A long-term American study of lesbian families reveals that children in lesbian households are less likely to endure physical or sexual abuse by a parent or caregiver.
Out of the 78 boys and girls, all 17 years old, responding to the survey, not one reported ever being physically of sexually abused by a parent or caregiver.
Researchers compared the zero-per-cent abuse rate to national survey results where 26 per cent of American adolescents, or 1 in 4 children, reported being physically abused by a parent or caregiver, and 8.3 per cent, almost 1 in 10, reported sexual abuse.
The findings, published last week in the journal Archives of Sexual Behaviour, are part of the U.S. National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study, now in its 24th year. The study challenges opponents of same-sex families.
“I think more information like this needs to come out because we still find discrimination and prejudice within our courts about presumptions of the level of care that children receive in same-sex relationship families,” says Michael Saini, an assistant social work professor at the University of Toronto. “Socially, there’s still a lot of stigma about same-sex parents, but I think that’s changing over time.”