High-risk children adopted from foster care by gay parents fare equally in their cognitive and emotional development as those adopted by heterosexual parents, according to a new UCLA study published in the October issue of the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry.
The study is the first to compare children who were adopted out of foster care by gay men, lesbians, and heterosexual couples, and to track their progress over time, said lead author Justin Lavner, a doctoral candidate at UCLA.
The researchers followed 82 children in Los Angeles County -- 22 of whom were adopted by gay parents at the average age of 4 -- and evaluated them after two months, one year, and two years after they were placed with their adoptive families.
According to the study, children in both household types showed significant gains in cognitive development and maintained similar levels of behavior problems over time, even though the children adopted by gay parents often had more risk factors than those adopted by heterosexual parents.
No comments:
Post a Comment