The mental health of young adults with lesbian parents is the same as their peers, study finds

New findings from the 32-year U.S. National Longitudinal Lesbian Study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine

The longest-running prospective study on sexual minority parent families found that 25-year-olds raised by lesbian parents do as well on multiple measures of psychological health as adults from a population-based sample. The researchers compared relationships, educational/job performance, and behavioral, emotional and mental health problems in the two samples.

The 25-year-olds are participants in the ongoing U.S. National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study ( NLLFS ), which has followed this cohort of offspring from conception to adulthood. The NLLFS, now in its 32nd year, has a 92 percent retention rate. This is the first NLLFS report based on data collected when the offspring were legal adults.

"When I began this study in 1986, there was considerable speculation about the future mental health of children conceived through donor insemination and raised by sexual minority parents," said lead author Nanette Gartrell, M.D., Visiting Distinguished Scholar at the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law. "We have followed these families since the mothers were inseminating or pregnant and now find that their 25-year-old daughters and sons score as well on mental health as other adults of the same age."

The study focused on mental health because the peak incidence of many psychiatric disorders occurs during young adulthood. The researchers matched the 77 adult offspring in the NLLFS with a population-based sample of 77 adults of comparable age, sex, race/ethnicity and education to examine any disparities in their mental health.

The researchers specifically assessed adaptive functioning, the presence of behavioral or emotional problems, scores on the mental health diagnostic scales, and percentages of scores in the borderline or clinical range. Results showed no significant difference between the two groups for any of the measures.

"These findings demonstrate that claims that it is harmful for children to be raised by same-sex couples are completely unfounded," said co-author Henny Bos, Ph.D., Professor of Child Development and Education, and Endowed Chair in Sexual and Gender Diversity in Families and Youth at the University of Amsterdam. "There is no justification to restrict child custody or placement, or access to reproductive technologies, based on the parents' sexual orientation."

There are an estimated 114,000 same-sex couples raising children in the United States, including 86,000 female couples. Ten states, including Alabama, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, allow state-licensed child welfare agencies to refuse to place and provide services to children and families if it conflicts with their religious beliefs.

This is the 23rd publication from data collected in the NLLFS. Previous research found that the development of psychological well-being in these offspring over a 7-year period from childhood through adolescence was the same for those conceived through known or unknown sperm donors. In addition, the absence of male role models did not adversely affect the psychological adjustment of 17-year-olds raised in lesbian households. None of these 17-year-olds had been abused by a parent or caregiver. In contrast, 26 percent of 17-year-olds nationally report physical abuse and 8 percent report sexual abuse by a parent or caregiver.

The report, "National Longitudinal Lesbian Family StudyMental Health of Adult Offspring," appears in The New England Journal of Medicine and is co-authored by Nanette Gartrell, M.D., Visiting Distinguished Scholar, along with Henny Bos, Ph.D., former Visiting International Scholar at the Williams Institute, and Audrey Koh, M.D., Associate Professor, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, University of California, San Francisco.

The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, a think tank on sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy, is dedicated to conducting rigorous, independent research with real-world relevance.