Invisible Victims: Delayed Onset Depression among Adults with Same-Sex Parents.

D Paul Sullins

doi:10.1155/2016/2410392

Abstract

The relationship of elevated depression risk recently discovered among adult persons raised by same-sex parents with possible precipitating conditions in childhood has not previously been acknowledged. This study tests whether such inattention is supportable. Logistic regression based risk ratios were estimated from longitudinal measures of mental health outcomes observed in three waves (at ages 15, 22, and 28) of the US National Survey of Adolescent to Adult Health (n = 15,701). At age 28, the adults raised by same-sex parents were at over twice the risk of depression (CES-D: risk ratio 2.6, 95% CI 1.4–4.6) as persons raised by man-woman parents. These findings should be interpreted with caution. Elevated risk was associated with imbalanced parental closeness and parental child abuse in family of origin; depression, suicidality, and anxiety at age 15; and stigma and obesity. More research and policy attention to potentially problematic conditions for children with same-sex parents appears warranted.

Highlights

In research and policy settings, children in unique distress with same-sex parents are not supposed to exist
The present study aims to amend these gaps in the research
The initial evidence for delayed onset of higher depression risk for the same-sex parented children is presented in Table 2, illustrating comparisons from Table 1

Summary

Introduction

In research and policy settings, children in unique distress with same-sex parents are not supposed to exist. Most studies have reported “no differences” in well-being, most often using psychometric measures of depression or anxiety, supporting a lapse in policy attention to the potential needs of such children. The sparse and gendered nature of the same-sex parent population largely restricts research in this area to the examination of small samples of lesbian parents. This difficulty has prompted an almost universal dependence on convenience samples [7, 8] recruited, with knowledge of study goals, from internet surveys, “LGBT events, bookstore and newspaper advertisements, word of mouth, networking, and youth groups” [2]. Lack of statistical significance using simple bivariate tests in such samples is erroneously interpreted as strong evidence of “no differences” in the population, even when difference in estimates or effect sizes are substantively large and even though the sample is not representative [12]

Results

Discussion

Conclusion