3-003 - The role of parent gender and sexual orientation for family formation and child well-being

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Family research has predominantly focused on heterosexual, two-parent headed families. In order to examine how gender and sexual orientation affect the desire to parent, and parent-child well-being, it is necessary to broaden the family context incorporated within developmental studies. In recent decades medical and social advances have meant that there are increasing opportunities to parent for same-sex orientated adults, through adoption and assisted reproduction technologies for example. These families are planned, and face particular biological and social challenges. Researching child development in these families enables the roles of gender and sexual orientation to be assessed, for the role in aspects of parenting and child development. In this symposium a multidisciplinary, and life-long trajectory approach is employed to examine parenting aspirations and child development.

The first paper in this symposium assesses the predictors for parenting aspirations across gender and sexual orientation in a sample of 118,960 childless gay, lesbian and heterosexual adults participating in a large cross-sectional British national survey. Demographic, personality, life goals, and relationship status were considered for the predictive power for the desire to parent. The second paper evaluates parent and child development during the early years of development, in a sample of gay and lesbian headed families in America. The third paper utilizes a Dutch longitudinal study to consider the well-being and parent-child relationships of lesbian parents and their adolescent children. These 3 papers explore the important question of the roles of gender and sexual orientation for parenting aspirations and child well-being from early childhood into adolescence.

Sub Unit

• Family Context & Processes

Chair

• Kate Ellis-Davies, University of Cambridge

Discussant

• Michael E Lamb, Cambridge University

Individual Presentations

• The Roles of Gender, Personality and Sexual Orientation For the Aspiration to Parent - Presenting Author: Kate Ellis-Davies, University of Cambridge; Michael E Lamb, Cambridge University; Alice Winstanley, Univ of Cambridge; Peter Jason Rentfrow, Unviersity of Cambridge

• Parenting and the Psychological Development of Children born to Gay Fathers by Assisted Reproduction - Presenting Author: Lucy Blake, Cambridge Univ; Susan Golombok, University of Cambridge

• Parent-Adolescent Relationships in Lesbian Families - Presenting Author: Loes van Rijn - van Gelderen, No Institutional Affiliation; Nanette Gartrell, UCLA; Kate Ellis-Davies, University of Cambridge; Henny Bos, University of Amsterdam