Susan Golombok is the Cambridge University-based researcher who did the first large-scale study of the Choice Mom community in 2008. Some of those findings are posted here. Now she's published a new report of other research into female-headed families.
Posted May 19, 2010 at 7:00 AM
Latest research on Choice Moms
Research
As Emily submitted to the Choice Moms discussion board, this abstract is from the January 2010 edition of Human Reproduction:
Children raised in mother-headed families from infancy: a follow-up of children of lesbian and single heterosexual mothers, at early adulthood
by Susan Golombok and Shirlene Badger
Centre for Family Research, Faculty of Politics, Psychology, Sociology and International Studies, University of Cambridge, Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 3RF, UK
1 Correspondence address: Fax: +44-1223-330574; Email: seg42@cam.ac.uk
BACKGROUND: The present investigation constituted the third phase of a longitudinal study of the quality of parent-child relationships and the psychological adjustment of children in female-headed families with no father present from infancy.
METHODS: In this study, 27 families headed by single heterosexual mothers (solo mothers) and 20 families headed by lesbian mothers were compared with 36 two-parent heterosexual families as the child entered adulthood. Data were obtained from mothers and their young adult children by standardized interviews and questionnaires.
RESULTS: The female-headed families were found to be similar to the traditional families on a range of measures of quality of parenting and young adults’ psychological adjustment. Where differences were identified between family types, these pointed to more positive family relationships and greater psychological well-being among young adults raised in female-headed homes.
CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study show that children raised by solo heterosexual mothers or lesbian mothers from infancy continue to function well as they enter adulthood. The findings are of relevance to the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology (2008) Act.
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Posted May 28, 2010 at 9:28 AM by Julie
I love the idea of this, but not sure how sound the study is. The sample size seems incredibly small, and I'm curious about socio-economic factors, parenting styles and other differences and similarities between the partnered and non-partnered families. Just doesn't seem like enough information to be a valid study. Although personally, all of the SMCs I know totally rock! :)