A new study has found children with same-sex parents are more “emotionally stable”.

The research – which was published in The Journal of Developmental and Behavioural Paediatrics – found that a child’s well-being was linked to how well the family functions are rather than parents’ sexuality.

Three groups of parents living in Italy took part in the online survey and included 70 gay fathers, 125 lesbians and 195 heterosexual couples.

The families were matched on their child’s characteristics and assessed on their parenting skills, family functioning and their child’s strengths and difficulties.

Professor Roberto Baiocco, from the University of Rome, said: “Our findings suggested that children with same-sex parents fare well, both in terms of psychological adjustment and prosocial behaviour.

“Overall, children of same-sex parents had fewer reported difficulties than children of different-sex parents.

“The results showed no major differences in the children’s psychological adjustment among the three groups of families.”

Gay fathers reportedly were the best functioning families, which was speculated to be because of the high level of commitment needed for homosexual men to become parents via surrogacy.

The Italian study shows that there are no increase problems for children with same-sex parents compared to heterosexual couples despite gay adoption still being illegal in the country.