For their new study, published on Monday in the journal Pediatrics, researchers Nanette Gartrell, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco (and a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles), and Henry Bos, a behavioral scientist at the University of Amsterdam, focused on what they call planned lesbian families — households in which the mothers identified themselves as lesbian at the time of artificial insemination. Data on such families are sparse, but they are important for establishing whether a child’s environment in a home with same-sex parents would be any more or less nurturing than one with a heterosexual couple. (See a gay-rights timeline.) The authors found that children raised by lesbian mothers — whether the mother was partnered or single — scored very similarly to children raised by heterosexual parents on measures of development and social behavior. These findings were expected, the authors said; however, they were surprised to discover that children in lesbian homes scored higher than kids in straight families on some psychological measures of self-esteem and confidence, did better academically and were less likely to have behavioral problems, such as rule-breaking and aggression. “We simply expected to find no difference in psychological adjustment between adolescents reared in lesbian families and the normative sample of age-matched controls,” says Gartrell. “I was surprised to find that on some measures we found higher levels of [psychological] competency and lower levels of behavioral problems. It wasn’t something I anticipated.” In addition, children in same-sex-parent families whose mothers ended up separating did as well as children in lesbian families in which the moms stayed together. The data that Gartrell and Bos analyzed came from the U.S. National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS), begun in 1986. The authors included 154 women in 84 families who underwent artificial insemination to start a family; the parents agreed to answer questions about their children’s social skills, academic performance and behavior at five follow-up times over the 17-year study period. Children in the families were interviewed by researchers at age 10 and were then asked at age 17 to complete an online questionnaire, which included queries about the teens’ activities, social lives, feelings of anxiety or depression, and behavior. Not surprisingly, the researchers found that 41% of children reported having endured some teasing, ostracism or discrimination related to their being raised by same-sex parents. But Gartrell and Bos could find no differences on psychological adjustment tests between the children and those in a group of matched controls. At age 10, children reporting discrimination did exhibit more signs of psychological stress than their peers, but by age 17, the feelings had dissipated. “Obviously there are some factors that may include family support and changes in education about appreciation for diversity that may be helping young people to come to a better place despite these experiences,” says Gartrell. It’s not clear exactly why children of lesbian mothers tend to do better than those in heterosexual families on certain measures. But after studying gay and lesbian families for 24 years, Gartrell has some theories. “They are very involved in their children’s lives,” she says of the lesbian parents. “And that is a great recipe for healthy outcomes for children. Being present, having good communication, being there in their schools, finding out what is going on in their schools and various aspects of the children’s lives is very, very important.” Although active involvement isn’t unique to lesbian households, Gartrell notes that same-sex mothers tend to make that kind of parenting more of a priority. Because their children are more likely to experience discrimination and stigmatization as a result of their family circumstances, these mothers can be more likely to broach complicated topics, such as sexuality and diversity and tolerance, with their children early on. Having such a foundation may help to give these children more confidence and maturity in dealing with social differences and prejudices as they get older. Because the research is ongoing, Gartrell hopes to test some of these theories with additional studies. She is also hoping to collect more data on gay-father households; gay fatherhood is less common than lesbian motherhood because of the high costs of surrogacy or adoption that gay couples face in order to start a family. (emphasis added) This is robust research. Any banal “WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN?!1?” battle cry about the sanctity of marriage as an institution solely for manufacturing humans in a ‘good environment’ is not an argument; it’s an opinion. It is something used to justify discrimination and statism in the private matters of parenting. Neocons, meet science.

Why I’m tired of people demanding government ‘protect’ traditional marriage ‘for the kids’.

barackobama:

universe-at-my-fingertips:

Preschoolers from my friends synagogue were asked what President Obama’s job was. These were their answers.

Hannah: To protect the people.

Reagan: He helps people.

Stella: He helps people drive cars.

Matan: He does work to get money to give to the people who don’t have money.

Sia: He helps people who don’t have money and gives money to the people.

Sadie: He sews dresses and pants for the people who don’t have clothes.

Sounds about right.

Caitlyn: To look pretty and smile while he has the military kill innocent people.

Ugh, when I was an adorable small child, I also believed everything my mom told me about politics. That doesn’t make it true or good or ethical. It’s a reflection of the state of psychological infancy one’s moral and intellectual reasoning is in at that age.

At least they didn’t exploit the cuteness of the kids, I guess. Though I really wish they would spend their time actually educating and nurturing these children, rather than exploiting their ignorance and cute rhetoric.

19 Crazy Things That School Children Are Being Arrested For In America

lost-and-searching-in-america:

19 Crazy Things That School Children Are Being Arrested For In America

#1 At one public school down in Texas, a 12-year-old girl named Sarah Bustamantes was recently arrested for spraying herself with perfume.

#2 A 13-year-old student at a school in Albuquerque, New Mexico was recently arrested by police for burping in class.

#3 Another student down in Albuquerque was forced to strip down to his underwear while five adults watched because he had $200 in his pocket.  The student was never formally charged with doing anything wrong.

#4 A security guard at one school in California broke the arm of a 16-year-old girl because she left some crumbs on the floor after cleaning up some cake that she had spilled.

#5 One teenage couple down in Houston poured milk on each other during a squabble while they were breaking up.  Instead of being sent to see the principal,they were arrested and sent to court.

#6 In early 2010, a 12-year-old girl at a school in Forest Hills, New York was arrested by police and marched out of her school in handcuffs just because she doodled on her desk. “I love my friends Abby and Faith” was what she reportedly scribbled on her desk.

#7 A 6-year-old girl down in Florida was handcuffed and sent to a mental facility after throwing temper tantrums at her elementary school.

#8 One student down in Texas was reportedly arrested by police for throwing paper airplanes in class.

#9 A 17-year-old honor student in North Carolina named Ashley Smithwick accidentally took her father’s lunch with her to school.  It contained a small paring knife which he would use to slice up apples.  So what happened to this standout student when the school discovered this?  The school suspended her for the rest of the year and the police charged her with a misdemeanor.

#10 In Allentown, Pennsylvania a 14-year-old girl was tasered in the groin area by a school security officer even though she had put up her hands in the air to surrender.

#11 Down in Florida, an 11-year-old student was arrested, thrown in jail and charged with a third-degree felony for bringing a plastic butter knife to school.

#12 Back in 2009, an 8-year-old boy in Massachusetts was sent home from school and was forced to undergo a psychological evaluation because he drew a picture of Jesus on the cross.

#13 A police officer in San Mateo, California blasted a 7-year-old special education student in the face with pepper spray because he would not quit climbing on the furniture.

#14 In America today, even 5-year-old children are treated brutally by police.  The following is from a recent article that described what happened to one very young student in Stockton, California a while back….

“Earlier this year, a Stockton student was handcuffed with zip ties on his hands and feet, forced to go to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation and was charged with battery on a police officer. That student was 5 years old.”

#15 At one school in Connecticut, a 17-year-old boy was thrown to the floor andtasered five times because he was yelling at a cafeteria worker.

#16 A teenager in suburban Dallas was forced to take on a part-time jobafter being ticketed for using foul language in one high school classroom.  The original ticket was for $340, but additional fees have raised the total bill to $637.

#17 A few months ago, police were called out when a little girl kissed a little boy during a physical education class at an elementary school down in Florida.

#18 A 6-year-old boy was recently charged with sexual battery for some “inappropriate touching” during a game of tag at one elementary school in the San Francisco area.

#19 In Massachusetts, police were recently sent out to collect an overdue library book from a 5-year-old girl.

Still want the government to be in charge of raising and educating the nation’s children? How about your own? 

Libertarianism is all about leading by example. Top-down paternalism is the most condescending, morally void, and impotent form of government—regardless of whether it is parental or state rule.

Psychological research continuously shows that respectful dialogue-rich authoritative parenting produces more nurturing parent-child relationships with fewer instances of destructive behaviours and that ‘Because I said so’ authoritarian parenting tends to produce less confident, less happy children with lower self-esteem and lower creativity, in addition to alienated, resentful parent-child relationships. 

We have an obligation to demand and create a government worth respecting, which respects its citizens. Oppression is overwhelmingly psychological in nature; recognize the symptoms and treat the disease.

(Source: http://sinfulcadbury.tumblr.com)

Okay, so while I can appreciate the general message that you will be hard pressed to find abject poverty in the United States, my general repulsion for the tactless means of its communication almost completely negates the message itself.

This is what has been appropriately termed ‘poverty porn’—the objectification of the impoverished, utilized first and foremost for shock value. Insofar as the bottom image does nothing but to impose guilt and objectify starving children (transforming them into the abstract concept of ‘all that is wrong with the world’, which is wrong for pretty obvious reasons), I am disgusted. I am also extremely saddened that the West’s distorted perception of the entire continent of Africa is primarily a result of its belligerent abuse of images like this for its own gain (moral superiority, funding for medical/social/financial/wildlife nonprofits (this desensitizing tactic is one of my many problems with non-profit, as opposed to for-profit, charities), justification for damaging voluntourism, and the general imposition of the West onto these communities). The very irony that these children were photographed with a product of a Western company, by someone that is likely a citizen of a Western country, for a Western publication for consumption by the West and is now bopping around the Internet as a vehicle for criticism between people of the West, ultimately without any regard for the voices of those who endure such suffering and the humanity of those who are exploited by the very people who wish to help them.

Again, this is coming from the perspective of a developmental economist (focused on Africa), so I am not trying to chastise anyone for posting this, nor do I assume that most people consider this media in the same way (though I do hold that most people process information in the same way, as to generalize themes, etc). However, I will ask that anyone reading this now please consider the implications of Western consumerism which propagates messages like this one and whether it is truly to the benefit of those depicted as well as those implicated that it be perpetuated.