Adoptive Parents Invest More In Children?

"Adoptive parents invest more time and financial resources in their children than biological parents, according to a new national study challenging arguments that have been used to oppose same-sex marriage and gay adoption. The study, published in the new issue of the American Sociological Review, found that couples who adopt spend more money on their children and invest more time on such activities as reading to them, eating together and talking with them about their problems.

''One of the reasons adoptive parents invest more is that they really want children, and they go to extraordinary means to have them,'' Indiana University sociologist Brian Powell, one of the study's three co-authors, said in a telephone interview Monday.

''Adoptive parents face a culture where, to many other people, adoption is not real parenthood,'' Powell said. ''What they're trying to do is compensate. ... They recognize the barriers they face, and it sets the stage for them to be better parents.''

Powell and his colleagues examined data from 13,000 households with first-graders in the family. The data was part of a detailed survey called the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and other agencies." AP, N.Y. Times Link to Article (last visited 2-20-07 NVS)