Family outcome disparities between sexual minority and heterosexual families: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

BackgroundThe number of children in sexual minority parent families has increased. This systematic review aims to synthesise the evidence of disparities in family outcomes between sexual minority and heterosexual families and to identify specific social risk factors of poor family outcomes.MethodsWe systematically searched PubMed, the Web of Science, Embase, the Cochrane Library and APA PsycNet for original studies that compared family outcomes between sexual minority and heterosexual families. Two reviewers independently selected studies and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Narrative synthesis and meta-analysis were conducted to synthesise evidence.ResultsThirty-four articles were included. The narrative synthesis results revealed several significant findings for children’s gender role behaviour and gender identity/sexual orientation outcomes. Overall, 16 of 34 studies were included in the meta-analyses. The quantitative synthesis results suggested that sexual minority families may perform better in children’s psychological adjustment and parent–child relationship than heterosexual families (standardised mean difference (SMD) −0.13, 95% CI −0.20 to −0.05; SMD 0.13, 95% CI 0.06 to 0.20), but not couple relationship satisfaction (SMD 0.26, 95% CI −0.13 to 0.64), parental mental health (SMD 0.00, 95% CI −0.16 to 0.16), parenting stress (SMD 0.01, 95% CI −0.20 to 0.22) or family functioning (SMD 0.18, 95% CI −0.11 to 0.46).ConclusionMost of the family outcomes are similar between sexual minority and heterosexual families, and sexual minority families have even better outcomes in some domains. Relevant social risk factors of poor family outcomes included stigma and discrimination, poor social support and marital status, etc. The next step is to integrate multiple aspects of support and multilevel interventions to reduce the adverse effects on family outcomes with a long-term goal of influencing policy and law making for better services to individuals, families, communities and schools.

How Do Changes in the Family Structure and Dynamics Reflect on Health

“…According to Manning et al, children from same-sex parent families fare as well as children living in households with heterosexual parents across a broad spectrum of well-being 71 . Mazrekaj et al showed no discernible difference in behaviour between children raised by same-sex parents and those raised by heterosexual parents 17 , but some studies found that children raised by same-sex parents perform better in certain areas of psychological adjustment than children raised by heterosexual parents 34 . On the contrary, children from blended, foster, adoptive and similar family structures may have behavioural and health problems since they are considered highly vulnerable.…”

“…Some studies have noted that nontraditional family structures can positively affect health. Zhang et al provide that same-sex couples have better mental health and relationship satisfaction than heterosexual couples and that their children also perform significantly better outcomes than children of heterosexual parents in some psychological adjustment domains 34 . It has been observed that families with communal or cooperative structures positively affect both social integration and the general well-being of their members, especially older adults.…”

Intergenerational transmission of parental child-rearing gender-role attitudes and its influence on gender roles in single-parent families

“…This reinforcement may lead to children holding biases towards specific gender characteristics, subsequently influencing their interpersonal interactions [ 28 ]. Although some studies have found no significant differences in the outcomes of parenting between same-sex and traditional heterosexual families [ 29 , 30 ]. However, when there is an unequal division of household labor, it might impact children’s evaluations toward gender groups [ 31 ].…”

The Father’s Part: A Pilot Evaluation of a Father-Centered Family Intervention Group in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

“…Current family research examines the specific contributions of mothers, fathers, and other caregivers to child and adolescent development [7]. New family models, including sexual-minority-parent families, are increasing [8] and not all of them may have father figures. The focus on social and biological fathers' (both addressed by the term 'fathers' in this article) involvement in childcare and offspring psychological development has been renewed.…”