A new study has found that children with same-sex parents receive significantly more “child-focused parent time” each day than those with different-sex parents.
The study, in the June issue of Demography, concludes that while women and men in same-sex relationships and women in different-sex relationships spend the same amount of time in child-focused activities (ones that support their physical and cognitive development, like reading or playing with them, or helping them with their homework.), men in different-sex relationships spend only half as much child-focused time. This means that “children with same-sex parents received an hour more of child-focused parent time a day (3.5 hours) than children in different-sex families (2.5 hours).”
Two of the authors, Kate C. Prickett and Alexa Martin-Storey, explain at The Society Pages (an open-access social science project from the University of Minnesota) that their research implies: “The focus on whether same-sex parents provide depreciably different family contexts for healthy child development is misplaced. If anything, the results show that same-sex couples are more likely to invest time in the types of parenting behaviors that support child development.”
Three things strike me here. First, let’s not run amok with this and start saying things again like “same-sex parents are better than different-sex ones.” While more time spent with one’s children is generally good, time alone isn’t the only metric. Quality of time, and how that time varies with the needs of the child at any given age, is also important. Same-sex parents likely stand up well in those regards, too, based on the many previous studies that show their children are as happy and well adjusted as any others—my point is that no one is served by playing the “Who’s better?” game, just as no one is served by “Who’s worse?” It’s wonderful that research such as this explores our differences. Let’s celebrate them without making it into a game of one-upmanship.
Following from that, rather than gloating about the fact that we’re “better,” maybe we should ask why fathers in different-sex relationships aren’t spending as much time with their kids as other types of parents. I know lots of individual exceptions to that—but it seems there’s a systemic sexism here with deep roots in our society.
Third, Prickett is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin—the same department as Mark Regnerus, author of a study that claimed children of same-sex parents don’t do as well as those with different-sex parents. It was much cited by opponents of marriage equality, but was widely discredited. Seems like department luncheons must be interesting.
