The National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS), the longest-running and largest investigation of its kind, has published two new reports, in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry and Journal of Lesbian Studies. I gave Mombian readers a sneak peek at the results in my interview with Dr. Nanette Gartrell, the lead investigator, in August.
Bottom line? From the Journal of Lesbian Studies come the “should be obvious, but we’re glad to have research to back it” results:
No significant differences were found in the psychological adjustment of children in the present study and their age-matched peers in a U.S.-population sample. Homophobia had a negative impact on the well-being of children who experienced it. Attending schools with LGBT curricula and their mothers’ participation in the lesbian community were found to protect children against the negative influences of homophobia.
The Journal of Orthopsychiatry paper looks beyond the U.S. and compares children of lesbian families in the U.S. and the Netherlands. The findings?
Results showed that Dutch children were more open about growing up in a lesbian family,
experienced less homophobia, and demonstrated fewer emotional and behavioral problems than American children. Homophobia was found to account for part of the difference in psychosocial adjustment between the Dutch and the American children.
For the moment, I’ll have to settle for making my son some hot chocolate out of Dutch cocoa and watching the snow come down here in Massachusetts. Happy weekend, all!
This is a great study. The Dutch clearly have some things figured out. I teach Women’s Leadership at GW in DC and there are studies from the Netherlands showing greater gender equity and social policies to support that.So, we too in the women’s leadership community are drinking our Dutch Cocoa and hopeful for the future.
It would be great to have some of your readers participate in our role models case writing project. It’s critical to have a diversity of role models in our case study library.
P.s. Congrats on being mentioned as a reader favorite in Lisa Belkin’s Motherlode blog.