Adoptive Parenting Study Supports All Same-Sex Parents
A new national study in this month’s American Sociological Review claims that “Adoptive parents invest more time and financial resources in their children than biological parents.” Indiana University sociologist Brian Powell, one of the study’s three co-authors, explains:
One of the reasons adoptive parents invest more is that they really want children, and they go to extraordinary means to have them. . . . Adoptive parents face a culture where, to many other people, adoption is not real parenthood. What they’re trying to do is compensate. . . . They recognize the barriers they face, and it sets the stage for them to be better parents.
You’re probably already thinking of the next part:
The researchers said their findings call into question the long-standing argument that children are best off with their biological parents. Such arguments were included in state Supreme Court rulings last year in New York and Washington that upheld laws against same-sex marriage.
The researchers said gay and lesbian parents may react to discrimination by taking extra, compensatory steps to promote their children’s welfare.
The ultra-right is, not surprisingly, dismissing the research’s applicability to same-sex parents, saying the study focused on opposite-sex couples. I say the main point is that biological parenthood is not destiny, regardless of sexual orientation. Assuming the sociologists’ research is sound, the study could be important evidence in both marriage-equality cases and individual custody cases involving one bio and one non-bio parent.
If you’re interested in adoption and the idea that biology is not all-determining, you should also read Shannon’s recent post.
(Thanks to PageOneQ for the AP article link.)
Filed under: Family Creation, Parenting, Politics and Law
[...] Later note: extending the adoption-fest theme here, check out Mombian’s post yesterday providing a synopsis of, commentary on, and links to a new national study, published in the American Sociological Review, which finds that — surprise — “Adoptive parents invest more time and financial resources in their children than biological parents.” Read Dana’s sharp notes, and the piece she links to by Shannon LC Cate at Peter’s Cross Station about Adoption Matters. [...]
Thanks for pointing this study out to me. I’ve seen some others take this on, and have compiled it for Opine.
[...] From the moment I cut my first umbilical cord, I have known in my blood that my children are my children because my love makes them so. Ask them. Okay, ask the one who can talk. She’ll tell you. And the little one, the one that only grunts and squeaks: look at the expression he flashes when he sees me. Note his response to my pinkie finger. It’s manna to him. You don’t have to be outraged by yet another report of parental abuse to know that the ability to conceive does not automatically confer the ability to parent. By the same token, you don’t have to wonder whether non-birth parents like me will move heaven and earth to help my kids live the fullest, most love-bedecked lives. (Studies will tell you that anyway.) What I have to give my kids is all nurture, no nature, and I have had to learn to be fine with that. After all, no matter how anyone landed the kids in their family, it’s the nurture that takes most of the effort. And, it’s the one thing you can change. [...]
[...] It’s All Relatives From the moment I cut my first umbilical cord, I have known in my blood that my children are my children because my love makes them so. Ask them. Okay, ask the one who can talk. She’ll tell you. And the little one, the one that only grunts and squeaks: look at the expression he flashes when he sees me. Note his response to my pinkie finger. It’s manna to him. You don’t have to be subjected to yet another report of parental abuse to know that the ability to conceive does not automatically confer the ability to parent. By the same token, you don’t have to wonder whether non-birth parents like me will move heaven and earth to help my kids live the fullest, most love-bedecked lives. (Studies will tell you that anyway.) What I have to give my kids is all nurture, no nature, and I have had to learn to be fine with that. After all, no matter how anyone landed the kids in their family, it’s the nurture that takes most of the effort. And, it’s the one thing you can change. [...]