1. Int J Psychol. 2013 Jun;48(3):244-53. doi: 10.1080/00207594.2011.645484. Epub
2012 Apr 24.
Anticipation of the sexual and gender development of children adopted by same-sex
couples.
Gato J, Fontaine AM.
a Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences , University of Porto , Porto ,
Portugal.
The present study aimed to characterize beliefs surrounding the sexual and gender
development of children adopted by lesbian and gay couples. Participants were 768
Portuguese university students. Using a quasiexperimental design, participants
were presented with identical descriptions of a couple interested in adopting a
child, manipulating couple sexual orientation and child gender. Participants were
then asked to anticipate three aspects of the sexual and gender development of
the adopted child: sexual orientation, gender role behavior, and gender identity.
MANOVAs and follow-up ANOVAs were conducted in order to analyze the data. Results
indicated that participants, particularly males, considered children adopted by
either lesbian or gay couples to have a lower probability of developing a
normative sexual and gender identity than children adopted by heterosexual
couples. Both men and women considered that children would emulate the sexual
orientation of their same-sex parents, and that a boy's gender role behavior was
more at risk if he was adopted by a lesbian couple. Moreover, men were
apprehensive about the gender role behavior of a boy adopted by a gay male
couple. Overall, these results indicate persistence of biased evaluations of the
sexual and gender development of children adopted by lesbian and gay parents.
Furthermore, both gender of the participant and gender of the child play an
important role in these evaluations. Results are discussed and interpreted as a
way of "doing gender" in the context of hegemonic masculinity.
PMID: 23837556 [PubMed - in process]