Having two mums is no worse than having a mum and a dad and could be better than having a solo parent, a review of research on the subject has found.The review, published in the February issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family, found that while there
Having two mums is no worse than having a mum and a dad and could be better than having a solo parent, a review of research on the subject has found.
The review, published in the February issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family, found that while there is a common perception that children need both a mother and a father to do well, there is no research that shows this.
Sociologists Judith Stacey of New York University and Timothy J. Biblarz from the University of Southern California found that much research that supposedly shows children need a parent of both genders is “apples and oranges” research.
These studies compared heterosexual couples to single parents but not to same-sex couples.
So the authors reviewed 81 studies conducted since 1990 that either compared lesbian couples to heterosexual couples or single mothers to single fathers.
They found that the children of lesbian and heterosexual couples are more alike than they are different and that social class and educational background are more important in parenting style than gender alone.
They couldn’t find enough research to do a similar review of gay male couples but the researchers predicted the results would be similar and said the quality of parenting is more important than the gender of the parents.
