Physical Wellness

Children of Gay Parents Are Happier and Healthier, Study

By Christine Hsu | Update Date: Jun 06, 2013 02:10 PM EDT

A controversial new study reveals that children with homosexual parents are healthier and happier than those with straight parents.

Australian researchers from the University of Melbourne found that children aged five to 17 who live with same-sex parents have "significantly better" general health than those with heterosexual parents.

The findings also revealed that households led by same-sex parents have greater family cohesion.

The study, which involved 500 children aged between one and 17 who were part of The Study of Child Health in Same-Sex Families, revealed that kids with homosexual parents scored significantly higher for general health and family cohesion.

In fact, researchers found that children of gay parents scored so much higher for general health, researchers said it would only occur by chance less than one in 10,000 times.

However, researchers found no significant differences in other health measures like self-esteem and emotional behavior.

Researchers said they still do not understand why the children of same-sex parents have better general health and family cohesion.

However, lead researcher Dr Simon Crouch, told The Sydney Morning Herald, that the findings may be because same-sex families are generally more willing to communicate.

Because of the situation that same-sex families find themselves in, they are generally more willing to communicate and approach the issues that any child may face at school, like teasing or bullying.

"This fosters openness and means children tend to be more resilient. That would be our hypothesis," Crouch added.

The latest news comes just after another study revealed that children adopted by homosexual couples do just as well as those adopted by heterosexual couples.  Researchers from the University of Cambridge's Centre for Family Research found that children with gay parents are not disadvantaged and that most are not victims of bullying.

"What I don't like is when people make assumptions that a certain type of family, such as gay fathers, will be bad for children," said co-researcher Professor Susan Golombok, according to the Daily Mail.

"The anxieties about the potentially negative effects for children of being placed with gay fathers seem to be, from our study, unfounded," she added.

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