Time with Children in Different- and Same-Sex Two-Parent Families

• In Event: 395 - Section on the Sociology of the Family Paper Session. Sexualities in Family Contexts

Abstract

Public debate on same-sex marriage often focuses on the disadvantages that children raised by same-sex couples may face. On one hand, little evidence suggests any difference in the outcomes of children raised by same-sex versus different-sex parents. On the other hand, most studies are often limited by problems of sample selection and size, and few directly measure the parenting practices thought to influence child development. This research note demonstrates how the 2003-2013 American Time Use Survey (ATUS) (n = 44,188) may help to address these limitations. Two-tier Cragg’s Tobit alternative models estimated the child-focused time engaged in with children by parents in different- and same-sex two-parent couples. Women with same-sex partners were more likely than women and men with different-sex partners to spend any child-focused time engaged with children, but only women (regardless of partners’ sex) and men with different-sex partners differed in their time engaged with children. These results support prior research that same-sex partnerships do not provide appreciably different contexts for child development than different-sex partnerships. We highlight the potential for existing nationally-representative datasets to provide preliminary insights in lieu of datasets with more sophisticated assessments of sexual minority families.

Authors

• Kate C. Prickett, University of Texas-Austin

• Alexa Martin-Storey, Université de Sherbrooke

• Robert Crosnoe, University of Texas-Austin