Same-Sex Parents and Children’s School Progress: An Association That Disappeared Over Time

Abstract

Previous research is divided as to whether children living in same-sex parent families achieve different outcomes compared to their peers. In this paper, we improve on earlier estimates of such differences and subsequently study whether and why the association between parental union sex-composition and children's school progress changed over time. Data from the American Community Survey waves 2008-2015 (N=1,952,490 including 7,792 children living with a same-sex couple) indicates that children living with same-sex couples were more likely to be behind in school in the past, but that this association disappeared over time. Changes in socioeconomic characteristics of same-sex couples played a minor role. In 2008, it was only in areas with unfavorable laws and attitudes toward same-sex couples that children living with same-sex couples were more likely to be behind in school. This was especially the case for adopted children. In more recent periods, no effect of parental union sex composition on school progress is observed within any area or among any group studied. Based on where and when these changes took place, it is suggested that changing attitudes toward same-sex couples might have played an important role in equalizing school progress across groups.3

Sexual‐ and Gender‐Minority Families: A 2010 to 2020 Decade in Review

“…Similarly, Reczek, Spiker et al (, ) analyzed the National Health Interview Survey data to show that children raised in same‐sex married families had overall similar health and behavioral outcomes relative to children in different‐sex married families, and children in same‐sex cohabiting families had overall similar outcomes to those in different‐sex cohabiting families. In a study using the American Community Survey Waves 2008 to 2015, Boertien and Benardi () showed that children living with a same‐sex couple were likely to exhibit worse achievement outcomes relative to their peers in different‐sex households in the past, but that this gap disappeared during the study period. A study of psychological adjustment after adoption found no differences in outcomes across children in gay, lesbian, and heterosexual families (Goldberg, ).…”

The Legal Vulnerability Model for Same-Sex Parent Families: A Mixed Methods Systematic Review and Theoretical Integration

“…c Although not specified in the study protocol, this also includes studies that investigate the impact of having to use different legal means than mixed-sex parent families, e.g., second-parent adoption by the non-birth mother after the birth of a child conceived via donor insemination. Scholar) and backward searches of (i) studies eligible for inclusion retrieved via our database search, as well as (ii) unsystematic reviews on same-sex parenting (Biblarz and Savci, 2010;Reczek, 2020) and associated legal vulnerabilities (Kazyak and Woodell, 2016;Kazyak et al, 2018). We deemed this approach reasonable given the extensive coverage of Google Scholar (including thesis and other gray literature databases) as well as the comprehensiveness of our database search.…”

School Outcomes of Children Raised by Same-Sex Parents: Evidence from Administrative Panel Data

“…For instance, in the administrative data in Sweden (Aldén et al 2017), 95 percent of children living with same-sex parents were raised by lesbian mothers (equal share as in our data). Similarly, in the American Community Survey, 70 percent of children with same-sex parents had lesbian parents (Boertien and Bernardi 2019). Given that many countries, including the Netherlands, allow for known donors (e.g., relatives or friends) when considering artificial insemination, lesbian parents are likely to choose donors with favorable characteristics, such as ability.…”

“…We do not include children in single-parent families, because we cannot determine a single-parent's sexual orientation from our data. Following Watkins (2018) and Boertien and Bernardi (2019), who used the American Community Survey, we removed these children from the analysis (14.23 percent of the sample). We also tried an alternative approach in which we consider single-parents to be heterosexual.…”

“…This introduces a measurement error when constructing the progress through school variable. Although the recent ACS data provide more detailed information, it is difficult to account for academic redshirting, where parents may purposefully delay their child's entry into school to increase the child's school readiness (Boertien and Bernardi 2019). 3.…”