DATE: Friday, April 4, 1997                 TAG: 9704040727

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A9   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: WASHINGTON                        LENGTH:   56 lines

STUDIES: LESBIANS' KIDS ARE FINE CHILDREN ARE AS WELL-ADJUSTED AS THOSE OF STRAIGHT FOLKS, FINDINGS SAY.

Children born to lesbian couples through artificial insemination are emotionally healthy and well-adjusted, say three studies released Thursday.

``When you look at kids with standard psychological assessments, you can't tell who has a lesbian parent and who has a heterosexual parent,'' said Charlotte J. Patterson, a University of Virginia researcher. ``That's really the main finding from these studies.''

The studies, run in the United States, Britain and the Netherlands, compared the emotional development of children being raised by lesbian parents with those raised by heterosexuals.

Most of the children in the lesbian families were conceived at fertility clinics. Some of the children of heterosexual parents were also conceived at fertility clinics, but the studies also compared these groups with children born from natural conception.

The studies, presented at a national meeting of the Society for Research on Child Development, found no significant difference between any of the groups.

But, as Patterson noted, ``the existing body of research is relatively sparse and open to criticism.'' She said many of the studies are based on small samples and the lesbian couples studied often volunteered for the research, which can affect the results.

The studies involved children up to the age of 9. Patterson said this means that the children were too young to determine if having homosexual parents will affect the youngsters' sexual orientation.

Interest in the development of children born to lesbian parents has increased in recent years because more lesbians are choosing to raise a family, Patterson said. ``It hasn't been quantified, but there is a general community sense that more and more lesbian couples are having children,'' she said.

Part of the reason may be that more fertility clinics now are providing services to lesbian couples, she said. These clinics help lesbians become pregnant with the sperm of anonymous donors.

Raymond W. Chan, a University of Virginia researcher, said his study of lesbian and heterosexual couples with children included reports from the children's teachers.

Chan said the teacher reports, using standard psychological evaluations, found ``no significant differences'' in adjustment or behavior between the groups of children.

All the children were conceived at fertility clinics; some were being raised by single heterosexual parents and some by single lesbian parents. He said his tests found no differences in development between the groups.

Fiona Tasker of Birkbeck College in the Netherlands said her study found that the non-biological lesbian parent was usually more involved with the children than are the fathers of heterosexual couples.

``The woman who is the co-parent in a lesbian family is more likely to take a major role in raising the children,'' said Tasker. KEYWORDS: STUDY LESBIAN CHILDREN

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