New Family Structures Study

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The New Family Structures Study (abbreviated NFSS) is a sociological study of LGBT parenting conducted by sociologist Mark Regnerus of the University of Texas at Austin. The study surveyed over 15,000 Americans of ages 18 to 39. [1] The first research article based on data from the study was published in July 2012 in Social Science Research , [2] and concluded that people who had had a parent who had been in a same-gender relationship were at a greater risk of several adverse outcomes, including "being on public assistance, being unemployed, and having poorer educational attainment." [3]

Contents

The study was met with considerable criticism from many academics [1] [4] [5] and scholarly organizations. [6] [7] Of note, only two children in the study had actually lived with homosexually partnered parents for their entire childhoods, because many of the same-sex partnered parents were in previous heterosexual marriages. Thus, negative outcomes or events cannot be attributed to having same-sex parents, because many of these children also spent their childhoods with opposite-sex parents, and experienced family disruption and parental divorce. A 2015 reanalysis raised serious questions about the validity of the study, finding misclassification of families, inconsistency in answers suggesting mischief, and evidence that many respondents did not live with their non-heterosexual parents. When these cases were excluded, differences in outcome between children raised by parents in opposite-sex and same-sex relationships largely vanished. [5]

Funding

The study was funded by the conservative think-tank the Witherspoon Institute, which contributed $700,000 in funding and the Bradley Foundation, which contributed $90,000. [8] The Witherspoon Institute's president expected results that would be unfavorable to those supporting gay marriage. [8] In the initial report, Regnerus stated that the Witherspoon Institute and the Bradley Foundation played no role in the design of the study, and dismissed accusations that these organizations had improperly influenced him. In 2013, however, in response to requests by the American Independent News Network, emails sent between Regnerus and Witherspoon Institute employee Brad Wilcox were released which cast doubt on these statements. In one email, Wilcox approved several items relating to the study on behalf of the Witherspoon Institute. Critics have also noted that Wilcox was on the editorial board of Social Science Research, the journal in which the study was later published. [9]

Methodology

The NFSS survey of over 15,000 Americans between the ages of 18 and 39 [1] was conducted by Knowledge Networks on behalf of the University of Texas at Austin. [10] Its stated purpose was to determine differences in outcomes among young adults raised by same-sex parents compared to young adults raised by "their married biological parents, those raised with a step-parent, and those raised in homes with two adoptive parents." [11] The survey collected data from young adults who had grown up in one of five unconventional families, namely, those where a parent had had a same-sex romantic relationship, biologically unrelated parents adopted the respondent, parents were unmarried but co-habiting, biological mother had a romantic relationship with another man, and biological mother did not have a romantic relationship with another man. The survey also collected data from young adults from conventional families as a control group. [10]

Findings

The study compared various types of families, and found that subjects who perceived their parents as having engaged in a same-sex relationship were more likely to have been sexually abused by their parents. When compared with those who grew up in (still) intact, biological mother–father families, the subjects who reported that their mother had had a same-sex relationship and did not make a similar report about their father look different on outcomes regarding including education, depression, employment status, and marijuana use. [2]

Regnerus states although the findings reported may be explicable in part by a variety of forces uniquely problematic for child development in lesbian and gay families—including a lack of social support for parents, stress exposure resulting from persistent stigma, and modest or absent legal security for their parental and romantic relationship statuses—the empirical claim that no notable differences exist must go. [2]

The term LM is used for subjects who stated that their mother had had a same-sex romantic relationship [12] but did not make a similar statement about their father. [13] The term GF is used for subjects that stated that their father had had a same-sex romantic relationship. [14] The term IBF is used for subjects whose biological families were intact from birth through the time of the survey. [15]

Table 2

(The following results are mean scores on select dichotomous outcome variables.)

The results are read in the percentage of children from each family structure who responded positively to each question. For example, for the variable "currently married" 43% of respondents from intact bio-family answered yes, whereas 36% of those in the LM category answered yes, and 35% of those in the GF category answered yes.

VariablesIBFLMGFAdopted by strangersDivorced late (>18)StepfamilySingleparentAll other
Currently married43%36%35%41%36%41%37%39%
Currently cohabiting9%24%21%7%31%19%19%13%
Family received welfare growing up17%69%57%12%47%53%48%35%
Currently on public assistance10%38%23%27%31%30%30%23%
Currently employed full-time49%26%34%41%42%47%43%39%
Currently unemployed8%28%20%22%15%14%13%15%
Voted in last presidential election57%41%73%58%63%57%51%48%
Thought recently about suicide5%12%24%7%8%10%5%9%
Recently or currently in therapy8%19%19%22%12%17%13%9%
Identifies as entirely heterosexual90%61%71%82%83%81%83%82%
Is in a same-sex romantic relationship4%7%12%23%5%13%3%2%
Had affair while married/cohabiting13%40%25%20%12%32%19%16%
Has ever had an STI8%20%25%16%12%16%14%8%
Ever touched sexually by parent/adult2%23%6%3%10%12%10%8%
Ever forced to have sex against will8%31%25%23%24%16%16%11%

Controversy and reanalysis

Cynthia Osborne, who is on the UT-Austin faculty along with Regnerus, argued the study was unable to show "whether same-sex parenting causes the observed differences." She also said that "Children of lesbian mothers might have lived in many different family structures, and it is impossible to isolate the effects of living with a lesbian mother from experiencing divorce, remarriage or living with a single parent." Similarly, Gary Gates of the Williams Institute argued that the study's comparison of children of lesbian mothers was a less fair comparison than, for instance, comparing "children of heterosexual or same-sex couples who were raised in similar homes". [1]

Regnerus's former mentor Christian Smith [16] has described the public and academic reaction to the New Family Structures Study as a "witch hunt" [17] and said that the "push-back" to Regnerus's article "is coming simply because some people don't like where the data led." [16] This backlash, Smith argues in his book The Sacred Project of American Sociology, is a result of the content of sociology's "sacred project" (of mitigating oppression, inequality, etc.); Smith holds that the critical reaction, e.g. on methodological issues, displays a set of double standards insofar as work by other scholars could be (but is generally not) subjected to similar criticism. [18]

Regnerus's study was defended by 18 social scientists in a letter written on the website of the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University. [19]

Allegations of scientific misconduct

Soon after the paper was published, gay blogger Scott Rose accused Regnerus of scientific misconduct for two reasons: deviating from ethical standards and possible falsification of his research. An inquiry later conducted by the University of Texas-Austin found that no investigation into these charges was warranted. [20] In 2014, the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas-Austin, Randy Diehl asked University of Texas sociologist and associate dean Marc Musick to review the controversy around the NFSS article as part of Regnerus's seventh-year post-tenure evaluation. Musick summarized many of the prior criticisms, then stated that the survey itself was designed to ensure the conflation of family structure and the parents' same-sex orientation, practically guaranteeing negative results. Musick stated that non-disclosure of this design flaw in the original article possibly violated University research ethics standards. [21]

Peer review process

In July 2012, over 150 scientists wrote a letter to the editor of Social Science Research criticizing the study and raising concerns about the journal's peer review process. [4]

In the November 2012 issue of the journal, an audit was published by Darren Sherkat of Southern Illinois University regarding the peer-review process with respect to the Regnerus study (as well as another study from the same issue). The audit concluded that the peer-review process failed in these instances because of "both ideology and inattention" by the reviewers; he added that of the six reviewers, three of them were on record as opposing same-sex marriage. [22] Sherkat also dismissed the study as "bullshit" in an interview and argued that its definition of gay fathers and lesbian mothers should have "disqualified it immediately" from being considered for publication. [23]

In August 2013, sociologist Philip N. Cohen wrote on his blog that Wright relied on paid consultants to review the paper and failed to disclose this when the study was first published. He also called for the paper to be retracted and for Wright to step down. [24]

Subsequent studies and reanalysis

Two subsequent studies published in Social Science Research [25] and Sociological Science [26] claimed that when methodological flaws were removed from data used in Regnerus study, the conclusions were opposite.

The first peer-reviewed and published criticism is the Cheng and Powell, 2015 review. [25] The authors state that they identified a large number of potential measurement errors and other methodological choices which led to erroneous results. They state that even small differences in coding can profoundly shape empirical patterns, and that after repeating the analysis with sound methods, the "differences in being raised by gay/lesbian and heterosexual parents are minimal." [25]

The second such peer reviewed criticism is by Stanford University Sociology professor Michael J. Rosenfeld which also brings out the methodological flaws in Regnerus study. It was published in Sociological Science. [26]

However Professor Walter Schumm Department of Family Studies, Kansas State University criticized the findings of Cheng and Powell, stating that they were statistically insignificant, as they did not report effect sizes. Because they reduced the number of same-sex parent families considerably, it is actually possible that the effect sizes were unchanged, but due to the smaller sample statistical significance was lost. He also criticized studies that show the opposite results as Regnerus for having very low sample sizes, being politically motivated themselves, and that these were poorly made refutations quickly thrown out as a knee jerk reaction because science came out with results that contradicted the modern liberal political theories, and did not follow the APA's own recommendations for reporting effect sizes and other methodological requirements. [27]

Citations in court cases

The New Family Structures Study was cited in amicus briefs for the United States Supreme Court cases of United States v. Windsor and Hollingsworth v. Perry . [8] It was also cited by U.S. District Court judge Alan Cooke Kay in Jackson v. Abercrombie , [8] who used Regnerus's study to dismiss other studies that had come to different conclusions. [28]

In the 2012 California case Golinski v. Office of Personnel Management , several major medical organizations, including the American Psychological Association, filed an amicus brief in which they criticized Regnerus's research. The brief argued that "the Regnerus study sheds no light on the parenting of stable, committed same-sex couples". [6]

Related Research Articles

Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal sex. As of 2024, marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 36 countries, with a total population of 1.3 billion people. The most recent country to legalise same-sex marriage is Greece.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homosexuality and psychology</span> Homosexuality as studied by the field of psychology

The field of psychology has extensively studied homosexuality as a human sexual orientation. The American Psychiatric Association listed homosexuality in the DSM-I in 1952, but that classification came under scrutiny in research funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. That research and subsequent studies consistently failed to produce any empirical or scientific basis for regarding homosexuality as anything other than a natural and normal sexual orientation that is a healthy and positive expression of human sexuality. As a result of this scientific research, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from the DSM-II in 1973. Upon a thorough review of the scientific data, the American Psychological Association followed in 1975 and also called on all mental health professionals to take the lead in "removing the stigma of mental illness that has long been associated" with homosexuality. In 1993, the National Association of Social Workers adopted the same position as the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association, in recognition of scientific evidence. The World Health Organization, which listed homosexuality in the ICD-9 in 1977, removed homosexuality from the ICD-10 which was endorsed by the 43rd World Health Assembly on 17 May 1990.

Same-sex adoption is the adoption of children by same-sex couples. It may take the form of a joint adoption by the couple, or of the adoption by one partner of the other's biological child.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sociology of the family</span> Branch of sociology

Sociology of the family is a subfield of the subject of sociology, in which researchers and academics study family structure as a social institution and unit of socialization from various sociological perspectives. It can be seen as an example of patterned social relations and group dynamics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homosexuality</span> Sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender

Homosexuality is a sexual attraction, romantic attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" exclusively to people of the same sex or gender. It "also refers to a person's sense of identity based on those attractions, related behaviors, and membership in a community of others who share those attractions."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Same-sex parenting</span> Parenting of children by same-sex couples

Same-sex parenting is the parenting of children by same-sex couples generally consisting of gays or lesbians who are often in civil partnerships, domestic partnerships, civil unions, or same-sex marriages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Same-sex relationship</span> Romantic or sexual relationship between people of the same sex

A same-sex relationship is a romantic or sexual relationship between people of the same sex. Same-sex marriage refers to the institutionalized recognition of such relationships in the form of a marriage; civil unions may exist in countries where same-sex marriage does not.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Same-sex marriage and the family</span>

Concerns regarding same-sex marriage and the family are at the forefront of the controversies over legalization of same-sex marriage. In the United States, about 292,000 children are being raised in the households of same-sex couples. Concern for these children and others to come are the basis for both opposition to and support for marriage for LGBT couples.

Homosexuality, as a phenomenon and as a behavior, has existed throughout all eras in human societies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">W. Bradford Wilcox</span> American sociologist and demographer

William Bradford Wilcox is an American sociologist. He serves as director of the National Marriage Project and professor of sociology at the University of Virginia, senior fellow at the Institute for Family Studies, and a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. He is author of Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Witherspoon Institute</span> American conservative think tank

The Witherspoon Institute is a conservative think tank in Princeton, New Jersey founded in 2003 by Princeton University professor Robert P. George, Luis Tellez, and others involved with the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. Named after John Witherspoon, one of the signers of the United States Declaration of Independence, the institute's fellows include Harold James, John Joseph Haldane, and James R. Stoner, Jr.

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Mark Daniel Regnerus is a sociologist and professor at the University of Texas at Austin. His main fields of interest are sexual behavior, relationship dynamics, and religion.

DeBoer v. Snyder is a lawsuit that was filed by April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse on January 23, 2012, in federal district court, challenging Michigan's ban on adoption by same-sex couples so they can jointly adopt their children. In August 2012, Judge Bernard A. Friedman invited the couple to amend their suit to challenge the state's ban on same-sex marriage, "the underlying issue". Following a hearing on October 16, 2013, Friedman scheduled a trial that ran from February 25 to March 7, 2014. On March 21, Judge Friedman issued his ruling overturning the ban. On March 22, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit placed a temporary hold on Judge Friedman's ruling. The appeal was argued on August 6. On November 6, the Sixth Circuit reversed Judge Friedman and upheld Michigan's ban on same-sex marriage.

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Walter R. Schumm is a professor in the Department of Family Studies and Human Services at Kansas State University. He is also the editor-in-chief of the academic journal Marriage & Family Review. Much of Schumm's research purports to find negative effects of same-sex parenting, although his work has been criticized for its methodology. In 2010, he gave "expert evidence" in a Florida court against a gay man who challenged the state's ban on LGBT adoption.

Victoria Clarke is a UK-based chartered psychologist and an Associate Professor in Qualitative and Critical Psychology at the University of the West England, Bristol. Her work focuses on qualitative psychology and critical psychology, and her background and training is in the fields of women studies, feminist psychology, LGBTQ psychology, and qualitative methods. She is particularly known for her ongoing collaboration with Professor Virginia Braun around qualitative methods. Braun and Clarke developed a widely cited approach to thematic analysis in 2006 and have published extensively around thematic analysis since then. They have also collaborated on an award-winning qualitative research textbook and more recently have published around the qualitative story completion method with the Story Completion Research Group.

Stephen Thomas Russell is an American sociologist. He is the Priscilla Pond Flawn Regents Professor in Child Development at University of Texas at Austin. Russell was a distinguished professor and Fitch Nesbitt Endowed Chair in Family and Consumer Sciences at University of Arizona from 2007 to 2015. He researches adolescent development, sexuality, LGBT youth, and parent-adolescent relationships.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Jaslow, Ryan (12 June 2012). "Kids of gay parents fare worse, study finds, but research draws fire from experts". CBS News. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 Regnerus, Mark (March 12, 2012). "How different are the adult children of parents who have same-sex relationships? Findings from the New Family Structures Study". Social Science Research. 41 (4): 752–770. doi:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.03.009. PMID   23017845.
  3. ↑ Perrin, E. C.; Siegel, B. S. (20 March 2013). "Promoting the Well-Being of Children Whose Parents Are Gay or Lesbian" (PDF). Pediatrics. 131 (4): e1374–e1383. doi: 10.1542/peds.2013-0377 . PMID   23519940. S2CID   23423249.
  4. 1 2 "Letter to the editors and advisory editors of Social Science Research" (PDF). July 2012. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
  5. 1 2 Bailey, J. Michael; Vasey, Paul L.; Diamond, Lisa M.; Breedlove, S. Marc; Vilain, Eric; Epprecht, Marc (2016-04-25). "Sexual Orientation, Controversy, and Science". Psychological Science in the Public Interest. 17 (2): 84–85. doi: 10.1177/1529100616637616 . ISSN   1529-1006. PMID   27113562.
  6. 1 2 "Amicus Brief in Golinski v. Office of Personnel Management" (PDF). p. 23. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
  7. ↑ Becker, John (28 February 2013). "In Supreme Court Brief, American Sociological Association Obliterates Claim That Same-Sex Couples Are Inferior Parents". Huffington Post. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Resnick, Sofia (11 March 2013). "Conservative group tries to sway SCOTUS on gay marriage with flawed study". Salon. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
  9. ↑ Watson, Brandon (29 March 2013). "New Documents Contradict Regnerus' Claims on Gay Parenting Study". Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
  10. 1 2 "New Family Structure Survey" (PDF). Knowledge Networks. University of Texas at Austin. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 April 2016. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  11. ↑ "New Family Structures Study". Population Research Center. University of Texas at Austin. Archived from the original on 7 February 2017. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  12. ↑ NFSS, page 759
  13. ↑ NFSS, page 759
  14. ↑ NFSS, page 758
  15. ↑ NFSS, page 759
  16. 1 2 "An Academic Auto-da-Fé". The Chronicle of Higher Education. 23 July 2012.
  17. ↑ Robert VerBruggen (19 July 2012). "The Gay-Parenting Witch Hunt". National Review Online.
  18. ↑ Smith, Christian. The Sacred Project of American Sociology. Oxford University Press, 2014
  19. ↑ Weber, Jeremy (10 July 2012). "Social Scientists Defend Mark Regnerus' Controversial Study on Same-Sex Parenting". Christianity Today. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
  20. ↑ "U. of Texas backs professor in battle with gay blogger". Fox News. 3 September 2012. Retrieved 10 November 2014.
  21. ↑ Marc A. Musick, "A Review of Methodological and Ethical Issues Surrounding the New Family Structures Study" (2014): 16-17, 20.
  22. ↑ Sherkat, Darren E. (November 2012). "The Editorial Process and Politicized Scholarship: Monday Morning Editorial Quarterbacking and a Call for Scientific Vigilance". Social Science Research. 41 (6): 1346–1349. doi:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.08.007. PMID   23017955.
  23. ↑ Bartlett, Tom (26 July 2012). "Controversial Gay-Parenting Study Is Severely Flawed, Journal's Audit Finds". Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
  24. ↑ "Controversy Continues Over Gay Parenting Study". Inside Higher Education. 2 August 2013. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
  25. 1 2 3 Cheng, Simon; Powell, Brian (2015). "Measurement, methods, and divergent patterns: Reassessing the effects of same-sex parents". Social Science Research. 52: 615–626. doi:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2015.04.005. PMID   26004484.
  26. 1 2 Rosenfeld, Michael J. (2015). "Revisiting the Data from the New Family Structure Study: Taking Family Instability into Account". Sociological Science. 2: 478–501. doi: 10.15195/v2.a23 .
  27. ↑ Schumm, Walter R. (January 1, 2015). "Navigating treacherous waters—one researcher's 40 years of experience with controversial scientific research". Comprehensive Psychology. 4: 6, 7, 18. doi: 10.2466/17.CP.4.24 .
  28. ↑ Pierceson, Jason (2014). Same-Sex Marriage in the United States: The Road to the Supreme Court and Beyond. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 230. ISBN   9781442212053.
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