I'm taking a Family Relations class here at BYU-I this semester. For one of our homework assignments, we studied the research that the Supreme Court used in March of 2013 to decide that children are not adversely affected when they are raised in a family with parents of the same sex. This research was conducted by the American Psychological Association. I’ve made a list of the errors in the research:
Only 59 samples were cited in this study, and most of those samples were extremely small. One sample only contained 5 couples, and several didn’t contain any. They simply asked psychologist’s opinions and used those as empirical evidence.
At least 11 of the 59 studies compared gay and lesbian parents with single mothers. A lot of other research has been done that shows that a child is at a distinct disadvantage when he/she is raised by only one parent. Saying that gay parent’s children have better lives than those with single parents isn’t saying much (this isn’t universal of course, but in general, single parent homes are not good for children.)
Most of the homosexual couples sampled were privileged Caucasians, meaning that they had a significantly higher education than the average single or heterosexual mother. Because of this, they are more likely to have more resources, etc. than less privileged parents.
The study claims that gay fathers are no different than other fathers, but the only evidence they have to back up that claim is the opinions of the gay fathers themselves, who of course are biased.
Most of the samples were “convenience samples,” meaning that most of the couples sampled were known by the researchers, or knew someone who knew the researchers and chose to participate in the studies. Also, some of them answered the call to be in the study through a gay-lesbian magazine. As most people know, you only volunteer to be in a survey if you have a strong opinion about it.
This study did not focus on the usual child outcomes that are looked at in other family studies. In most other studies, drug abuse, alcoholism, education, sexual abuse, etc. are evaluated. In this study however, the researchers mostly focused on the opinions of the parents. How the parents thought their children were doing, how they thought they were doing as parents.
This research is obviously very flawed, and not reliable at all. However, when it was presented to the Supreme Court, several of the judges didn’t even look at it. This decision made an impact on the Supreme Court decision earlier this year that legalized gay marriage. However, there has been research that was done in the right way on the subject. I would encourage everyone to check out this website.http://familystructurestudies.com/ Look at the methods, the sample sizes, the comparisons, and the random selection of the samples. This is much better research. Also, look at the results under the tab "Outcomes for Children." I love children so much, and it makes me so sad to think about how many more children will be affected by same-sex marriage. I will probably have to care for some of these children in my career, and I hope and pray that I will know how to help them.
