BC Council for Families

The ongoing battle for public opinion over whether children succeed with one or two parents, female or male, is full of conflicting facts and figures. With the help of findings from a new, precedent setting study out of NYU that compares two parent families of both heterosexual and gay parents, debate might be settling just a bit more.

How Does the Gender of Parents Matter? found that strengths typically associated with married mother-father families appear to the same extent in families with two mothers and potentially in those with two fathers. The study found many more similarities than differences among children of lesbian and heterosexual parents. On average, two mothers tended to play with their children more, were less likely to use physical discipline, and were less likely to raise children with chauvinistic attitudes. Studies of gay male families are still limited and information on their parenting styles is another avenue for future research.

What the study reinforces is that two compatible, committed parents are advantageous for children over single parents, regardless of parental gender, marital status or sexual identity. What remains unclear is whether the gender of parents really matters at all.

The NYU study is published in the February issue of the Journal of Marriage and Families.