Charlotte J. Patterson
Featured Faculty Researcher of the Semester
How does parental sexual orientation affect child development? Much of my
recent work has been designed to address this question. Together with
students and other colleagues, I have conducted studies of child
development among youngsters who were conceived by lesbian or heterosexual
parents, using the resources of a single sperm bank; I have studied
children parented by lesbian and heterosexual parents both in Northern
California and in Central Virginia; and I have studied data about
teenagers living with same-sex couples that are drawn from national
samples of adolescents in the United States. Our findings suggest that,
while the offspring of lesbian mothers are developing in positive ways,
and are in fact difficult to distinguish from the children of heterosexual
parents on many assessments, they do experience upbringings that are
different in some respects from those of youngsters growing up with
heterosexual parents. For instance, lesbian and heterosexual couples
describe their divisions of labor in quite different ways, with
heterosexual couples more likely to specialize - he in paid employment and
she in unpaid household work and childcare - and lesbian couples more
likely to share both paid and unpaid labor evenly. I am interested in
learning more about what impact this and other differences in their
upbringings may have on the offspring of lesbian and gay parents.
Studies that are currently underway include an internet survey of lesbian
and gay families with children, and a study of lesbian, gay, and
heterosexual couples and their adoptive children. In future work, I would
especially like to study fertility intentions of young adults in sexual
minority communities as well as to learn more about the experiences of
children growing up with gay fathers. I hope that this research will shed
light on classic questions about what is important in parenting as well as
on contemporary legal and policy issues relevant to sexual orientation and
family life.
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