Adoption Outcomes of by Same Sex Parents and Heterosexual Parents

There is an interesting study from the Williams Institute, at UCLA, comparing the adoption outcomes of same sex and heterosexual couples.  It’s quite an exhaustive study.  The complete version is here, and a  quick summary is here.

The main conclusions were that preparedness for adoption, mental health of parents, and the strength of the parents’ relationship with each other all impacted the development of the children;  the parents’ sexual orientation did not.

The mantra that children need a mother and a father in the home to do well is the main one I hear now from the anti-gay marriage groups.  This study disproves that—at least as far as children in their early years. 

The study used internalizing and externalizing scores to measure children’s outcomes.  A child with high externalizing scores is a child who acts out and exhibits behavior problems.  A child with high internalizing scores keeps everything inside and is prone to depression, phobias, etc.   I wasn’t familiar with the way of evaluating children’s mental health but found it very persuasive.  It’s probably a good way of evaluating anyone’s mental health.

At any rate, an interesting, important study.  Perhaps it will relieve the minds of people sincerely concerned about how the legality of same-sex marriage will affect the well-being of children.