National
Homosexual couples make 'excellent' parents according to Spanish study
By h.b. - Mar 19, 2010 - 1:39 PM
email this article
Photo - EFE archive
The study looked at 214 families in Spain
Homosexual couples offer an ‘excellent’ atmosphere to bring up children, according to a new Spanish study on ‘new families’.
The Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the Basque Country University, Enrique Arranz, worked on the study with Alfredo Oliva from Sevilla University, and the study, the first of its type in Spain, has been assessed by Cambridge University in the U.K.
It looked at the psychological development of children and adolescents in new family structures, and concluded that homosexual couples offered an ‘excellent’ atmosphere for the growth of children because education of values such as tolerance was enhanced, and because both members of the couple got involved in the education of the child, even if it was often because they feared social rejection.
Enrique Arranz said the traditional family roles were disappearing as the wife often now has to work.
The study, which interviewed 214 families in Spain, mostly from Andalucía and the Basque Country, with between 30-40 examples of each type – the traditional, the single parent, gay parents, reconstructed families after a break, families with numerous children and straight adoption.
It concluded that the children with fewer personal problems were those who ‘suffered fewer moments of stress’ and who were in general part of a family with a high quality of relationships. Lesbian couples with a good economic income and who had a large desire to become mothers were found to dedicate far more time to their children.
The study found there was more democracy and dialogue with homosexual and adoptive parents, while mothers who had large families suffered with ‘more stress’ and were more authoritarian.
The children in reconstructed families were the one who fared least well in the study, with the conclusion that they had suffered a greater number of stressful incidents, in the complicated situation of having to learn how to love with new members.
Adoptive families had initial difficulties, but these in general were well overcome.