The challenges faced by homosexual parents could play a role in how well their children ward off psychological problems

Children with lesbian mothers have a lower risk of developing psychological illnesses than children growing up with a father and a mother, a recent University of Copenhagen study finds. The study is the first of its kind in Denmark.

The study found that while five percent of children from traditional families developed conditions such as depression or anorexia between 1992 and 2008, the number was two percent among the 387 children of lesbian parents participating in the study.

The findings, according to Merete Lauberg, of the University Of Copenhagen Department Of Public Health, suggest that concerns that alternative families have a negative effect on child development are over.

One reason for the lower rate could be that their mothers have encountered more resistance in their lives than heterosexual parents have.

‘Resistance makes you stronger, and that could be passed on to their children,’ Lauberg said.

Another reason, according to psychiatrist Per Hove Thomsen are the efforts the parents had to make to conceive the child.

‘A lot of other parents have challenges having children, but children with lesbian mothers face particular challenges,’ he said. ‘The women have had to make an extra effort to get pregnant, and that could have an effect on the child.’

Fact file | Homosexual families
- About 2000 Danish children have parents with the same gender
- Some 700 children have been adopted by homosexual couples in registered partnerships since 1999, when the practice became legal
- Parliament passed a law in 2007 granting lesbian women access to artificial insemination at public hospitals