Parenting

sons' and daughters' responses to growing up with a
gay parent. Results appear to confirm previous findings
concerning the diversity of parenting circumstances
of gay and bisexual men. Men with cohabiting
male partners reported themselves as successfully
meeting a variety of parenting challenges. While
older children were more likely to know of their
father's sexual identity, few gender differences were
reported in response to this knowledge. Issues for
further exploration are identified. (PsycINFO
Database Record. Copyright © 2002 by the American
Psychological Association. All rights reserved.)
Bigner, J. J., & Jacobsen, R. B. (1989a). The value
of children to gay and heterosexual fathers. In F.
W. Bozett (Ed.), Homosexuality and the family
(pp. 163-172). New York: Harrington Park Press.
Administered a value of children scale to 33 heterosexual
fathers (aged 26-55 yrs.) and 33 matched
homosexual fathers. Significant differences emerged
only on the tradition-continuity-security and social
status subscales. Homosexual subjects reported significant
reasons motivating them to become parents.
Their marriage and family orientation reflected a
traditional attitude toward family life and served to
protect against societal rejection. While some subjects
truly desired children and valued the role children
play in their lives, some homosexual subjects
had children mainly to attain some type of social
status. All subjects tended to value children negatively.
(PsycINFO Database Record. Copyright ©
2004 by the American Psychological Association. All
rights reserved.)
Bigner, J. J., & Jacobsen, R. B. (1989b). Parenting
behaviors of homosexual and heterosexual fathers.
In F. W. Bozett (Ed.), Homosexuality and the family
(pp. 173-186). New York: Harrington Park Press.
Compared the responses of 33 homosexual (HMS)
fathers with those of 33 heterosexual (HTS) fathers
on the Iowa Parent Behavior Inventory. HMS subjects
did not differ significantly from HTS subjects in
their reported degree of involvement or in intimacy
level with children. HMS subjects tended to be more
strict and more responsive to children's needs and
provided reasons for appropriate behavior to children
more consistently than HTS subjects. Possible explanations
for these similarities and differences in parenting
styles are explored. (PsycINFO Database
Record. Copyright © 2002 by the American
Psychological Association. All rights reserved.)
Bos, H. M. W., van Balen, F., & van den Boom, D.
C. (2003). Planned lesbian families: Their desire
and motivation to have children. Human
Reproduction, 10, 2216-2224.
Abstract can be found at http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/18/10/2216?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFOR-MAT=1&author1=bos&title=planned+lesbian+families&andorexacttitle=and&andorexacttitleabs=and
&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1122405216620
_2712&stored_search=&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&journalcode=humrep
(Copyright
© 2003 by the European Society of Human
Reproduction and Embriology. All rights reserved.)
Bos, H. M. W., van Balen, F., & van den Boom, D.
C. (2004). Experience of parenthood, couple relationship,
social support, and child-rearing goals in
planned lesbian mother families. Journal of Child
Psychology and Psychiatry, 45, 755-764.
The phenomenon of planned lesbian families is relatively
new. The overall aim of this research was to
examine whether planned lesbian mother families
differ from heterosexual families on factors that are
assumed to influence the parent–child relationship,
such as experience of parenthood, child-rearing goals,
couple relationship, and social support. One hundred
lesbian two-mother families were compared with 100
heterosexual families having naturally conceived children.
A variety of measures were used to collect the
data, including questionnaires and a diary of activities
kept by the parents. Lesbian parents are no less competent
or more burdened than heterosexual parents.
Both lesbian and heterosexual parents consider it
2 4 L E S B I A N & G A Y P A R E N T I N G