What does research say about same-sex parenting?
Peter Ould writes:The publication of a new book by Wilberforce Publications, an arm of Christian Concern, has led to some Christian media interest. The volume is Same-Sex Parenting Inquiry: A Critical Assessment by Professor Walter Schumm who has decades of experience in researching same-sex parenting and associated issues. Despite the fact that I have been critical of Christian Concern in the by, they were kind enough to send me a review copy in the mail service. As a statistics professional (I piece of work with banks and other institutions beyond the unabridged EMEA region on their mathematical modelling) I wanted to give information technology a fair reading.
The volume is very well laid out. Schumm begins by introducing u.s.a. to the general themes around social science inquiry and the deeper methodological issues involved in the surveys he reviews. He tries to make some complicated statistical ideas easy for the lay reader to understand and succeeds – anyone with a modicum of teaching should exist able to read chapter three and come away ready to read the rest of the book and appreciate the statistical issues he is going to signal out.
The cadre of the book is then a review, subject by discipline, of key papers that contradict the popular narrative in these areas. Schumm works usa through the areas of same-sex family stability, sexual abuse, parental values and behaviour, child sexual orientation, gender identity and gender roles and finally child mental health, educational attainment and social integration. Information technology is a quite comprehensive survey.
The process of examining each surface area is as follows. Schumm highlights the master claims fabricated in each of the areas (due east.g. same-sex parents' relationships are as stable as other-sexual activity parents'), gives examples of bookish texts that make such a claim and so takes us through a body of peer-reviewed research that finds conclusions contrary to the mainstream inquiry. Central figures are brought to the fore and whilst no newspaper is dealt with in any bully particular, enough evidence is provided to demonstrate the academic credibility of alternative interpretations. Schumm is not afraid of pointing out where show opposite to the mainstream view is shallow and he is also critical of some research that conservatives tend to hang on. He was one of the first bourgeois academics to criticise the first Regnerus study on aforementioned-sexual activity parenting, correctly arguing that the way Regnerus had grouped his same-sexual practice parents undermined any arguments he was trying to make. Equally Schumm himself puts information technology,
"It would have been a lot more difficult if my critics had said things similar 'Research in this area is circuitous' or 'The limitations of the research in this area hinder our power to draw conclusions potent enough to influence policy'. I might have agreed with my critics if they had made such conscientious statements." (p29)
This I recollect highlights the fundamental indicate about Schumm's book. It is definitively not a book that is designed to demonstrate that same-sex parenting is inferior to other-sexual practice parenting. Rather, information technology is an attempt to rest the debate, to call for a more reasoned conversation in an area that is emotionally and politically charged. Headlines similar "Heterosexual parenting best for children" practise not do this volume justice. Schumm has not produced an argument against same-sex parenting, rather he has written an testify based call for more honest inquiry in the surface area. As Schumm himself writes,
"My fondest hope is not that same-sex union be declared illegal or same-sex adoption be banned … but that perhaps a few persons hither and at that place will accept been challenged to remember more carefully about scientific enquiry in areas of political controversy, and be a picayune less eager to leap to conclusions that may not in fact be warranted after a careful, detailed, systematic review of the research literature." (p228)
I recommend that those interested in these issues, on both sides of the argue, go a copy and appoint with it on the academic level it deserves. My concern is that many on both sides will really use this volume as a political tool, either something that "proves" their own socially bourgeois biases (it does no such matter) or something that is treated as "testify" of bigotry against their liberal stance. The book is neither and if you come to it expecting either of those two things you lot will miss the valuable contribution to this on going fence that Schumm has provided us.
Revd Peter Ould is a Church of England priest based in Canterbury. He works in the field of statistical research and application and writes and broadcasts on issues effectually the Church, sex and statistics.
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