Children of same sex marriage are happier and healthier than their peers, according to new research out of Australia.
Researchers have found that children fare better in terms of physical health and social wellbeing than children in the general population, according to a study at the University of Melbourne.
“It’s often suggested that children with same-sex parents have poorer outcomes because they’re missing a parent of a particular sex. But research my colleagues and I published in the journal BMC Public Health shows this isn’t the case,” lead researcher Simon Crouch wrote on the Conversation.
Researchers surveyed 315 same sex parents with a total of 500 children across Australia. In all, about 80 percent were female parents and 18 percent were male parents. Children of same sex marriage had higher scores in terms of general health and family cohesion. The study controlled for socioeconomic factors like education and income level.
The results could be due to equal distribution of household duties when compared to heterosexual couples. In other categories like emotional behavior and physical function, homosexual and heterosexual couples fared the same.
The study did have some shortcomings: it wasn’t randomized and it was small because there just aren’t that many same sex couples with kids yet.
“Many studies have demonstrated that children’s well-being is affected much more by their relationships with their parents, their parents’ sense of competence and security, and the presence of social and economic support for the family than by the gender or the sexual orientation of their parents,” said Siegel, co-author of the American Academy of Pediatrics report in The Washington Post.
Approximately 594,000 same sex couples currently live in the U.S., according to a 2010 U.S. census report. The percentage ranged from .29 percent in Wyoming to 4.01 percent in D.C. Currently, 19 states have legal same sex marriage and 31 states still have a ban in place. The most restrictive states in terms of same sex marriage adoption include Mississippi and Utah.
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Image: Trent Kelley