Growing Up in a Lesbian Family: Effects on Child Development

Abstract

Growing Up in a Lesbian Family: Effects on Child Development. Fiona L. Tasker & Susan Golombok. New York: Guilford. 1997. 187 pp. ISBN 1-57230-170-8. $26.95 cloth. Rare enough are longitudinal studies of family life following the impact of parents' life circumstances and behavior on their offspring from childhood through adult life. Rarer still is research on sexual orientation over time, regardless of the focus of the project. So the empirical project of Fiona L. Tasker and Susan Golombok tracking the lives of children raised in lesbianmother households over a 14-year period presents a unique accomplishment. Interviewing young adults whose mothers they had studied years earlier, Tasker and Golombok provide clues about how parents contribute to the development of sexual identity. This is an issue, of course, of tremendous controversy. It is a practical issue in custody disputes when a divorcing parent is lesbian, gay, or bisexual. It is also of some importance as increasing numbers of same-sex domestic partners are choosing to raise children. The early phase of this research has been one of the foundations of the small, yet robust, literature that has failed to uncover any untoward effects on children of being raised by a lesbian or gay parent. The lack of deleterious effects studied cross-sectionally whets the appetite for the crucial longitudinal data. By carefully locating many of their research participants and involving their now-adult offspring in a follow-up, Tasker and Golombok explore whether being raised by a lesbian mother impacts family relationships, peer relationships, intimate relationships, and personal adjustment. And, yes, they also tell us how many of these children become lesbian or gay adults. This is sketched out against a comparison group of single, heterosexual mothers whose adult children were similarly pursued by the researchers. The final numbers are quite small, however: 18 of the original 27 lesbian mothers and 16 of the original 27 single, heterosexual mothers. There were 25 young adults from the lesbian families and 21 young adults from the heterosexual families in the follow-up interviews. Contrary to predictions of simplistic theories attributing sexual orientation to biology, parental personality disorder, or social learning, Tasker and Golombok find remarkable complexity. Most important in a heterosexist cultural context is that young adults from lesbian-mother households emerge every bit as well adjusted as their counterparts raised in heterosexual, single-mother households. This, despite the greater complications of growing up with a lesbian mother and, for some, her domestic partner. About 10 years old at the first assessment, the children weathered a divorce in most cases and coped with their growing awareness of their mothers' sexual orientation. In addition to the usual development challenges, these children needed to integrate their mothers' romantic partners, as well as their biological fathers, any siblings, and extended family, into their new family structures. They also faced peers, teachers, and other community figures. As they approached adolescence, their sensitivity about their family's distinctiveness increased, and one third wished that their mothers could have been more circumspect about being lesbian. …