Study: Kids of Lesbian Parents Grow up Just Fine

Children raised by same-sex, female couples grow up to be psychologically well adjusted, experience academic achievement and exhibit healthy social behaviors, according to recent study.

The U.S. National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study, which appears in the medical journal Pediatrics, is the first to follow children of lesbian couples all the way from conception to adolescence.

The findings are based on 77 families of both girls and boys beginning in 1986.

Both the children and their mothers filled out based psychological questionnaires about their feelings and experiences.

Mothers rated their kids with the Child Behavior Checklist, a standardized assessment.

According to the research, there is no solid evidence that homosexual parenting is any worse or better than its conventional counterpart, according to study head Dr. Nanette Gartrell of the University of California, San Francisco told Reuters Health.

Gartrell is in a same-sex partnership.

"The things we know that make for good parenting are love, resources and being very involved in your child's life," she told Reuters Health.

There was reported evidence that teenagers who claimed to have experienced homophobia and bullying turned out to be more anxious and have more depressive symptoms than their peers.

"What this data shows is that it's not the parenting that seems to be the issue," but rather the stigmatization, Ian Rivers, a professor of human development at Brunel University in Uxbridge, England told Reuters Health.