Parenting

Rees, R. L. (1979). A comparison of children of
lesbian and single heterosexual mothers on three
measures of socialization. Unpublished doctoral
dissertation, California School of Professional
Psychology, Berkeley CA. No abstract available.
Sarantakos, S. (1996). Children in three contexts:
Family, education, and social development.
Children Australia, 21(3), 23-31. No abstract
available. See footnote on page 6.
Sbordone, A. J. (1993). Gay men choosing fatherhood.
Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Department of
Psychology, City University of New York.
Seventy-eight gay men who are parents via adoption
or arrangements with surrogate mothers were compared
with 83 gay non-fathers on measures of internalized
homophobia, self-esteem, and recollections of
their families of origin during childhood.
Questionnaires included: the Nungesser Homosexual
Attitudes Inventory, the Ego-Dystonic Homosexuality
Scale, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the Marlowe-
Crowne Social Desirability Scale, the Family-of-Origin
Scale, the Parent-Child Relations Questionnaire II,
and a demographic section. Tests of statistical significance
included: the t-test, Mann-Whitney U-test, chisquare,
Pearson's r, and analysis of variance. This
research begins the documentation of a recent phenomenon
in the gay community, gay men who are
choosing to become fathers within the context of a gay
identity. Results indicate that fathers and non-fathers
do not differ significantly in their recollections of
maternal and paternal parent–child relationships on
measures of love, rejection, attention, or casual versus
demanding attitudes toward rules. Nor do the two
groups differ significantly on their perceptions of intimacy
and autonomy in the family of origin. However,
fathers do display significantly higher levels of selfesteem
and significantly lower levels of internalized
4 0 L E S B I A N & G A Y P A R E N T I N G