The translator works OK and the blog post is fine. I read a little into this field myself before but haven't read all the studies here. Our prior should be that homosexual adoption is neutral for the children, at least long-term. This is because family effects are usually transient or nonexistent so it would be big if this particular one wasn't. But the literature has big problems (for both sides) so I'm not sure. One big problem is that not that many kids are raised by homosexuals. Few studies have more than 100 so we have power issues which technically strenghten the pro-gay adoption argument. Another big problem is that everybody forgets about the sociologists' fallacy. You don't became adopted, mentally ill, or homosexual at random, these things have a strong heritable component so we expect kids to resemble their biological parents without a direct parenting effect. Homosexuals are a somewhat elite group socially, with worse than average mental health, so we would expect their kids to do well in school but have more mental problems just for genetic reasons. This technically boosts the anti-adoption side. Homosexual couples usually raise the biological offspring of one member, so I think the best comparison group is not intact heterosexual families but divorcees, especially remarried ones. We have a direct comparison with a biggish homosexual sample (N>400) in Sullins 2020 here (Table 3): https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3744451. It shows that kids from married and cohabiting homosexual parents still have worse mental health than heterosexual mosaic families. But uncontrolled genetic confounding is an issue so I wouldn't go "gays make their kids crazy" based on this.
Thank you for reply, I wasn't particularly asking about homosexual adoption, but rather about the studies that the person cited in order to support their view of stigma possibly causes these differences. In regards to mental health and homosexual parenting though, I see you posted a study from Sullins, but I found this newer review recently published: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-023-02019-9
Which studies do you mean? I string searched "stigma" but it only comes up tangentially, I'd need a more focused question.
Thanks for pointing me to this review, didn't see it before. It looks good for a review but the studies it found have all the problems I pointed out before: small sample so power problems, no consideration for genetic effects. For some reason they skipped the Sullins 2020 study, but his 2015 study is still the second largest. The largest study comes up with a zero effect but only one outcome. It's a troll point but it's worth noting that the mainstream pro-LGBT view wants to keep the cake but eat it too: they want to show that sexual minorities are worse off because this is how they can claim that there is discrimination to be fought, but they also want to show that at least their kids are not worse off so they can normalize sexual minority parenthood. One of these things must be wrong (as long as we are talking about biological children) for genetic reasons alone.
"The differential pattern of differences for men and women can also be interpreted in various ways. First, an effect of sexual orientation in women might be more difficult to demonstrate since women already show higher levels of mood and anxiety disorders than men regardless of sexual preference... The fact that homosexual men showed higher prevalence rates of disorders that are characteristic for women in general, whereas homosexual women showed higher prevalence rates of disorders that are characteristic for men in general, is in line with the theory that sex-atypical levels of prenatal androgens play a major role in the causes and development of homosexuality"
Yes there are lots of similar studies which show worse mental health in homosexuals, but we are specifically interested in those comparing twins. If you just look at the general population, you cannot explain why the differences exist, but if you compare members of twin pairs you can see if the difference persists once you take genetic effects out of the equation.
Hey, was wondering if you have seen some of the studies about minority stress/the stigma hypothesis from here: https://balkrai.wordpress.com/2023/08/08/sobre-la-adopcion-homoparental/
It's in Spanish, but nothing a translator can't solve.
The translator works OK and the blog post is fine. I read a little into this field myself before but haven't read all the studies here. Our prior should be that homosexual adoption is neutral for the children, at least long-term. This is because family effects are usually transient or nonexistent so it would be big if this particular one wasn't. But the literature has big problems (for both sides) so I'm not sure. One big problem is that not that many kids are raised by homosexuals. Few studies have more than 100 so we have power issues which technically strenghten the pro-gay adoption argument. Another big problem is that everybody forgets about the sociologists' fallacy. You don't became adopted, mentally ill, or homosexual at random, these things have a strong heritable component so we expect kids to resemble their biological parents without a direct parenting effect. Homosexuals are a somewhat elite group socially, with worse than average mental health, so we would expect their kids to do well in school but have more mental problems just for genetic reasons. This technically boosts the anti-adoption side. Homosexual couples usually raise the biological offspring of one member, so I think the best comparison group is not intact heterosexual families but divorcees, especially remarried ones. We have a direct comparison with a biggish homosexual sample (N>400) in Sullins 2020 here (Table 3): https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3744451. It shows that kids from married and cohabiting homosexual parents still have worse mental health than heterosexual mosaic families. But uncontrolled genetic confounding is an issue so I wouldn't go "gays make their kids crazy" based on this.
Thank you for reply, I wasn't particularly asking about homosexual adoption, but rather about the studies that the person cited in order to support their view of stigma possibly causes these differences. In regards to mental health and homosexual parenting though, I see you posted a study from Sullins, but I found this newer review recently published: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-023-02019-9
Do you have any thoughts on it?
Which studies do you mean? I string searched "stigma" but it only comes up tangentially, I'd need a more focused question.
Thanks for pointing me to this review, didn't see it before. It looks good for a review but the studies it found have all the problems I pointed out before: small sample so power problems, no consideration for genetic effects. For some reason they skipped the Sullins 2020 study, but his 2015 study is still the second largest. The largest study comes up with a zero effect but only one outcome. It's a troll point but it's worth noting that the mainstream pro-LGBT view wants to keep the cake but eat it too: they want to show that sexual minorities are worse off because this is how they can claim that there is discrimination to be fought, but they also want to show that at least their kids are not worse off so they can normalize sexual minority parenthood. One of these things must be wrong (as long as we are talking about biological children) for genetic reasons alone.
You missed this important paper: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/481699
"The differential pattern of differences for men and women can also be interpreted in various ways. First, an effect of sexual orientation in women might be more difficult to demonstrate since women already show higher levels of mood and anxiety disorders than men regardless of sexual preference... The fact that homosexual men showed higher prevalence rates of disorders that are characteristic for women in general, whereas homosexual women showed higher prevalence rates of disorders that are characteristic for men in general, is in line with the theory that sex-atypical levels of prenatal androgens play a major role in the causes and development of homosexuality"
Yes there are lots of similar studies which show worse mental health in homosexuals, but we are specifically interested in those comparing twins. If you just look at the general population, you cannot explain why the differences exist, but if you compare members of twin pairs you can see if the difference persists once you take genetic effects out of the equation.