Parenting

parent, especially with regard to perceptions of
friendship and sexuality. The study findings are
discussed in light of methodological problems in
this type of research, and directions for future
research are suggested. (The dissertation citation
and abstract contained here is published with permission
of ProQuest Information and Learning. Further
reproduction is prohibited without permission.)
Puryear, D. (1983). A comparison between the
children of lesbian mothers and the children of heterosexual
mothers. Unpublished doctoral dissertation,
California School of Professional Psychology,
Berkeley CA.
This study explored the effect of mothers’ sexual
orientation on three areas of development in children
of latency age: self-concept, locus of control
orientation, and self and familial views. Fifteen lesbian
mother–child pairs and 15 heterosexual mother-child
pairs comprised the sample. The two
groups were highly similar on a number of personal
and demographic variables (e.g., socioeconomic status,
age, length of time separated, age of children,
etc.). Self-concept was measured by the Piers-Harris
Children's Self-Concept Scale (1969), an 80-item
“Yes-No” questionnaire. Locus of control orientation
was measured by the Nowicki-Strickland Locus
of Control Scale for Children (1973), a 40-item “Yes-
No” questionnaire. Children's self and familial
views were measured by the Kinetic Family Drawing
Rating Scale devised by the investigator and adapted
from the Burns and Kaufman (1982) scoring
method for the Kinetic Family Drawing Projective
Test. Mothers also completed a Family
Questionnaire devised by the investigator which
included demographic information and questions
regarding mother's and child's adjustments to the
separation from the child's father. No significant
differences were found between the two groups of
children in self-concept or in locus of control orientation
scores. These findings make it difficult to
defend the view that the mother's sexual orientation
is detrimental to the development of the child's selfconcept
or locus of control orientation. There were
significant differences, however, in self and family
views between the two groups of children. More
children of heterosexual mothers depicted the family
and father in activities with them than did children
of lesbian mothers. Also, the majority of children
with heterosexual mothers drew scenes depicting
cooperation between the child and other figures,
whereas most of the children of lesbian mothers did
not. It was noteworthy that most of the children in
the sample included the father in their drawings,
suggesting that the father is a very important figure
in these children's lives regardless of mother's sexual
orientation. It was suggested that the impact of
divorce (or separation) on the child is greater than
the mother's sexual orientation. The need for longitudinal
studies of children of lesbian mothers, particularly
from latency through adolescence, was
emphasized. (The dissertation citation and abstract
contained here is published with permission of
ProQuest Information and Learning. Further
reproduction is prohibited without permission.)
Rand, C., Graham, D. L. R., & Rawlings, E. I.
(1982). Psychological health and factors the court
seeks to control in lesbian mother custody trials.
Journal of Homosexuality, 8, 27-39.
The court has repeatedly ruled that a mother will lose
custody of and visitation privileges with her children
if she expresses her lesbianism through involvement
or cohabitation with a female partner, being affiliated
with a lesbian community, or disclosing her lesbianism
to her children. The present study examined
associations between expressions of lesbianism for 25,
23-to 46-year-old White self-identified lesbian mothers
and psychological health, as measured by three
scales on the California Psychological Inventory and
by the Affectometer. Psychological health correlated
positively with openness to employer, ex-husband,
children, a lesbian community, and amount of feminist
activism. Partial support was found for the
hypothesis that lesbian mothers who were expressing
their lesbianism would be psychologically healthier
than those who were not. (PsycINFO Database
Record. Copyright © 2002 by the American
Psychological Association. All rights reserved.)
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