Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, P.O. Box 400400, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA.
J Fam Psychol. 2010 Feb;24(1):78-81. doi: 10.1037/a0017941.
Parenthood is one of the most universal and highly valued experiences of American adults. However, lesbian and gay adults in the United States are much less likely than heterosexual adults to be parents. Our goal was to explore the reasons why this is the case. Using nationally representative data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), we studied parenting intentions, desires, and attitudes of childless lesbian, gay, and heterosexual individuals 15 to 44 years of age. We found that gay men and lesbian women were less likely than matched heterosexual peers to express desire for parenthood. Moreover, gay men who expressed desire to become parents were less likely than heterosexual men to express the intention to become parents; this was not true for women. Despite being less likely to express parenting desires, gay and lesbian participants endorsed the value of parenthood just as strongly as did heterosexual participants. By exploring the psychology of family formation as a function of sexual orientation, these results inform ongoing debates about sexual orientation and parenthood.
为人父母是大多数美国成年人最普遍和最看重的经历之一。然而，与异性恋成年人相比，美国的女同性恋和男同性恋成年人成为父母的可能性要小得多。我们的目标是探讨造成这种情况的原因。我们使用了具有全国代表性的 2002 年全国家庭增长调查（NSFG）的数据，研究了无子女的女同性恋、男同性恋和异性恋 15 至 44 岁个体的育儿意愿、愿望和态度。我们发现，男同性恋者和女同性恋者表达为人父母的愿望比同龄的异性恋者要少。此外，表达想要成为父母的男同性恋者比异性恋男性更不可能表达想要成为父母的意愿；而女性则并非如此。尽管表达为人父母的愿望的可能性较小，但同性恋和女同性恋参与者对为人父母的价值的认可与异性恋参与者一样强烈。通过探讨性取向作为家庭形成的一种功能的心理学，这些结果为关于性取向和为人父母的持续辩论提供了信息。
