Children of "Unstable" Marriages

Ed Whelan of NRO has a three part article about the recent study of children of various alternative forms of marriage published by the academic journal Social Science Research.  The study has caused a fair amount of buzz on the web with opponents of gay marriage quoting it and supporters of gay marriage trashing it.  Interesting that there is a secondary conclusion that is suggested by the study.  (More)

Whelan focuses on a critique of existing studies of gay parenting by LSU professor Loren Marks which identifies a number of flaws in methodology.

• Researchers examining same-sex parenting have repeatedly selected small, non-representative, homogeneous samples of privileged lesbian mothers 
• Same-sex parenting researchers have not used marriage-based intact families as heterosexual representatives, but have instead used single mothers.
• The same-sex parenting studies have failed to address a range of outcomes for children that are usually the focus of national studies on children, including drug and alcohol abuse, truancy, sexual activity, and criminality. 

So previous studies used advantageous samples of gay parenting and non-representative samples of heterosexual parenting.  In addition, prior studies have been critiqued because of "soft" data, where the responses come from the parents, not from the children, and the categories of what is measured are less than clear.

Charles C.W. Cooke, also at NRO, notes the more rigorous methods used by Regnerus although neither he nor Whelan suggest Regnerus has the final word.

"In search of his answers, Regnerus screened 15,088 people. From these, researchers found 175 people who had been raised for some of their childhood by a mother who was in a lesbian relationship, and 73 people who had been raised for some of their childhood by a father who was in a gay relationship — still a relatively small group."

Specific questions were asked to measure 40 different categories of development.  Whelan summarizes the details from Mark Regnerus' study:

"...For example, the now-adult child of a mother who has had a same-sex romantic relationship is statistically more likely to be less educated; to be currently cohabiting, on public assistance, unemployed or not fully employed; to have had an affair while married or cohabiting; to have been touched sexually as a child by a parent or other adult; to have been forced to have sex; to suffer from depression; to have been arrested and to have pled guilty to a non-minor offense; and to use marijuana frequently. That child is statistically less likely to identify as entirely heterosexual and to enjoy good health.

"The adult children of men who have had same-sex relationships fare worse on 19 of the 40 outcomes (and better on none) than children in intact biological families.

Cooke notes some disturbing trends;

"Less than 2 percent of children from intact, biological families reported experiencing sexual abuse of some nature, but that figure for children of same-sex couples is 23 percent. Similarly disturbing is that 14 percent of children from same-sex couples have spent some time in foster care, compared with around 2 percent of the American population at large. Arrest, drug experimentation, and unemployment rates were all higher among children from same-sex families."

It may well be true that the study has flaws, but certainly not a flaw as glaring as selecting single moms as representative of the typical heterosexual parenting situation.  In fact it seems Regnerus did separate out a number of parenting categories and his research suggests that kids raised by biological parents fare the best.

  

Interesting that Cooke points out that Regnerus study could tell more about the difference between children of stable homes vs unstable ones and perhaps would not be best correlated to the sexual orientation of the parents.  But he also adds that stability in gay relationships is itself rather rare.  In another article, Cooke documents the high rate of instability in same-sex relationships:

"In Norway, male same-sex marriages are 50 percent more likely to end in divorce than heterosexual marriages, and female same-sex marriages are an astonishing 167 percent more likely to be dissolved. In Sweden, the divorce risk for male-male partnerships is 50 percent higher than for heterosexual marriages, and the divorce risk for female partnerships is nearly double that for men."

So even if the case against gay parenting in specific is not water tight, the reality is that kids raised by gay parents still fare worse than kids in traditional families.  Cooke concludes

"Regnerus’s study is a success insofar as it answers the fundamental question of whether children raised by same-sex couples end up differently: Clearly they do, and it does not require a conservative viewpoint to see that “differently” very often means “worse.” It is debatable, though, whether this is an indictment of same-sex households or of instability. Indeed, the major takeaway from the report is less an indictment that same-sex households are a negative thing and more an affirmation that intact, biological households are a positive thing. Put simply, if you want to give your children the best start in life, you should have children inside of wedlock and stay together for the duration. But then, we already knew that."

Progressive Christians who support same-sex union as a "justice" issue need to consider justice for the next generation and not just the feelings of two "partners" seeking self-fulfillment.  The reason to preserve traditional marriage includes the next generation, not just this one.