Kids of same-sex couples perform better in school?
A new study by researchers from the University of Oxford said that primary/elementary and secondary/middle school students raised by same-sex couples academically outperform their peers raised by straight couples.
“Our results indicate that children raised by same-sex parents from birth outperform children raised by different-sex parents on standardized test scores at the end of primary education by about .14 standard deviations,” the study’s summary reads. “By contrast, children who live with same-sex parents at a later date perform worse (albeit not significantly) on the test than children with different-sex parents, likely due to the negative influence of parental separation.”
To get this result, the researchers looked at school reports concerning 3,000 children of same-sex couples in the Netherlands. Those children were then compared to more than a million children with different-sex parents.
Deni Mazerekaj, a postdoctoral researcher at the university and the lead author of the study, told UNILAD that the findings were probably influenced by the socioeconomic status of same-sex parents. The researchers, Mazerkaj, Kristof De Witte, and Sofie Cabus, found that same-sex parents typically were wealthier, older, and more educated than the typical different-sex couple.
“Same-sex couples often have to use expensive fertility treatments and adoption procedures to have a child, meaning they tend to have a high level of wealth,” Mazrekaj reasoned.
He then added, “However, once we controlled for SES, the positive associations reduced, but remained positive. Thus it is likely that other factors also play a role, for instance these are wanted pregnancies and same-sex parents are also very likely to be highly motivated to become parents given the procedures they have to undergo to have children. “
Mazerekaj also noted that more research is needed to discover the hidden factors that influence gay parenting and its positive effect on children.
Source: UNILAD,
