I TOTALLY agree that there isn't enough representation in research of same-sex couples, and that is a serious limitation in the research. At the same time, the literature is targeted to represent families where teen pregnancy has occurred, and you don't get that so much with homosexual couples.
I think what they're really getting at and have seen in the research is that TWO parents are really necessary to be in a child's life for better developmental outcomes, and when 84% of families where parents have split up (or were never together in the first place) have no father in the picture, that can be problematic, especially where there's this history of social programs targeting help for mothers and completely ignoring that the fathers need to be a part of the child's development as well. In fact, in the 70s social workers would come into a household and LOOK for men's clothing, shoes, etc and if they found the presence of a man in the household they would cut services. That really contributed to this culture of "maybe it's better if the mother is on her own so she can get help" combined of course with a LOT of factors, but the goal of newer best practices is now to involve the fathers with their baby mommas and their babies so that they and their families have better outcomes.
I would LOVE to see a study on outcomes for same sex parents. My guess is that they're a bit older than the population that these programs deal with, just in terms of adoption laws.
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Date: 2010-03-12 04:38 am (UTC)I think what they're really getting at and have seen in the research is that TWO parents are really necessary to be in a child's life for better developmental outcomes, and when 84% of families where parents have split up (or were never together in the first place) have no father in the picture, that can be problematic, especially where there's this history of social programs targeting help for mothers and completely ignoring that the fathers need to be a part of the child's development as well. In fact, in the 70s social workers would come into a household and LOOK for men's clothing, shoes, etc and if they found the presence of a man in the household they would cut services. That really contributed to this culture of "maybe it's better if the mother is on her own so she can get help" combined of course with a LOT of factors, but the goal of newer best practices is now to involve the fathers with their baby mommas and their babies so that they and their families have better outcomes.
I would LOVE to see a study on outcomes for same sex parents. My guess is that they're a bit older than the population that these programs deal with, just in terms of adoption laws.