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

对同性父母抚养的儿童的心理发展和幸福感的研究几乎完全集中在女同性恋母亲而不是男同性恋父亲的家庭。尽管一直以来都有证据表明，女同性恋母亲的子女在心理适应或性别类型行为方面与传统家庭的子女没有区别，但男同性恋父亲的子女的情况却有些不同，因为无论是异性恋还是同性恋，父亲很少成为主要的照顾者。尽管关于父亲的研究表明，异性恋父亲对子女的影响与母亲相似，但人们仍然认为父亲不如母亲适合养育子女。此外，与女同性恋母亲的儿童相比，男同性恋父亲的儿童可能会受到更大的污名化，因为男同性恋父亲家庭具有由男性领导的额外非传统特征。还有人认为，由于父母双方都是男性，而家中没有女性，因此男同性恋父亲的子女的性别发展可能与异性恋父母或女同性恋母亲的子女不同。虽然有争议，但近年来越来越多的同性恋父亲家庭是通过收养建立的。第一次调查收养同性恋父亲家庭在联合王国进行了本申请人。41双亲同性恋收养家庭进行了研究，40双亲女同性恋收养家庭，49双亲异性恋收养家庭进行了比较。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。在同性恋父亲家庭和女同性恋母亲或异性恋父母家庭之间的差异被确定，这些表明在同性恋父亲家庭更积极的父母的福祉和养育。异性恋家庭的儿童行为问题比同性恋家庭的儿童更严重。本研究的目的是在儿童进入青春期初期，即被收养儿童的身份问题变得特别突出的时候，以及最有可能出现亲子关系困难的时候，对家庭进行跟踪。纵向研究的一个主要优点是，它将使早期和并发的亲子关系质量对青少年适应的影响进行探讨。研究采用标准化的访谈、问卷调查和观察方法，与家长、青少年和教师进行接触，收集对青少年心理适应最重要的养育方面的数据，包括父母的温暖、适当控制和促进自主，以及青少年的社会、情感、性别和身份发展。还将收集关于父母和青少年本人对家庭生活的经历、态度和感受的数据。这项研究将检验这样一个假设，即当孩子进入青春期时，同性恋养父家庭将比同性恋养母家庭和异性恋养父家庭经历更大的困难。多元协方差分析将用于检查不同家庭类型之间的家庭功能是否存在显著差异;多水平回归模型将用于检查家庭结构和父母教养质量在预测青少年适应方面的相对重要性;和多个-小组潜在增长曲线模型将用于研究儿童从6岁到11岁的行为轨迹，并确定这些行为轨迹是如何作为父母养育的函数而变化的过程和家庭类型。定性程序将用于分析与父母和青少年的家庭生活经验的访谈部分的叙述。

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.