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LIVING IN SINGLE-PARENT HOUSEHOLDS: AN INVESTIGATION OF THE SAME-SEX HYPOTHESIS*
We examine the social scientific evidence regarding one question increasingly addressed in legal scholarship and in custody cases: Are children who live with their same-sex parent in a better situation than their peers who live with an opposite-sex parent? After evaluating the current research on the same-sex hypothesis, we extend this literature by analyzing three data sets (National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, High School and Beyond, and the General Social Survey). We focus on a broader array of socioemotional, academic, and personality variables than those previously studied to explore the implications of same-sex parenting on adolescence and adulthood. We find virtually no evidence of a benefit from living with a same-sex parent. This study represents the most complete test to date of, and rebuttal to, the same-sex argument.
Are children who live with their samesex parent better off than their peers who live with an opposite-sex parent? This question is important on several fronts. First, claims regarding the benefit of same-sex custody are rooted in social psychological theories, and more specifically are based on individualist, as opposed to microstructural, views on sex and socialization. Second, this is one area in which sociological work can and does have real implications for public policy-in custody disputes. Third, the issue provides an intriguing case in which sex, or more precisely sex matching, does not matter.
After evaluating the current state of research on the same-sex hypothesis, we extend this literature by analyzing three national data sets. We focus on key outcomes previously not investigated, study children who recently entered a single-parent household, and explore the effects of same-sex parenting on adolescence and adulthood. BACKGROUND
The Same-Sex Hypothesis
The premise of the same-sex standard for child custody is that, ceteris paribus, children with a parent of the same sex fare better than those with an opposite-sex parent. The samesex argument, at first glance, may seem compelling. It fits many commonsense conceptions of maternal and paternal roles and parallels recurrent cultural themes-that there is an inimitable bond between mother and daughter, and that a boy needs a father to "become a man." Indeed, the assumed salience of a same-sex parent lies at the heart of much of...