Parenting and the psychological development of children raised in adoptive gay father families: A follow up at early adolescence

关于同性父母抚养的孩子的心理发展和幸福感的研究几乎完全集中在以女同性恋母亲为家长的家庭，而不是同性恋父亲。尽管一直有证据表明，母亲是女同性恋的孩子在心理适应或性行为方面与传统家庭的孩子没有什么不同，但父亲是同性恋的孩子的情况有所不同，因为父亲是异性恋者或男同性恋者的子女很少能成为主要的照顾者。尽管有关父亲的研究表明，异性恋父亲对孩子的影响方式与母亲相似，但人们仍然认为，父亲比母亲更不适合养育子女。此外，有男同性恋父亲的孩子可能比有女同性恋母亲的孩子更容易受到耻辱，因为男同性恋父亲家庭具有额外的非传统特征，即由男性领导。还有人提出，由于有两名男性父母在场，而家中没有一名女性父母，有男同性恋父亲的子女的性别发育可能不同于有异性恋父母或女同性恋母亲的子女。尽管存在争议，但近年来，越来越多的同性恋父亲家庭是通过收养创建的。目前的申请者对领养的同性恋父亲家庭进行了第一次调查。研究对象为41个双亲同性恋收养家庭，并与40个双亲女同性恋收养家庭和49个双亲异性收养家庭进行比较。这些儿童的平均年龄为6岁，他们被安置在收养家庭的平均时间为3年。在同性恋父亲家庭与女同性恋母亲或异性恋父母家庭之间存在差异的情况下，这表明同性恋父亲家庭的父母幸福和养育方式更积极。与男女同性恋家庭相比，异性恋儿童的行为问题更严重。本研究的目的是在儿童达到青春期早期、被收养儿童的身份问题变得特别突出以及亲子关系最有可能出现困难的时候对家庭进行跟踪。这项研究的纵向性质的一个主要优点是，它将使人们能够探索早期和同时存在的亲子关系质量对青少年适应的影响。采用标准化访谈、问卷调查和对家长、青少年和教师的观察方法，将获得对青少年心理适应最重要的父母教养方面的数据，包括父母温暖、适当控制和促进自主性，以及青少年的社会、情感、性别和身份发展。还将获得关于父母和青少年本身对其家庭生活的经历、态度和感受的数据。这项研究将检验这样一种假设，即养父养子家庭在孩子进入青春期时，会经历比领养女同性恋母亲家庭和收养异性恋父母家庭更大的困难。多元协方差分析将被用来检验不同家庭类型之间在家庭功能方面是否存在显著差异；多水平回归模型将被用来检验家庭结构和父母养育质量在预测青少年适应方面的相对重要性；多组潜在生长曲线模型将被用来研究儿童从6岁到11岁的行为轨迹，并确定这些行为轨迹如何随着父母养育过程和家庭类型的变化而变化。将使用定性程序来分析与父母和青少年关于家庭生活经历的访谈部分的叙述。

Research on the psychological development and wellbeing of children raised by same-sex parents has focused almost exclusively on families headed by lesbian mothers rather than gay fathers. Although it has consistently been shown that children with lesbian mothers do not differ from children in traditional families with respect to psychological adjustment or sex-typed behaviour, the circumstances of children with gay fathers are somewhat different as it is rare for fathers, whether heterosexual or gay, to be primary caregivers. Although research on fathering has shown that heterosexual fathers influence their children in similar ways to mothers, it remains the case that fathers are believed to be less suited to parenting than are mothers. Moreover, children with gay fathers may be exposed to greater stigmatisation than children with lesbian mothers because gay father families possess the additional non-traditional feature of being headed by men. It has also been suggested that the gender development of children with gay fathers may differ from that of children with heterosexual parents or lesbian mothers due to the presence of two male parents and the absence of a female parent from the home. Although controversial, in recent years a growing number of gay father families have been created through adoption. The first investigation of adoptive gay father families in the United Kingdom was conducted by the present applicants. Forty-one two-parent gay adoptive families were studied in comparison with 40 two-parent lesbian adoptive families, and 49 two-parent heterosexual adoptive families. The average age of the children was 6 years and the average length of time that they had been placed with their adoptive family was 3 years. Where differences were identified between the gay father families and the lesbian mother or heterosexual parent families, these indicated more positive parental wellbeing and parenting in gay father families. Children's behavioural problems were greater among children in heterosexual than in gay and lesbian families. The aim of the present study is to follow up the families when the children reach early adolescence, the time at which identity issues become particularly salient for adopted children and when difficulties in parent-child relationships are most likely to arise. A major advantage of the longitudinal nature of the study is that it will enable the influence of both early and concurrent parent-child relationship quality on adolescent adjustment to be explored. Using standardised interviews, questionnaires and observational methods with parents, adolescents and teachers, data will be obtained on the aspects of parenting that matter most for the psychological adjustment of adolescents including parental warmth, appropriate control and the facilitation of autonomy, and on the social, emotional, gender and identity development of the adolescents. Data will also be obtained on the experiences, attitudes and feelings of the parents and the adolescents themselves regarding their family life. The study will test the hypothesis that adoptive gay father families will experience greater difficulties than adoptive lesbian mother families and adoptive heterosexual parent families when their children reach adolescence. Multivariate analysis of covariance will be used to examine whether there are significant differences in family functioning between the different family types; multilevel regression models will be used to examine the relative importance of family structure and quality of parenting in the prediction of adolescent adjustment; and multiple-group latent growth curve models will be used to examine children's behaviour trajectories from age 6 to age 11 and to establish how these vary as a function of parenting processes and family type. Qualitative procedures will be used to analyse the narratives from the sections of the interviews with parents and adolescents on experiences of family life.