Given the magnitude of the policy issues under debate, much more study is needed. In order to generalize a set of social scientific evidence to a broader group, the samples upon which the evidence is based should accurately represent the broader group.

In a probability sample, every member of the broader group has an equal chance of being selected into the sample, and the selection is random. A article reviewed 44 same-sex parenting studies and noted that only five had probability samples; moreover, only three used a nationally representative sample. However, this same sample used by all three studies contained only 44 children of same-sex parents.

The remaining studies were all based on convenience samples, which are comprised of volunteers recruited through targeted advertisement e. Moreover, in many studies, even the opposite-sex comparison groups are not representative of their respective populations. Emerging demographic data suggest significant diversity among same-sex parents.

Moreover, minority same-sex parents and less-educated same-sex parents are more likely to be raising children than are white and more-educated parents. Small sample sizes increase the likelihood of finding false negatives—that is, concluding that there are no differences when they do in fact exist.

Of the 22 studies out of the 49 reviewed that had a different-sex comparison group, a review found only one study that had a sufficiently large sample size, which had 25 percent probability of finding a false negative. For the remaining 21 studies, the false negative rate ranged from 77 percent to 92 percent.

Gay Parents Effects on Children | cyzopuk.web.fc2.com

To conclude that two groups are different, research needs to compare a study group e. However, a surprising number of same-sex parenting studies have no opposite-sex comparison groups. For example, a review that evaluated the 59 studies in the APA report noted that only 33 had comparison groups, of which 13 clearly used single-mothers.

Moreover, some studies fail to account for all the significant differences between the study and the comparison groups—e. Researchers have noted several other methodological limitations in the research on children of parents in same-sex relationships.

They include a variety of measurement issues, such as questionable reliability and validity and potentially biased participant responses e. In addition, in many studies, participants, and researchers were not blind to the nature of the study, which may have introduced biases during the data collection and processing stages.

In contrast to most studies on children of same-sex parents, a new national study called the New Family Structures Survey NFSS offers the most representative picture to date of outcomes for children whose parents had a same-sex relationship. While the NFSS does not answer every research question, it represents an important contribution to the literature on the issue.

Better data and theories, greater detail, and more rigorous methods over an extended period of time are needed before a broader understanding can emerge. The need is all the more serious given the magnitude of the policy questions at hand related to the institution of marriage. Kim is Policy Analyst in the Domestic Policy Studies Department at The Heritage Foundation.

Brown , F. Attorney General , Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Court File No. Of the 44 studies Rosenfeld reviewed for his Demography paper, 26 studies were published prior to , 11 were published between and , and seven were published after However, adoption among same-sex parents displays the opposite trend: White and more-educated same-sex parents are more likely to have adopted.

The NFSS contains rich data on young adult children of same-sex parents and is the second largest study, after the Census, with information on these children. Screening over 15, young adults, the study identified respondents who reported their parents having had romantic same-sex relationships. Examining 40 outcomes in areas—related to their family and romantic relationships, education, physical and psychological well-being, economic and employment status, substance use, and criminal activity and victimization—it found that, compared to children in traditional intact families, those of mothers who have had a romantic same-sex relationship fared, on average, worse on 24 out of the 40 outcomes, and young adult children of fathers who have had a same-sex relationship fared worse on 19 outcomes.

Even after accounting for a number of characteristics, these differences remained. That is, respondents who are identical on these characteristics are compared. During the early s, the conventional wisdom among researchers was that children from single-parent families fared just as well as children from two-parent families.

By the mids, however, research based on nationally representative data showed that children raised by both parents tended to have better outcomes than children raised by only one. See Sara McLanahan and Gary Sandefur, Growing Up a Single Parent: What Hurts, What Helps Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, How Does Family Structure Affect Children, and What Can We Do About It?

One used the Census, and the other the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten cohort. These studies analyzed only elementary and middle-school grade retention and reading and math assessment, respectively. For these studies, see Michael J.

Policy Analyst, DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society. Marriage and family are the building blocks of all human civilization and the primary institutions of civil society.

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June 19, 5 min read Download Report. Christine Kim is a Policy Analyst focusing on welfare, family and marriage at The Heritage Foundation. Non-Representative Samples In order to generalize a set of social scientific evidence to a broader group, the samples upon which the evidence is based should accurately represent the broader group. More Study Needed Better data and theories, greater detail, and more rigorous methods over an extended period of time are needed before a broader understanding can emerge.

Christine Kim Policy Analyst, DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society. REPORT 15 min read How the U. Can Defend Life, Family, and Religious Freedom at the U.