The 2012 New Family Structures Study (NESS,) published by Dr. Mark Regnerus, Associate Professor at the University of Texas, compared thousands of young adults (ages 18-39) who were raised in different types of family arrangements.
Those who those had mothers who were in a lesbian relationship fared significantly worse on measures of educational attainment and household income, reported more depression, used marijuana more, more often reported forced sexual encounters, felt less close to their biological mother, felt less safe and secure in their family of origin, had more often pled guilty to a minor criminal offense and were more likely to be on public assistance.
Those who had fathers who were in a gay relationship were more likely to have been arrested, to have thought recently about suicide, to feel depressed, to report sexually transmitted diseases and to have experienced forced sex.
23% of young adults who had mothers that were in a gay relationship reported being forced to have sexual contact with a parent or adult caregiver, while only 2% of intact families with a mother and father reported such contact. For female young adults, that figure leapt to 31% (while only 3% of young women from intact heterosexual families reported this.)
Table 2. Mean scores on select dichotomous outcome variables, NFSS (can read as percentage: as in, 0.42 = 42%).
IBF (intact bio family) | LM (lesbian mother) | GF (gay father) | Adopted by strangers | Divorced late (>18) | Stepfamily | Single-parent | All other | |
Currently married | 0.43 | 0.36 | 0.35 | 0.41 | 0.36* | 0.41 | 0.37 | 0.39 |
Currently cohabiting | 0.09 | 0.24* | 0.21 | 0.07^ | 0.31* | 0.19* | 0.19* | 0.13 |
Family received welfare growing up | 0.17 | 0.69* | 0.57* | 0.12^ | 0.47*^ | 0.53*^ | 0.48*^ | 0.35^ |
Currently on public assistance | 0.10 | 0.38* | 0.23 | 0.27* | 0.31* | 0.30* | 0.30* | 0.23* |
Currently employed full-time | 0.49 | 0.26* | 0.34 | 0.41 | 0.42 | 0.47^ | 0.43^ | 0.39 |
Currently unemployed | 0.08 | 0.28* | 0.20 | 0.22* | 0.15 | 0.14 | 0.13^ | 0.15 |
Voted in last presidential election | 0.57 | 0.41 | 0.73*^ | 0.58 | 0.63^ | 0.57^ | 0.51 | 0.48 |
Thought recently about suicide | 0.05 | 0.12 | 0.24* | 0.07 | 0.08 | 0.10 | 0.05 | 0.09 |
Recently or currently in therapy | 0.08 | 0.19* | 0.19 | 0.22* | 0.12 | 0.17* | 0.13* | 0.09 |
Identifies as entirely heterosexual | 0.90 | 0.61* | 0.71* | 0.82^ | 0.83^ | 0.81*^ | 0.83*^ | 0.82*^ |
Is in a same-sex romantic relationship | 0.04 | 0.07 | 0.12 | 0.23 | 0.05 | 0.13* | 0.03 | 0.02 |
Had affair while married/cohabiting | 0.13 | 0.40* | 0.25 | 0.20 | 0.12^ | 0.32* | 0.19^ | 0.16^ |
Has ever had an STI | 0.08 | 0.20* | 0.25* | 0.16 | 0.12 | 0.16* | 0.14* | 0.08 |
Ever touched sexually by parent/adult | 0.02 | 0.23* | 0.06^ | 0.03^ | 0.10* | 0.12* | 0.10* | 0.08*^ |
Ever forced to have sex against will | 0.08 | 0.31* | 0.25* | 0.23* | 0.24* | 0.16* | 0.16*^ | 0.11^ |
Bold indicates the mean scores displayed are statistically-significantly different from IBFs (currently intact, bio mother/father household, column 1), without additional controls.An asterisk (*) next to the estimate indicates a statistically-significant difference (p < 0.05) between the group’s coefficient and that of IBF’s, controlling for respondent’s age, gender, race/ethnicity, level of mother’s education, perceived household income while growing up, experience being bullied as a youth, and state’s legislative gay-friendliness, derived from logistic regression models (not shown).A caret (^) next to the estimate indicates a statistically-significant difference (p < 0.05) between the group’s mean and the mean of LM (column 2), without additional controls.