Child Abuse Rate At Zero Percent In Lesbian Households, New Report Finds

Los Angeles, CA -- The Williams Institute, a research center on sexual orientation law and public policy at UCLA School of Law, has announced new findings from the U.S. National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS), the longest-running study ever conducted on American lesbian families (now in its 24th year). In an article published today in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, the 17-year-old daughters and sons of lesbian mothers were asked about sexual abuse, sexual orientation, and sexual behavior.

The paper found that none of the 78 NLLFS adolescents reports having ever been physically or sexually abused by a parent or other caregiver. This contrasts with 26 percent of American adolescents who report parent or caregiver physical abuse and 8.3 percent who report sexual abuse.

According to the authors, "the absence of child abuse in lesbian mother families is particularly noteworthy, because victimization of children is pervasive and its consequences can be devastating. To the extent that our findings are replicated by other researchers, these reports from adolescents with lesbian mothers have implications for healthcare professionals, policymakers, social service agencies, and child protection experts who seek family models in which violence does not occur."

On sexual orientation, 2.8 percent of the NLLFS adolescents identified as predominantly to exclusively homosexual.

The study was conducted by Nanette Gartrell, M.D., Henny Bos, Ph.D. (University of Amsterdam), and Naomi Goldberg, M.P.P. (Williams Institute). Principal investigator Nanette Gartrell, M.D., is a 2010 Williams Distinguished Scholar, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at UCSF, and affiliated with the University of Amsterdam.

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Online: http://www.nllfs.org.

Comments

[coptic777]

02:58 PM on 12/21/2010

I am amazed at some of the comments on here by people who are promoting this obvious PR campaign to shove homosexuality down our throats. I say live & let live however now w/ homosexual education being taught to six yr olds this is an obvious attempt to promote this lifestyle to all society as not merely being accepted but trying to convince us this is "good for us". The breakdown of the family (Man, Women Children whatever order you like) w/ an over 50% divorce rate in this country 1 sided divorce laws these etc. is just one more sign that indicates the decline of america. History has shown this time & again russia being among the latest big example (they admit this themselves) feminism today has proven to be destructive to society. It's over.

[David P Redmond]

03:28 PM on 12/07/2010

let's compare the ratio of lesbian households with children to all others households with children and realize this study has little to no significance, statistical or otherwise

[cadenwendy]

01:07 AM on 12/05/2010

That's to say 'The kids are all right."

[adryenn]

09:38 PM on 11/23/2010

The study sample size is too small to draw any universal conclusions. To say that there is no abuse in lesbian households is total hogwash. I've personally investigated and testified in a number of cases where there was. So the concept of 0% is crazy. It's the sample selection process. That's how they got this, and also if they were following the families for that long, they knew they were being watched, of course they were perfect role models! Don't take my comments wrong. The study is flawed and the title is misleading, intentionally so for viral sharing sake I think.

[ms lc]

10:01 AM on 11/23/2010

I'm not surprised by the findings but the sample size is small. More studies are needed with larger sample sizes to replicate this study's findings?

[jeeimu]

08:01 PM on 11/26/2010

it is small, and once it's legal for these couples to marry and adopt i'm sure it'll get larger. fingers crossed! :)

[Blodo]

10:25 PM on 11/22/2010

This isn't surprising. Animal behavior studies show that many species have opted for a strategy where the female drives the male away after giving birth. This decreases the likelihood of attack on the young by the male. Humans, because of the economic and physical vulnerability of the female, and the extraordinarily long time the young are dependent, meant that a behavioral strategy had to evolve whereby the female and the male entered into a bonding arrangement. The male got sex and someone to look after the home economics, the woman got protection and someone to bring home the game. However, this bargain always included some risk to the young, given the male's greater propensity to express anger with violence and to engage in incestuous behavior.

Today, advanced societies with laws, freedom for women to enter the workforce, and the ability of women who so choose to enter into lesbian relationships, are seeing situations where males have been deemed non-critical to child rearing. I would predict that more women may see this as a viable option that provides emotional and physical satisfaction; and economic security, without the attendant risks to their offspring associated with male cohabitation.

BTW....I have no feminist axe to grind. I'm male and a parent.

[coptic777]

02:45 PM on 12/21/2010

"I'm male and a parent" no offense however you may want include "indoctrinated" as well in your description of yourself. There are dozens of studies done by universities & the gov't that show this statement" and the ability of women who so choose to enter into lesbian relationsh­ips, are seeing situations where males have been deemed non-critic­al to child rearing" i.s complete BS. Google "statistics on fatherhood" this is what is not taught in schools that you obviously graduated from

[imnobody156]

12:18 AM on 11/22/2010

generally the statistics are slanted towards whatever point is trying to be proved.
ie: women over 40 have a higher chance of having a child with birth defects. maybe the statistics are higher, because fewer women over 40 have children-duh

this article is attempting to say what exactly-lesbian households are the perfect households, with perfect parents, and lesbians are the perfect citizens?
or that these four women asked 78 children of friends, relatives, colleagues, associates and this is what the children told us?
...over 26% of American children reported-how many children were asked?

if the only questions were regarding sexual abuse, sexual orientation, and sexual behavior(clarification, please) zero percent sexual abuse reported by 78 children-is plausible.

but then where are the demographics of socioeconomic situations, parental education/income, area of residency, 26% of American children of one or two parent households.

Not cutting on lesbians, or any sexual orientation, just the authors peach coated article.

[imnobody156]

12:43 AM on 11/22/2010

after reading about the 24 year study and the demographics, these 78 children seem to have very fortunate circumstances.

[Blodo]

10:36 PM on 11/22/2010

The article isn't saying that lesbian households are perfect. And you, as well as I, can see that the article is saying nothing about them as citizens.

I believe the article is saying that the rate of physical or sexual abuse in lesbian households is zero....and that the rate in households that are not lesbian is 26%.

The question regarding the statistical methodology is a fair one. Ideally, the total sample size, the nature of the question, survey method and margin of error should all have been described. But then, it's a pretty short, high-level article, and I suppose we could go to the original source if we really wanted that info. ;P

[CSDofNM]

11:32 PM on 11/21/2010

Unfortunately, this study must be bogus (entirely made up). Their own statistics prove it. Sample size of 78. One person is therefore 1.28% of the sample, yet 2.8% are homosexual. This means that 2.184 people are homosexual. If 2.56% were homosexual, the numbers would add up. This also varies from the expected rates of homosexuality in the larger population, which run around 7%, with an expected value of five to six people at this sample size. Either they are twice as unlikely to inherit homosexual genes (extremely unlikely), or twice as unwilling to be truthful about it (more likely). The number of people is too small and the outcomes just dont add up. Get a better study, please.

[Alex Clary]

01:58 AM on 12/05/2010

No, 78 is the number of lesbian mothers, not the total number of parents.

[Bill Fitzpatrick]

02:03 AM on 11/20/2010

why collect your own data for this? Pretty sure records of child abuse/molestation cases are kept. Go to where ever those records are kept ask for the number of cases involving lesbian/two female parents/guardians and you now have a very large blind sample group to compare with the total population of lesbian parents/guardians look for households in the census data with two mommies or something. Might take some fenangling for the anonymous child welfare data they like to be private but the census stuff is free. Seems much easier than keeping tabs on a sample group for 17 years.

[jeeimu]

08:04 PM on 11/26/2010

easier yes and definitely useful, but getting to track a single family over time allows for comparison of longitudinal data - a difficult data set to attain.

[nongrata]

07:28 AM on 11/18/2010

And to add to this "study" guess what: 78 people from Iran reported no problems with their government either. But I think they either laying or their government is lesbian.

[Thankgoodness]

01:33 PM on 11/21/2010

seriously?

[nongrata]

07:17 AM on 11/18/2010

Ignorance is blessing. The mere fact that the "study" showed ZERO percent is and in by itself tells you that the "researcher" is either A) Blind or B) ignorant. In a world were men are looked at as physical sexual predators (unless proven otherwise), and women are always always always the poor victims (and never abusive), is it really hard to come to such an arrogant conclusion that lesbians mom are never abusive? Did we just discover new breed of humans? I wonder if it is the same lesbian "researcher" who discovered that she has three vaginas.

[Thankgoodness]

01:35 PM on 11/21/2010

I think you're option B.

[siamao]

07:09 AM on 11/18/2010

The sample is relatively small, although I'm sure statistically adequate.
The implications suggest that other studies with this population find similar results.

This is an overall dramatic result, and in my mind suggests a tremendous amount
about the dual "mothering" function in Lesbian families, versus the less than
adequate mothering function given time constraints and other demands in
other family constellations with only one mother.

Congratulations to the researchers (not to mention the moms in the study)!

[Phlan]

12:00 AM on 11/18/2010

Those deviants can't even beat thier kids right.

[fdcrack]

12:57 PM on 11/17/2010

As someone who grew up without a father figure, the child upbringing of two females could be more detrimental in the long run than what we currently know today. This is base on personal experience but I have a feeling that I'm not the only one.

[PKMKII]

01:19 PM on 11/17/2010

The plural of anecdote is not data.

[fdcrack]

01:23 PM on 11/17/2010

There's no data on us yet because we are limited as of now. As research find us, and the number of us increase, I can assure you that we are many.

[Annieke]

02:30 AM on 11/17/2010

And the GOP keeps telling that it is not healthy for a child to grow up with anything other than a mother and a father.

Hmmm, I think that the 8.3% of the sexually abused children feel different about that.