In another excellent use of government money (no, seriously - I wish that were sarcasm, but sometimes we need to prove the obvious - remember this guy?), two studies in January’s Journal of Developmental Psychology say that homosexual relationships are just as healthy and secure as heterosexual ones.
I know, !!!, right? Next they’re going to tell us that committed relationships tend to last longer than non-commital ones!
One study, conducted right here at the University of Urbana-Champaign, compared 60 same-sex couples to 90 heterosexual couples. To quote from this article, which quotes the lead researcher:
The belief that committed same-sex relationships are “atypical, psychologically immature, or malevolent contexts of development was not supported by our findings,” noted lead author Glenn I. Roisman. “Compared with married individuals, committed gay males and lesbians were not less satisfied with their relationships.”
Roisman added that gay males and lesbians “were generally not different from their committed heterosexual counterparts on how well they interacted with one another, although some evidence emerged the lesbian couples were especially effective at resolving conflict.”
The second study took it a step further and examined how both sexual orientation and legal status affected relationship quality. The three-year study found that, again, same-sex couples “were similar to heterosexual couples in most relationship areas.” What’s more, regardless of legal status (we’re talking about civil unions here), same-sex couples reported more satisfaction, more positive feelings and less conflict within their partnership than married heterosexual couples.
Here’s the kicker: Researchers also found that same-sex couples not in civil unions were more likely to break up than same-sex couples in civil unions or married straight couples.
Two thoughts on that last bit. One, this suggests that gay couples who are “officially” committed are more likely to stay together than “unofficial” couples - just as married couples are more likely to stay together than unmarried pairs. Why? Are the legal protections and benefits of marriage (and civil unions) a good incentive to work things out? Clearly with gays, it’s not about staying together “for the sake of the kids.”
Two, a message to anti-gay groups who are uncomfortable with the idea of gays having sex with more than one person and, I don’t know, running around and spreading AIDS - if you want to keep presumably monogamous couples in a monogamous relationship, let them make it official!
2 responses so far ↓
1 amaltby // Jan 24, 2008 at 3:03 pm
i took a course called “psychology of gender” about a year ago, and we talked a bit about research on gay and lesbian couples. one thing i found interesting: in terms of allocation of household chores, gay and lesbian couples tend to divide up labor more fairly — since they don’t have the default “i’m the man, so i’ll mow the lawn; you’re the woman, so you’ll wash the dishes” schema to fall back on, they divide up labor based on their interests, skills and schedules.
gay and lesbian couples also can be more successful at resolving conflict in their relationships, since they see the world through more similar lenses.
one unique stressor on gay and lesbian couples, however, can be lack of family support — unfortunately many find that their families do not approve of what they perceive to be their “choices” (though that’s an entirely different blog post) and refuse to help them overcome difficult periods of the relationship.
2 andibee // Jan 25, 2008 at 3:09 am
Interesting! I took “economics of gender” last year and we reached similar conclusion. I think these studies should be handed to adoption agencies that have a problem with letting gay couples adopt. Clearly, gay couples do as well as, if not better than, straight couples, and if granted civil unions they’ll really strive to make it work. What kid wouldn’t want parents like that?
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