According to a new study, research has concluded that sexual orientation is no hindrance when it comes to good parenting.

The data comes from the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS), which began in the US in 1986 to help to tease out politics and science on the highly divisive issue. Researchers Nanette Gartrell, US professor of psychiatry and law, and Henry Bos, behavioural scientist at the University of Amsterdam, have focused on households in which the mothers identified themselves as lesbian at the time of artificial insemination.

Almost 80 teenagers with lesbian mothers were matched on gender, age, parental education, and ethnic background with adolescents in heterosexual-parent families. The children were interviewed at age 10 and again at age 17 with queries about their activities, social lives, feelings of anxiety or depression, and behaviour.

The authors found that children raised by lesbian mothers - whether partnered or single - scored very similarly to children raised by heterosexual parents on measures of development and social behaviour. They also discovered that children in lesbian homes scored higher than those in straight families on some psychological measures of self-esteem and confidence; did better academically and were less likely to have behavioural problems, such as rule-breaking and aggression.

Research also suggests that lesbian mothers better develop their children’s confidence and maturity in dealing with social differences and prejudices, as they are very involved in their children’s lives and are more likely to broach complicated topics such as sexuality, diversity and tolerance early on.

The study also reveals that children raised by lesbian parents have a zero percent abuse rate, making the implications rather important for healthcare professionals, policymakers, social service agencies, and child protection experts who seek family models in which violence does not occur.