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Mothers, Fathers, Families, and Circumstances: FactorsAffecting Children's AdjustmentMichael E. Lamb aa University of CambridgePublished online: 23 Apr 2012.

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Mothers, Fathers, Families, and Circumstances:Factors Affecting Children’s Adjustment

Michael E. Lamb

University of Cambridge

The burgeoning empirical literature exploring the factors accounting for individual dif-ferences in psychological adjustment is reviewed. Many studies have shown that adjust-ment is largely affected by differences in the quality of parenting and parent–childrelationships, the quality of the relationships between the parents, and the richness ofthe economic and social resources available to the family; more recent research signalsthe importance of congenital differences as well. Dimensions of family structure—including such factors as divorce, single parenthood, and the parents’ sexual orien-tation—and biological relatedness between parents and children are of little or no pre-dictive importance once the process variables are taken into account, because the samefactors explain child adjustment regardless of family structure. These findings haveimportant social and legal implications, especially in relation to decisions regarding fos-ter care and adoption, as well as those concerning children’s well-being following familydissolution.

In the century or so since developmental psychologyemerged as a discipline, its adherents have been dis-tinguished by their efforts to identify the factor assuringthat children would grow up psychologically healthy.Perhaps because this goal was inherently unrealistic,scholars have careened from one confident assertion ofprimacy to another. Entrenched differences in nationalpsyche and culture ensured for many years that Britishand Continental developmental scientists placed moreemphasis on the role of inherited dispositions and con-straints, for example, while their more optimistic collea-gues across the Atlantic emphasized the formativepower of experience and resolved to throw off the con-straining shackles of inherited destiny. Exactly whatkinds of experience they deemed important changedover the years, but psychologists discussing socializationfocused largely on what we might consider the ‘‘cold’’aspects of psychological influence—what parents said,did, and believed—rather than on how they and their

children felt emotionally. To the extent that affectsand feelings were considered, psychologists like Watson(1918, 1924) saw emotions becoming associated withnovel stimuli through a process of conditioning, ratherthan as motivational factors or moderators of socialinfluences.

The cataclysmic upheavals of World War II ledEuropean students of psychosocial development andadjustment to bridge the theoretical gap, with psychoan-alyst John Bowlby (1951, 1958) asserting that humanshad a biological need for loving care, not simply forattention to their physical needs. Attachment theorywas revolutionary in more ways than we recognizetoday, not least for making emotional feelings and rela-tionships central to the concept of psychological adjust-ment. In other respects, however, attachment theory wascomfortingly familiar to the extent that it provided yetanother simple answer to questions about children’spsychological needs. ‘‘Maternal love’’ is the key topsychological well-being, attachment theorists confi-dently asserted, reassuring those for whom this claritywas soothingly consistent with cultural practices andbeliefs. But is it really so?

My goal in this article is to summarize the empiricalliterature exploring the factors accounting for individual

The author is grateful to Susan Golombok, Kathleen Kiernan,

Charlotte Patterson, and three anonymous reviewers for helpful com-

ments on a draft of this article.Address correspondence to Michael E. Lamb, Social and Develop-

mental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Free School Lane,

Cambridge CB2 3RQ, United Kingdom. E-mail: Mel37@cam.ac.uk

APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE, 16(2), 98–111, 2012

Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

ISSN: 1088-8691 print=1532-480X online

DOI: 10.1080/10888691.2012.667344

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differences in psychological well-being and adjustment. Ibriefly review the many hundreds of studies that havebeen conducted, especially over the last four decades,to elucidate the factors associated with children’s adjust-ment. These studies confirm that parental love andengagement are indeed important, but that a variety offactors play complementary and interlocking roles suchthat no one factor—like maternal love—is in itself suf-ficient to ensure healthy psychosocial development. Inthe rest of this article, I first discuss the factors thataffect psychological adjustment before turning to somepervasive myths about the role of family structure inaffecting children’s development. Because the topicsdiscussed here have been researched so thoroughly, Icannot cite even a fraction of the relevant research andinstead cite secondary (review) sources whenever poss-ible, while avoiding repetition of material covered ingreater depth by other contributors. I also limit myfocus to within-family influences, although it is impor-tant to recognize that extra-familial factors—includingschools, peer groups, communities, and the media—playan important role in reinforcing and underminingthe developmental trajectories underpinned by thewithin-family processes on which I focus.

THE FACTORS THAT DETERMINEADJUSTMENT

Defining Adjustment

The term ‘‘adjustment’’ is used here to refer to diverseaspects of psychological well-being. ‘‘Adjustment’’ is thusa broad umbrella term referring to personal characteris-tics (including the absence of psychological or psychiatricsymptoms and the absence of behavior problems) thatallow children, adolescents, and adults to function wellin their everyday life. Well-adjusted individuals have suf-ficient social skills to get along with others (at school, insocial settings, and at work), to get along and complywith rules and authority, to function well at school andin the workplace, and to establish and maintain meaning-ful intimate relationships. In contrast, maladjustmentmight be manifested by psychopathology or behaviorproblems, such as bullying and acting aggressively withothers, by deficient social skills that make it difficult forindividuals to establish relationships with others, or bydelinquent or criminal behavior.

Not all differences between and among individuals aredifferences in adjustment. Instead, many ways in whichchildren or adolescents differ from each other are simplynormal variations among people, and are unrelated toadjustment. For example, there has been considerableresearch on intelligence, but individual differences inintelligence are not viewed as markers of adjustment or

maladjustment, although they may be associated withsome indices of (mal)adjustment, especially at theextremes. Other normal variations can result fromcultural differences (such as in assertiveness or individual-ism: Giardano, 2011; Kitayama, Duffy, & Uchida, 2011;Mendoza-Denton&Mischel, 2011;Mosig, 2011) or puta-tively inherited differences in temperament=personality(e.g., some children are extroverted while others are intro-verted: Bates, Schermerhorn, & Goodnight, 2010; Caspi &Shiner, 2006). Similarly, differences in levels of agreementor compliance with conventional sex-role expectations,like attitudes about gender stereotypes, can constitutemeaningful individual differences, but are not differencesin adjustment.

Accounting for Differences in Adjustment

Over the last 50 years, more than a thousand studieshave examined the factors that predict healthy adjust-ment in children and adolescents (reviews of the litera-ture can be found in Bornstein, 2002; Bornstein &Lamb, 2011; Damon & Lerner, 2006; Golombok,2000; Lamb, 1999, 2010; Lamb & Freund, 2010; Smith& Hart, 2010; Weiner, in press). Thanks to this signifi-cant and conclusive body of research, social scientistshave reached consensus about the most important fac-tors that promote healthy development and adjustment.Among these are:

a. The quality of infants’, children’s, or adolescents’relationships with their parents or parent figures;

b. The quality of the relationships between the par-ents and other significant adults (conflict betweenthem is associated with maladjustment whileharmonious relationships between the adultssupport healthy adjustment); and

c. The availability of adequate economic, social,and physical resources, with poverty and socialisolation being associated with maladjustment,and adequate resources supporting healthyadjustment.

In addition, there clearly are endogenous differences inpersonality, temperament, or physiological function thateither directly produce psychopathology (Connell &Goodman, 2002; Goodman & Brand, 2008) or affectindividual responses to psychological challenges andthus affect adjustment both directly and indirectly, ininteraction with (complementing, dampening, or exag-gerating) the influence of the other factors I discuss inmore detail. Several scholars have described the relevantmechanisms (e.g., Bates et al., 2010; Cicchetti & Cohen,2006; Porges, 2011; Rutter, 2005) and increasing num-bers of studies document the ubiquity and importanceof these mediating and moderating factors (e.g., Blair

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et al., 2011; Brendgen et al., 2011; Latendresse et al.,2011) which are not investigated here.

Parenting and Parent–Child Relationships

The quality of parent-offspring relationships is deter-mined by the degree to which parents offer love and affec-tion, emotional commitment, reliability and consistency,as well as the extent to which the parents ‘‘read’’ theirchildren or adolescents effectively and provide appropri-ate stimulation, guidance, and limit-setting (Golombok,2000; Lamb, 1981a, 1981b; Lamb & Lewis, 2011;Maccoby & Martin, 1970). The better the quality ofparent–child relationships, the better the children’s oradolescents’ adjustment is likely to be, as outlined in thefollowing section. Of course, individual differences in par-ental behavior can reflect personality, frank psychopath-ology, and contextual effects on the adults themselvesand these issues are not addressed in this brief article.

Numerous studies have yielded findings consistentwith this general conclusion. Researchers inspired byattachment theory have suggested that these develop-mental associations are mediated via effects of parentalsensitivity on the security of infant-parent attachment,which in turn predicts differences in various aspects ofadjustment (including persistence, compliance, andsociability) while other researchers have simply focusedon the relationships between parental quality and desir-able outcomes for children (e.g., Kochanska, Aksan,Knaack, & Rhines, 2004; Lamb & Lewis, 2011; Raikes& Thompson, 2005; Thompson, 2006). Whatever thedevelopmental mechanisms, associations between par-ental warmth and indices of adjustment are amongstthe most extensive and reliable in developmental psy-chology, and they are consistent regardless of the agesof the children being studied (e.g., Collins, Madsen, &Susman-Stillman, 2002; Steinberg & Silk, 2002).

Another large body of research, building onBaumrind’s (1971, 1975) pioneering research in the1960s, has explored the implications of different typesof parental socialization. Baumrind showed that parentswho were warm and engaged, set clear limits for theirchildren and explained their goals, constraints, andreasons, had youngsters who were more socially adeptin their interactions with both adults and peers. By con-trast, parents who set similar limits and boundaries butwere less warm and failed to explain their disciplinaryrationale (authoritarian parents, in Baumrind’s termin-ology) had less socially competent children, whosebehavior was similar to that of children whose parentspermissively set few if any boundaries.

Baumrind (1970, 1975) labeled the first, desirable, pat-tern of parenting authoritative and attributed its successto the combination of the parents’ warmth, moderatecontrol, and respect for their children’s autonomy and

capacity for self-control. Many other studies, largelydependent on parental reports of their socializing philo-sophy, similarly showed the critical importance of bothwarmth and control (Maccoby & Martin, 1970; Collins,Maccoby, Steinberg, Hetherington, & Bornstein, 2000)while subsequent studies have shown the formativevalue of authoritative parenting not only to the 4- to7-year-olds studied by Baumrind and other researchers,but to pre-adolescents and adolescents too (Barber,2001; Collins et al., 2002; Darling & Steinberg, 1993;Steinberg, 1990).

Research conducted and summarized by Steinbergand his colleagues (e.g., Darling & Steinberg, 1993;Steinberg, 1990; Steinberg & Silk, 2002), for example,showed that, among older children and adolescents,authoritative parenting was associated with socialcompetence, self-confidence, positive engagement, theabsence of psychopathology and non-involvement indelinquent and antisocial behavior. Warm positiveengagement by mothers and fathers in their children’slives and education (which includes monitoring theiractivities and relationships) is also associated with great-er persistence and effort, better performance, and fewerbehavioral problems at school, regardless of the familystructure (Amato & Fowler, 2002; Collins et al., 2000;Lamb & Lewis, 2011; Pleck, 2010; Simons et al., 1996;Nord & Zill, 1996).

We can only superficially survey the voluminousliterature documenting the extent to which warm posi-tive, engaged parent–child relationships and parentingpromote psychological adjustment in children and ado-lescents; that body of research is reviewed in greaterdetail by many other scholars whose work is reviewedin the anthologies and handbooks cited earlier. Theimportance of children’s relationships with adults isfurther underscored by a smaller but none-the-lessimpressive body of research documenting the adverseimpact of harsh, intrusive, rejecting, incompetent, disen-gaged, and inconsistent parenting on both the quality ofchild-parental relationships and the children’s psycho-logical adjustment (Barber, 2001; Cicchetti, 2010). Otherstudies have explored the harmful effects on relationshipformation and social adjustment of parental psycho-pathology, including depression and psychiatricdisorder (Connell & Goodman, 2002; Goodman &Brand, 2008; Kane & Garber, 2004).

Although most researchers have studied mother-childrelationships, a substantial number of studies haveexplored the formative importance of relationships withboth mothers and fathers (see, for example, Lamb,2010) and it is now well-established that both men andwomen have the capacity to be good parents. Bothparents are physiologically prepared for and changedby parenthood (Carter, 2005; Fleming, 2005; Gettler,McDade, Feranil, & Kuzawa, 2011; Keverne, 2005).

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New mothers and fathers are equivalently competent(or incompetent) at parenting (e.g., Braungart-Rieker,Garwood, Powers, & Notaro, 1998; Parke & O’Leary,1976; Parke & Sawin, 1980), with most parenting skillslearned ‘‘on the job.’’ Because women in this society onaverage spend more time on the job, they often becomemore skillful at it over time. However, this disparity inparenting skills simply reflects women’s greater experi-ence and greater opportunities to learn rather than abiologically given capacity. When men actively care fortheir children, they adapt physiologically and behavio-rally (Gettler et al., 2011; Storey, Walsh, Quinton, &Wynne-Edwards, 2000).

Nothing about a person’s sex determines the capacityto be a good parent. Nor is there evidence that childrenneed relationships with parents of both sexes in order todevelop normally, as explained more fully in the follow-ing. It is clear, however, that mothers and fathers influ-ence children’s development in the same (non-gendered)ways—promoting psychological adjustment when theyare caring, loving, engaged and authoritative (Lamb &Lewis, 2010, 2011, in press). It is also clear that, despiterather impressive societally determined differences in theamounts of time that mothers and fathers spend caringfor, interacting with, and being accessible to theirchildren (Pleck, 2010), infants typically become attachedto both parents at about the same age (in the middle ofthe first year), with differences in the parents’ sensitivityinfluencing the quality of those attachment relationships(see reviews by De Wolff & van IJzendoorn, 1997;Lamb & Lewis, 2010, in press; van IJzendoorn & DeWolff, 1997).

The security of infant=child-parent attachment rela-tionships is not fixed early in life, however; there is ampleevidence that relationship quality changes when there arechanges in the nature and quality of children’s care andliving experiences (Hamilton, 2000; Lamb, Thompson,Gardner, & Charnov, 1985; Teti, Sakin, Kucera,Cerns, & Das Eiden, 1996; Thompson, Lamb, & Estes,1982; Vaughn, Egeland, Sroufe, &Waters, 1979; Waters,Merrick, Treboux, Crowell, & Albersheim, 2000;Weinfield, Sroufe, & Egeland, 2000). Changes in thequality of child–parent relationships are, in turn, associa-ted with changes in indices of the children’s adjustment.

Quality of Adult–Adult Relationships

Although the majority of studies concerned withchild and adolescent adjustment have focused on thedyadic relationships between parents and children, ithas become increasingly clear that the quality of rela-tionships between the adults raising children has impor-tant implications for the children’s well-being, too (seereviews by Cummings & Davies, 2010; Cummings,Merrilees, & George, 2010; Grych & Fincham, 2001).

Much of the relevant research has focused on conflictbetween the two parents: There is widespread agreementthat marital conflict is associated with indices of filialmaladjustment, whether or not the parents are marriedor even (still) live together. By the same token, warmand harmonious relationships between the adults areassociated with indices of better adjustment. Interest-ingly, researchers have repeatedly shown that factorssuch as (level of) maternal employment, paternalinvolvement, and the division of family labor have muchless (if any) impact on child development than theparents’ satisfaction with the arrangement (e.g., Chan,Brooks, Raboy, & Patterson, 1998).

Both conflict and harmony appear to affect childrendirectly (by providing models of contentment and sup-portive, civil relationships and by fostering affectiveself-regulation) as well as indirectly (by affecting theparents’ well-being and thus affecting their ability tofunction as effective, engaged, warm, and competentparents). Importantly, these findings are well supportedby the results of numerous studies employing an array ofmethodologies, including intensive small-scale observa-tional and interview studies as well as large-scale surveyresearch methodologies, with samples of children inboth divorced and intact families. It is perhaps worthnoting, however, that the effects of parental conflictvary, with simmering unresolved and destructive hos-tility having far worse effects than conflict and disagree-ments that are resolved constructively (e.g., Cummings& Davies, 2010; Davies, Martin, & Cicchetti, in press).This caveat notwithstanding, it is now apparent thatthe relationships between the adults intimately involvedin children’s lives can be as influential as the quality ofthe dyadic relationships between children and theirparent figures.

Economic and Social Resources

Children thus thrive psychologically when they arenurtured by caring competent parents who are them-selves embedded in warm supportive relationships, andthe broader context in which children and families arelocated is important as well. Although psychologistshave traditionally paid much less attention to theseinfluences than sociologists and economists, there is sub-stantial evidence that children raised in impoverishedcircumstances are not only at greater risk forabuse (e.g., Cawson, Wattam, Brooker, & Kelly, 2000;Radford et al., 2011; Sedlak et al., 2010) but also at riskof psychological maladjustment in a number of domains,including signs of psychopathology, poor social skills,difficulty maintaining intimate relationships, poor studyhabits and behavior problems at school leading to poorscholastic attainment, difficulties obtaining and main-taining jobs, poor earning histories, and higher rates of

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delinquency and criminality (Arrighi & Maume, 2007;Brooks-Gunn, Duncan, & Aber, 2000; Duncan &Brooks-Gunn, 1997; Hansen, Joshi, & Dex, 2010). Ofcourse, economic sufficiency is also associated with anumber of other factors that can affect children‘swell-being indirectly, including the richness and suppor-tiveness of the community, the quality of educationaland recreational opportunities provided, social stability,and the potential for long-lasting supportive relation-ships with friends, neighbors, and relatives. Theseresources themselves affect children’s well-being byvirtue of the opportunities and support they providefor children, and affect them indirectly by way of theirimpact on the parents’ sense of well-being, which, inturn, fosters effective parenting and supportive child-parent relationships. Supportive social relationshipsand networks likely promote children’s well-being inmuch the same ways as harmonious adult relationshipswithin the family (see above).

Healthy Adjustment in Traditional and NontraditionalFamilies

In the social sciences, the term ‘‘traditional family’’refers to the childrearing environment that social scien-tists formerly considered the idealized norm—amiddle-class family with a bread-winning father and astay-at-home mother, married to each other and raisingtheir biological children (Lamb, 1999). ‘‘Nontradi-tional’’ family forms, by definition, involve any kindof variation from this pattern. Thus, families withfathers who assume primary or shared responsibilityfor childcare would qualify as nontraditional, as wouldfamilies with employed mothers, with two employedparents, with one parent, or that rely on childcare cen-ters instead of performing childcare exclusively withinthe home. Nontraditional families constitute the vastmajority of families in the industrialized world today,although many social scientists and commentators com-monly view traditional families as normative, implicitlyor explicitly suggesting that traditional families consti-tute the optimal settings in which to raise children.

Society’s early assumptions about the superiority ofthe traditional family form have been challenged by theresults of empirical research. Early in the 20th century,it was widely presumed that traditional family settingswere necessary in order for children to adjust well,despite the prevalence of non-traditional families. Thisview derived directly from psychoanalytic thinking thatwas based on clinical observations, but not on empiricalresearch. As psychoanalysis yielded to more empirically-based psychology over the early parts of the last century,it became clear that this notion was unsupported.Research beginning in the late 1940s and continuing untilthe present has tested many of the hypotheses flowing

from the assumption that children and adolescents needto be raised in traditional families in order to develophealthily. Specifically, there have been over 50 years ofintensive research into the effects on children or adoles-cents of having one parent, of divorce, and of maternalemployment (e.g., Amato & Dorius, 2010; Gottfried &Gottfried, 2006; Gottfried, Gottfried, Bathurst, &Kilian, 1999). Intense interest in the effects of daycarebegan in the 1970s, as did interest in highly involvedfathers (stay-at-home fathers or families in whichmothers and fathers share childcare responsibilities)and in same-sex families and households (see reviewsby Lamb & Ahnert, 2006; Russell, 1999; Patterson,2000; Patterson, Fulcher, & Wainright, 2002).

The resulting research has demonstrated that the cor-relates of children’s or adolescents’ adjustment listedpreviously are important regardless of whether childrenand adolescents are raised in traditional family settingsor in nontraditional families. Children’s or adolescents’adjustment depends overwhelmingly upon such qualitiesas the parents’ affection, consistency, reliability, respon-siveness, and emotional commitment, as well as on thequality and character of the relationships between theparents and their intimates, and on the availability ofsufficient economic and social resources. Since the endof the 1980s, as a result, it has been well established thatchildren and adolescents can adjust just as well in non-traditional settings as in traditional settings. Stateddifferently, empirical studies show that family structureindependently explains a small (or even insignificant)portion of the variance in children’s adjustment oncethe effects of family processes are taken into account(e.g., Amato, 2005; Crawford, Goodman, Greaves, &Joyce, 2011; Goodman & Greaves, 2010; Kiernan &Mensah, 2010; Lansford, Ceballo, Abbey, & Stewart,2001). Nowhere is this situation clearer than in theresearch on the effects of divorce and single-parenthood(Lamb, 2002; Lamb & Kelly, 2009) and on the effects ofgay=lesbian parenting (see the following section).

Single-Parent Families and Children’s Adjustment

Numerous large-scale studies show that the vastmajority of the children and adolescents who spend theirchildhoods living apart from one of their parents arewell adjusted (Amato & Dorius, 2010; Lamb, Sternberg,& Thompson, 1997). However, the same research on theimpact of father absence, divorce, and one-parent familylife demonstrates that children and adolescents inone-parent families are more likely to have adjustmentdifficulties than children and adolescents in two-parentfamilies. Researchers have examined an array of out-comes, and in every case, have documented that therates of maladjustment are roughly twice as high whenchildren have been exposed to their parents’ divorce

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and=or have been raised by single parents (usually singlemothers), although in every case, it is clear that only aminority of children are maladjusted, regardless offamily circumstances. Further research shows that thereasons for this disparity in rates of maladjustment areconsistent with the predictors of adjustment generally.The primary causes of increased maladjustment amongchildren or adolescents in one-parent families are dis-turbed relationships with one or both of the parents(Amato & Gilbreth, 1999; Cavanagh, 2008; Fabricius,Braver, Diaz, and Velez, 2010; King & Sobolewski,2006; Zill, Morrison, & Coiro, 1993), the reducedresources available when there is only one bread-winningand care-providing parent (Biblarz & Gottainer, 2000;Carlson & Corcoran, 2001; McLanahan & Sandefur,1994), unstable living arrangements and community ties,and conflict before, around, and after parental separ-ation (Booth & Amato, 2001; Fabricius et al., 2010;Johnston, Roseby, & Kuehnle, 2009; Pruett, Williams,Insabella, & Little, 2003).

Many children and adolescents of parents whose rela-tionships dissolve lose one of their supportive parentalrelationships and do not get the benefit of both psycho-logical and financial support from their non-residentparents. Additionally, many divorces expose childrenand adolescents to parental conflict both precedingand following the separation and may also involve rejec-tion by and=or separation from one of the parents andpossible dislocations, such as moving to a new neighbor-hood and school. Finally, families headed by singlemothers, in particular, often suffer considerable degreesof financial hardship because of a combination of fac-tors including the continuing disparity in pay receivedby men and by women, and because many women,whether or not they were once married, have often takentime out from the workforce to raise children. Thesefactors, not the family structure, combine to place chil-dren in single parent families at psychological risk(e.g., Amato & Fowler, 2002; Amato & Gilbreth, 1999;Buchanan, Maccoby, & Dornbusch, 1996; Hetherington,1999; Kiernan & Mensah, 2010; Martize & Forgatch,2002; Simons et al., 1996; Nord & Zill, 1996). Impor-tantly, the mere fact that the majority of children raisedin single-parent or divorced families are well-adjustedundercuts the argument that children ‘‘need’’ to be raisedin traditional families.

Do Children—Especially Sons—‘‘Need’’ MaleParents?

Fifty years ago, it was widely assumed that the absenceof male parental figures—fathers—accounted for themaladjustment of some children and adolescents insingle-parent families (Biller, 1976) but the notion thatchildren need to have both male and female parents in

order to be well-adjusted has not been supported bythe research (Silverstein & Auerbach, 1999; Stevenson& Black, 1988). Research conducted over the last fourdecades has demonstrated that both mothers and fathersare important to their children as parents, not as malesand females, and that the parents’ genders do not affectchildren’s adjustment (Lamb & Lewis, 2011, in press).Research on children in both traditional and nontradi-tional families has demonstrated that father absence isnot itself important to adjustment; instead, it is thequality of the children’s experiences more broadly and,specifically, the quality of the parent–child relationships,the quality of the relationship between the parents, andthe adequacy of resources that explain the higher levelsof maladjustment on the part of children and adolescentsin one-parent families. Both men and women have thecapacity to be good parents and, thus, having parentsof both genders does not enhance adjustment. Stateddifferently, there is no evidence that father absence neces-sarily deprives children of the discipline needed to pre-vent them from conduct disorder. As explained above,many other factors play roles in shaping the behaviorand adjustment of children in father-absent families.

Many studies have pointed to differences between theways in which mothers and fathers interact with theirchildren; they indicate that, on average, men’s patternsof interaction are dominated by a more boisterous, play-ful, unpredictable interaction, while women’s patternsare more soothing, containing, and restrictive (Lamb &Lewis, 2011). However, these differences do not applyacross the board to all men or to all women evenwithin specific cultures (e.g., NICHD Early ChildCare Research Network, 2000), and there are well-documented cultural differences in the extent to whichmen and women conform to these patterns of behavior,with studies in a large number of cultures not revealingthe distinctive sex-typed patterns at issue (see, forexample, Best, House, Barnard, & Spicker, 1994; Frodi,Lamb, Hwang, & Frodi, 1983; Hewlett, 1987; Lamb,Frodi, Frodi, & Hwang, 1982; Lamb, Frodi, Hwang, &Frodi, 1982; Monteiro et al., 2008; Sagi, Lamb, Shoham,Dvir, & Lewkowicz, 1985; Sun & Roopnarine, 1996).More importantly, there is no evidence that these sexdifferences in parental behavior have any implicationsfor children’s adjustment, or that adjustment is affectedin any way when parents do not assume traditionalsex-typed parenting styles.

Male and female parents also behave differently indifferent contexts and when they have different respon-sibilities (e.g., NICHD Early Child Care Research Net-work, 2000; Pedersen, Cain, Zaslow, & Anderson, 1982).The observed differences in parenting style thus appearto reflect, in large part, differences in the type ofresponsibility that the parent have as breadwinners orwithin the home (i.e., differences between being the

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primary or secondary parent). Many children do nothave parents who clearly manifest one or other of theseparenting styles and this does not appear to affect theiradjustment adversely.

There is also no empirical support for the notion thatthe presence of both male and female role models in thehome enhances the adjustment of children and adoles-cents, as discussed more fully in the following section.Society is replete with role models from whom childrenand adolescents can learn about socially prescribedmale and female roles, and there is little evidence thatgender-typed models within the family are especiallyinfluential so far as children’s adjustment is concerned.Various normal variations sometimes characterize chil-dren and adolescents in nontraditional settings, how-ever. For example, children in nontraditional familiessometimes have more flexible views of sex-roles: Theyare more likely to think that both boys and girls canbe astronauts or doctors, say, and that it is acceptablefor both girls and boys to play with both trucks anddolls (Green, 1978; Green, Mandel, Hotvedt, Gray, &Smith, 1986; Hoffman, 1977). By contrast, childrenraised in traditional family settings tend to have moresex-stereotypical notions about appropriate genderroles. Importantly, these differences have nothing todo with psychological adjustment.

Children With Gay and Lesbian Parents

Like children in other nontraditional family forms,children and adolescents raised by same-sex parentsare not psychologically at risk on account of the familystructure (see reviews by Golombok & Tasker, 2010;Patterson et al., 2002; Tasker, 2005). Indeed, numerousstudies of children and adolescents raised by same-sexparents conducted over the past 25 years by respectedresearchers and published in peer-reviewed academicjournals conclude that they are as successful psychologi-cally, emotionally, and socially as children and adoles-cents raised by heterosexual parents. Furthermore, theresearch makes clear that the same factors affectthe adjustment of children and adolescents, whateverthe sexual orientation of their parents, and that familystructure is not crucial.

The body of research that has examined the adjust-ment of children and adolescents raised by same-sex par-ents and elucidated the relevant developmental processesrepresents approximately 30 years of scholarship andincludes more than 100 articles about same-sex parentsand=or their offspring. The results of these studiessupport and are consistent with the results of the broaderbody of research on socialization in both traditional andnontraditional families. They demonstrate that theadjustment of children and adolescents with same-sexparents is determined by the quality of relationships with

the parents, the quality of the relationship between theparents, and the economic and social resources availableto the families. Research on the dynamics of gay andlesbian relationships by researchers such as Kurdek(1995, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009) has similarly shown thatgay and lesbian couples vary along the same dimensionsas heterosexual couples. Meanwhile, researchers suchas Patterson (Patterson, 2000; Patterson, Fulcher, &Wainright, 2002) have shown that variations in the qual-ity of same-sex parents’ relationships are associated withvariations in children’s adjustment just as variations inthe quality of heterosexual parents’ relationships are(Arranz Freijo, Bellido, Manzano, Martin, & Artetsxe,2008; Chan et al., 1998; Bos, 2004, Bos, van Balen, &van den Boom, 2007; Farr, Forssell, & Patterson, 2010).

Other research demonstrates that adjustment is notaffected by the gender or sexual orientation of the par-ent(s); studies comparing the adjustment of childrenand adolescents of same-sex parents with the childrenand adolescents of heterosexual parents consistentlyshow that the children or adolescents in both groupsare equivalently adjusted. Specifically, the children andadolescents of same-sex parents are as emotionallyhealthy, and as educationally and socially successful,as children and adolescents raised by heterosexualparents (Arranz Freijo et al., 2008; Farr, Forssell, &Patterson, 2010; Golombok & Badger, 2010; Golomboket al., 2003; MacCallum & Golombok, 2004; Rosenfeld,2010; Vanfraussen, Ponjaert-Kristoffersen, & Brewaeys,2002; Wainright & Patterson, 2006, 2008; Wainright,Russell, & Patterson, 2004). There is no optimal gendermix of parents; children and adolescents with same-sexparents do not suffer any developmental disadvantagescompared with those with two opposite-sex parents.Because children and adolescents do better psychologi-cally when their parents are themselves emotionallysecure and supported, children and adolescents withsame-sex parents probably would benefit if their parentscould choose to marry and solidify their family andparental ties.

Like children and adolescents in other nontraditionalfamilies, children and adolescents with same-sex parentsmay sometimes have less sex-stereotyped beliefs, and bemore open in their views of societal norms and stan-dards about appropriate behavior for males and females(Stacey & Biblarz, 2001). For example, some studies ofyoung children suggest that girls raised by lesbianmothers may play with both dolls and trucks, and bemore willing to think that being an astronaut or beinga doctor are appropriate aspirations for girls as well asboys, than girls raised by heterosexual mothers (Fulcher,Sutfin, & Patterson, 2008; Green et al., 1986; Sutfin,Fulcher, Bowler, & Patterson, 2008). Although therewas a time when some developmental psychologistsbelieved that conformance to sex-based stereotypes

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was a component of healthy adjustment, this view hasbeen discredited and abandoned. The differences seenin sex-stereotyped beliefs and behavior between childrenof lesbian and heterosexual parents are not differencesin adjustment (Stacey & Biblarz, 2001). Children andadolescents raised by same-sex parents also do not differfrom those raised by heterosexual parents with respectto gender identity, which is an aspect of psychologicaladjustment (Golombok, Spencer, & Rutter, 1983;Golombok & Tasker, 1996; Green, 1978; Green et al.,1986).

More studies have focused on the adjustment ofchildren raised by lesbians rather than by gay parents,probably because it is easier for lesbians to bringbiological children into their families and there are thusfewer gay men than lesbians raising children in their ownhouseholds (Gates, 2009; Gates, Badgett, Macomber, &Chambers, 2007). However, there is no evidence thatchildren raised by gay fathers are more likely to bemaladjusted than those raised by lesbian mothers. Inboth contexts, children’s adjustment is affected not bythe sexual orientation or by the family structure butby the family process variables discussed earlier. Forexample, Farr et al. (2010) studied a sample of childrenraised since infancy in families headed by gay couples.The results were the same as in the lesbian familyresearch—child outcomes did not vary depending onthe parents’ sexual orientation.

Similarly, there are fewer studies of adolescents withsame-sex parents than there are of younger children insuch family forms, but the results of the studies thathave been conducted are consistent with the results ofother research exploring children’s adjustment in samesex families as well as with the results of studies explor-ing the adjustment of children and adolescents moregenerally (Golombok & Badger, 2010; Rosenfeld,2010; Tasker & Golombok, 1997; Wainright &Patterson, 2006, 2008; Wainright et al., 2004). Researchshows that children and adolescents being raised bysame-sex parents are as likely to be well adjusted aschildren and adolescents with heterosexual parents. Inall such contexts, the same factors are associated withbetter or worse adjustment.

Are Biological Ties Important?

Some politicians and advocacy groups, especially thosewho oppose divorce or same-sex parenthood, claim thatchildren thrive in families with ‘‘biological’’ parents butthese arguments are not well-grounded empirically, notleast because the term ‘‘biological’’ has been usedmisleadingly in some of the research to identify childrenraised by the same parents from birth, whether ornot they were biological or adoptive parents (e.g.,Cavanagh, 2008). Children in one-parent families or

step-families are at higher risk for adverse outcomesfor reasons explained earlier, however (i.e., these chil-dren may have endured their parents’ separations,exposing the children to parental conflict and relateddislocations, the children may have experienced separ-ation from or abandonment by parents, and the step-parents may have entered their lives relatively late intheir development, affecting the quality of the parent–child relationships).

These studies thus do not document the advantages ofbeing raised by biological parents, or the disadvantagesof having one of more parents not biologically relatedto the child=ren. Indeed, in addition to the already citedresearch on children with gay and lesbian parents, thereis a substantial and growing body of research on parentswho have chosen to raise biologically unrelated childrenrather than remain childless and on the psychologicaladjustment of those children (Brodzinsky & Palacios,2005; Brodzinsky & Pertman, 2012; Golombok,MacCallum, Goodman, & Rutter, 2002; Golomboket al., 2011; Golombok et al., 2011; Jadva, Freeman,Kramer, & Golombok, 2009; Juffer & van IJzendoorn,2007; Lansford et al., 2001; MacCallum & Keeley,2007; Owens &Golombok, 2009; Palacios & Brodzinsky,2010; Stams, Juffer, & van IJzendoorn, 2002; vanIJzendoorn & Juffer, 2006; van IJzendoorn, Juffer, &Klein Poelhuis, 2005). These studies involve parentswho have adopted children born to others or haveconceived using new reproductive techniques and tech-nologies such as surrogacy and gamete donation whichproduce offspring biologically unrelated to one or bothof the parents. They consistently show that these childrentend to be as well-adjusted, on average, as children raisedby their biological parents, and that such parents are atleast as competent as parents raising their biologicalchildren; indeed, many studies show that these ‘‘non-traditional’’ parents are more competent or committedin some respects (e.g., Hamilton, Cheng, & Powell,2007, though see Golombok et al., 2011). Children wholack a biological link with their parents also benefit whenthere is open communication with parents about thecircumstances of their birth (Brodzinsky, 2005, 2006;Grotevant, 2007; Grotevant, Perry, & McRoy, 2005;Golombok et al., 2011; Jadva et al., 2009).

Apart from this factor, differences between adoptedchildren and non-adopted peers can typically be attribu-ted to congenital factors as well as to the adverse effectsof traumatic early life experiences; when these are takeninto account, children adopted early in life are as likely tobe well-adjusted as biological children (Golombok et al.,2006; Grotevant et al., 2005; Juffer & van IJzendoorn,2005, 2007; Owen & Golombok, 2009), even when thetrans-racial nature of the adoption makes the lack ofbiological relationship apparent. Similarly, just becausechildren with same-sex parents are biologically unrelated

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to one or both of their parents does not mean that theyare more likely to be psychologically disadvantaged; asexplained above, the research comparing children withsame-sex and opposite-sex parents shows no differencesin outcome.

CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS FORPOLICY AND FUTURE RESEARCH

In all, it is now well-established that the adjustment ofchildren and adolescents is best accounted for by varia-tions in the quality of the relationships with their parents,the quality of the relationship between the parents or sig-nificant adults in the children’s and adolescent’s lives,and the availability of economic and socio-economicresources. These process factors, rather than familystructure, affect adjustment in both traditional and non-traditional families. The parents’ sex and sexual orien-tation, like other characteristics of family structure, donot affect either the capacity to be good parents or theirchildren’s healthy development. There is also no empiri-cal support for the notion that the presence of both maleand female role models in the home promotes children’sadjustment or well-being.

These findings have important implications for socialand legal policy and practice. Most fundamentally, theyunderscore the need to recognize that children’s adjust-ment is affected by the quality of their experiences andthe well-being of those around them, not by the make-upand structure of their families. Policies and practices thatdiscriminate against individuals and families on theirbasis of their gender, marital status, or sexual orientationthus risk harming the individuals and families concerned.Such practices may be especially harmful when they denyorphaned, abandoned or maltreated children the opport-unity to be cared for by loving and committed adults(especially foster and adoptive parents) simply becausethose adults are unmarried, male, or have same-sexorientations. They can also be harmful when individualsare denied access to new reproduction technologiesfor the same reasons, and when separating parentsfail to ensure that their children are able to maintainloving and supportive relationships with both of them.Although there is growing recognition that non-traditional families can indeed promote children’swell-being and adjustment as effectively as traditionalfamilies, there remain too many arenas in which policy,practice, and law are marred by outmoded beliefs inthe superiority of traditional families.

The fact that the available evidence is sufficientlyconclusive to have clear implications for practice andpolicy also underscores the need for researchers to focusin the future on issues that remain unresolved ratherthan to belabor questions that have already been

answered. For example, we need more nuanced studiesthat further characterize the specific facets of supportiveparental behavior and adjustment-promoting family cir-cumstances in relation to children of different ages, aswell as a better understanding of the endogenous factorsand facets of earlier experience that make some childrenresilient in the face of subsequent challenges or trauma.Further, despite increasing recognition that develop-ment and change continue across the lifespan, thereare few studies exploring the individual reconstructionand re-interpretation of earlier experiences. Indeed, theactive role played by individuals in shaping their owndestinies is still insufficiently recognized and studied,decades after the issue was first raised.

It is also important to recognize that historicalchanges affect the behavior and expectations of com-munities, parents, and children. For example, carefulresearch by Elder (1998; Elder & Shanahan, 2006) doc-umenting the contrasting trajectories of children whoseearly experiences took place just before and during theGreat Depression highlights the role that societalcircumstances play, notwithstanding evidence that thequality of parenting and relationships within the familyplay crucial roles in shaping individual developmentaltrajectories. Such findings underscore the need forsimilarly nuanced studies of development in a rapidlychanging world characterized not only by globalization(and all that it entails) but also by increased disparitiesbetween rich and poor people within and betweennations. By the same token, the emphasis in this articleon universal processes should be complemented bysensitive research on cross-cultural differences.

Finally, it is worth repeating that the conclusionssummarized in this article are based on research conduc-ted using a variety of methods and approaches andthat many of the findings demonstrate the value ofcomplementary research techniques. Future researcherswould doubtless benefit from further interdisciplinaryand multi-method investigations involving large andsmall scale studies employing varied but sensitiveapproaches to measurement.

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