Same-sex and different-sex parent families in Italy: parenting dimensions and child health outcomes

Stereotypes in Italy against same-sex parent families are still strong: Italy is one of the few European Union countries where same-sex parent families are not legally recognized. This study compares 60 gay parents, 125 lesbian parents, and 160 heterosexual parents matched on their children’s demographic characteristics (Mage = 3.6, SDage = 2.5; girls = 51%). The Coparenting Scale-Revised (McHale, 1999) was used to assess the Integrity and Conflict dimension of the family. The Parent Self-Agency Measure (Dumka et al., 2002) was used to measure the perceived parenting self-efficacy. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman 2001) was used to evaluate the psychosocial outcomes of the children. To assess differences between heterosexual, gay, and lesbian parents (household type) on parenting dimensions and children’s general health and prosocial behavior, two 2 X 3 MANOVAs were conducted, with household type and child gender as independent factors. Only a significant main effect of household type was found on the parenting dimensions; Wilks’s λ = .91, F(3, 318) = 5.21, p < .001. Follow-up ANOVAs revealed that heterosexual parents reported higher level of conflict than gay and lesbian parents, and gay parents reported more self-efficacy than heterosexual and lesbian parents. A significant main effect for child outcome variables was found based on household type, Wilks’s λ = .94, F(5, 345) = 1.97, p = .03, and child gender, Wilks’s λ = .95, F(5, 345) = 3.72, p < .001, although the interaction was not significant. Children of heterosexual parents reported the highest scores for emotional problems. Girls showed more emotional problems and prosocial behavior and less hyperactivity than boys. Data from the present study suggested that same-sex parents are functioning as well as different-sex parent families. Coherently, children raised in same-sex parent families reported similar outcomes to children raised in different-sex parent families. These results have important implications in both clinical and social fields.