Exceptions related only to the voting habits of children with gay fathers, and alcohol use by children of lesbian mothers.Īttention-deficit hyperactivity disorder was more than twice (RR 2.4, 95% CI 1.6–3.4) as prevalent among children with same-sex parents than in the general population, after controlling for age, sex, ethnicity, and parent socio-economic status ( Sullins 2015b). The children of lesbians and gays fared worse than those in intact heterosexual families on 77 of the 80 outcome measures. The study is noteworthy for several reasons: (1) his study sample was large, representative, and population-based (not a small, self-selected group) (2) Regnerus studied the responses of adult children rather than asking same-sex parents to describe how their young dependent children are doing and (3) he was able to draw comparisons on up to 80 measures for children who had lived with (or had) parents who fell into one of eight categories-intact families with both biological parents who were married to each other, lesbian mothers, gay fathers, heterosexual single parents, parents who later divorced, cohabiting parents, parents who adopted the respondent, and other (such as a deceased parent). A ground-breaking study from the University of Texas at Austin ( Regnerus 2012) found that young-adult children (ages 18–39) of parents who had same-sex relationships before the subjects had reached the age of 18 were more likely to suffer from a broad range of emotional and social problems.