The percentage of American adolescents who report parent or caregiver physical abuse is shocking.
According to the Williams Institute, a research center on sexual orientation law and public policy at UCLA School of Law, 26% percent say they’ve been abused; 8.3% report sexual abuse.
But for daughters and sons of lesbian mothers, the numbers are very different.
When questioned about sexual abuse, sexual orientation, and sexual behavior, the 17-year-old daughters and sons of lesbian mothers reported no incidents of physical or sexual abuse by a parent or other caregiver.
According to the authors of the paper, released earlier this month and published in the journal, Archives of Sexual Behavior, this absence of child abuse in lesbian mother families is particularly noteworthy, as victimization of children is pervasive.
Of course, the consequences of physical and sexual abuse can be devastating.
Study authors hope that this research will have implications for healthcare professionals, policymakers, social service agencies, and child protection experts who seek family models in which violence does not occur.
The U.S. National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS) is the longest-running study ever conducted on American lesbian families and is now in its 24th year
In terms of sexual orientation, 2.8% of the NLLFS adolescents identified as predominantly to exclusively homosexual.
