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Lesbian & Gay Parenting
Empirical Studies Generally
Related to the Fitness of Lesbians &
Gay Men as Parents
Groth, A. N., & Birnbaum, H. J. (1978). Adult sexual orientation and attraction to underage persons. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 7, 175-181.
Screened 175, 15- to 64-year-old males convicted of sexual assault against children with reference to their adult sexual orientation and the sex of their victims. The subjects divided fairly evenly into two groups based on whether they were sexually fixated exclusively on children or had regressed from peer relationships. Female children were victimized nearly twice as often as male children. All regressed offenders, whether their victims were male or female children, were heterosexual in their adult orientation. There were no examples of regression to child victims among peer-oriented, homosexual males. The possibility emerges that homosexuality and homosexual pedophilia may be mutually exclusive and that the adult heterosexual male constitutes a greater risk to the underage child than does the adult homosexual male. (PsycINFO Database Record. Copyright © 2002 by the American Psychological Association. All rights reserved.)
Hooker, E. (1957). The adjustment of the male overt homosexual. Journal of Projective Techniques, 21, 17-31.
Thirty male homosexuals were matched with 30 heterosexual males for age, IQ, and education. Their Rorschachs, TATs, and MAPS were given to two Rorschach experts and a TAT and MAPS expert for ratings of adjustment. The protocols were also presented in pairs to the judges to see if they could distinguish the homosexual and heterosexual protocols. Agreement between judges of the adjustment ratings was fair, but the Rorschach experts could not discriminate between homosexual and heterosexual protocols any better than chance. The TAT and MAPS protocols of the homosexuals could be distinguished far better than chance since nearly all the homosexual subjects gave at least one homosexual story. The two groups did not differ significantly in adjustment ratings. The author concludes: "1. Homosexuality as a clinical entity does not exist. Its forms are as varied as are those of heterosexuality. 2. Homosexuality may be a deviation in sexual pattern which is within the normal range, psychologically." (PsycINFO Database Record. Copyright © 2004 by the American Psychological Association. All rights reserved.)
Jenny, C., Roesler, T. A.,& Poyer, K. L. (1994). Are children at risk for sexual abuse by homosexuals? Pediatrics, 94, 41-44.
Objective: To determine if recognizably homosexual adults are frequently accused of the sexual molestation of children. Design: Chart review of medical records of children evaluated for sexual abuse. Setting: Child sexual abuse clinic at a regional children's hospital. Patients: Patients were 352 children (276 girls and 76 boys) referred to a subspecialty clinic for the evaluation of suspected child sexual abuse. Mean age was 6.1 years (range, 7 months to 17 yrs.). Data collected. Charts were reviewed to determine the relationships of the children to the alleged offender, the sex of the offender, and whether or not the alleged offender was reported to be gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Results: Abuse was ruled out in 35 cases. Seventy-four children were allegedly abused by other children and teenagers less than 18 years old. In nine cases, an offender could not be identified. In the remaining 269 cases, two offenders were identified as being gay or lesbian. In 82% of cases (222/269), the alleged offender was a heterosexual partner of a close relative of the child. Using the data from our study, the 95% confidence limits of the risk children would identify recognizably homosexual adults as the potential abuser are from 0% to 3.1%. These limits are within current estimates of the prevalence of homosexuality in the general community. Conclusions: The children in the group studied were unlikely to have been molested by identifiably gay or lesbian people. (Reprinted with permission of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Copyright © 1994. All rights reserved.)
Thompson, N., McCandless, B., & Strickland, B. (1971). Personal adjustment of male and female homosexuals and heterosexuals. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 78, 237-240.
Compared the personal adjustment and psychological well-being of 127 male and 84 female homosexuals with 123 male and 94 female heterosexuals. Subjects were matched for sex, age, and education. Homosexuals did not differ in important ways from heterosexuals in defensiveness, personal adjustment, or self-confidence as measured by the adjective check list; or in self-evaluation as measured by a semantic differential. Male homosexuals were less defensive and less self-confident (p < .05), while female homosexuals were more self-confident (p < .05) than their respective controls. Homosexuals were more self-concerned as there were more members of both homosexual groups who had or were undertaking psychotherapy. However, there were no adjustment differences in any group between those who had and had not experienced psychotherapy. (PsycINFO Database Record. Copyright © 2004 by the American Psychological Association. All rights reserved.)
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