what the APA has maintained:
http://www.apa.org/news/press/response/gay-parents.aspx
“That is, lesbian and gay parents are as likely as heterosexual parents to provide supportive and healthy environments for their children. This body of research has shown that the adjustment, development and psychological well-being of children are unrelated to parental sexual orientation and that the children of lesbian and gay parents are as likely as those of heterosexual parents to flourish.”
—
The APA comes to this conclusion through research and documentation.
Not blowing smoke anymore. Oh and yeah go ahead Meghanada, you self hating tool… go ahead and come up with something else. The APA says same sex parents are just as likely to provie supportive and healthy environments. You say anything in the opposite and you’re going up against thousands of experts. So who should we believe?
So yeah your “five year old” study is a pile of debunked shit.
Giancarlo85
*Notice how the troll has gone silent.
Don’t expect any other responses.