Study: 0% child abuse rate in lesbian households

[Valigarmander]

Child Abuse Rate At Zero Percent In Lesbian Households, New Report Finds

Los Angeles, CA -- The Williams Institute, a research center on sexual orientation law and public policy at UCLA School of Law, has announced new findings from the U.S. National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS), the longest-running study ever conducted on American lesbian families (now in its 24th year). In an article published today in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, the 17-year-old daughters and sons of lesbian mothers were asked about sexual abuse, sexual orientation, and sexual behavior.

The paper found that none of the 78 NLLFS adolescents reports having ever been physically or sexually abused by a parent or other caregiver. This contrasts with 26 percent of American adolescents who report parent or caregiver physical abuse and 8.3 percent who report sexual abuse.

According to the authors, "the absence of child abuse in lesbian mother families is particularly noteworthy, because victimization of children is pervasive and its consequences can be devastating. To the extent that our findings are replicated by other researchers, these reports from adolescents with lesbian mothers have implications for healthcare professionals, policymakers, social service agencies, and child protection experts who seek family models in which violence does not occur."

On sexual orientation, 2.8 percent of the NLLFS adolescents identified as predominantly to exclusively homosexual.

The study was conducted by Nanette Gartrell, M.D., Henny Bos, Ph.D. (University of Amsterdam), and Naomi Goldberg, M.P.P. (Williams Institute). Principal investigator Nanette Gartrell, M.D., is a 2010 Williams Distinguished Scholar, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at UCSF, and affiliated with the University of Amsterdam.

Don't break this thread sillies.

[CaptHayfever]

What happened to the first one?

It sorta makes sense, as lesbian couples' children would be by-&-large adoptees or artificially inseminated; abuse risk is much lower when the parents have the child on purpose.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[Valigarmander]

ZG broke it.

[Cosmonautical]

Okay, so I actually got to read this one. Where's IRHP when you need him? He's supposed to tell us they're going to make all of the children gay.

[Metal Man]

But where would his weaponry for that be? The study indicates nothing unusual happening on that front, either.

That said, I'm sure abuse does happen, but you'd need a much larger sample. Considering how hard it is for lesbian couples to adopt children in some places, though, it's likely that few of them even remotely have the idea of child abuse--much in the same way you're unlikely to abuse anything you worked really hard to get.

[Crazyswordsman]

^Some people are (unfortunately) skeptical of science and this type of study, particularly creationists and global warming deniers (the latter of which got plenty elected the other day). -CSM

[Rainbow Dash]

you can't just go "welp lesbian households are perfect, this study says so!", there will undoubtedly be roughly the same percentage if the amount of lesbian households were the same as the amount of standard households

[Deku Trii]

Originally Posted by Chunky Kong12345

you can't just go "welp lesbian households are perfect, this study says so!", there will undoubtedly be roughly the same percentage if the amount of lesbian households were the same as the amount of standard households

What are you basing that on?

[Rainbow Dash]

the fact that this is a study. there are a variety of things that could happen, from the lesbian households acting on their best behavior to the kids lying.

i'm not saying that lesbians can't be good parents, i'm saying it's impossible to determine whether those who participated in the study represent the whole

[Metal Man]

Actually there is. It's called the Scientific Confidence Level. 78 families isn't high enough of the whole to represent it all though, so this study would have somewhat low confidence. More like 300-3000 are needed to be pretty sure by the scientific confidence level method.

[Rainbow Dash]

that's basically what i said

[Deku Trii]

Originally Posted by Chunky Kong12345

i'm not saying that lesbians can't be good parents, i'm saying it's impossible to determine whether those who participated in the study represent the whole

Actually, you were saying that "undoubtedly" the numbers would be the same as those of households with heterosexual parents. It's not a claim you can really support with the data we have here.

[Rainbow Dash]

but if the lesbian households are the same as a standard household then surely they would have the same rates of abuse??

[Valigarmander]

The sampling size is pretty small. The margin of error is about 11%.

This study shouldn't be taken as claiming that child abuse never happens in lesbian households, but even then the study is remarkable.

[Deku Trii]

Originally Posted by Chunky Kong12345

but if the lesbian households are the same as a standard household then surely they would have the same rates of abuse??

But what if lesbian households are not the same as traditional households? What if they differ in some respects?

[Rainbow Dash]

what respects would they differ in, other than the fact that there are two women in authority roles instead of a man and a woman? if people make the argument that lesbian households wouldn't be different from the standard ones, surely the same amount of negative aspects would occur as positive ones

[Deku Trii]

Originally Posted by Chunky Kong12345

what respects would they differ in, other than the fact that there are two women in authority roles instead of a man and a woman? if people make the argument that lesbian households wouldn't be different from the standard ones, surely the same amount of negative aspects would occur as positive ones

I could speculate on what differences there might be, but that wouldn't be useful. The problem is that you are taking a pc notion and treating it as a rule for all aspects of the reality of a situation. It's like saying since all men are created equal, someone born without arms should be as good a baseball player as Pujols if he put in the same time at the batting cage.

[ZeldaGirl]

Originally Posted by Valigarmander

The sampling size is pretty small. The margin of error is about 11%.

This study shouldn't be taken as claiming that child abuse never happens in lesbian households, but even then the study is remarkable.

But even with a small sample size, the effects it shows are indeed remarkable. There are plenty of studies, particularly in the field of sleep psychology, that due to financial limitations can only run 10 participants; small sample sizes nevertheless can yield significant preliminary results.

[CuccoLady]

Chunky, what you are missing is that, in this study, absolutely NO child abuse occured whatsoever. Even if this is just a small sample, you are missing the main point:

In regular households, there is a 26 percent rate of physical abuse, and 8.3 percent rate of sexual abuse.

So, looking at physical abuse ALONE, in normal households, 26 percent of adolescents said they were abused.

In this study, ZERO PERCENT reported thusly.

Even taking sample size into consideration, AND other factors, about a quarter of adolescents to NO adolescents is, I would say, a statistically significant change.

Are you seeing this?

[Microphone_Kirby]

Originally Posted by CaptHayfever

It sorta makes sense, as lesbian couples' children would be by-&-large adoptees or artificially inseminated; abuse risk is much lower when the parents have the child on purpose.

I agree with this, but the words I use would be:

Originally Posted by CaptHayfever, twisted by me

It sorta makes sense, as lesbian couples' children would be by-&-large adoptees or artificially inseminated; abuse risk is much lower when the parents (essentially) chose what child they'd want.

... and that's the only flaw that sticks out in this study to me.
and don't make me say anymore than that, please...