LOS
ANGELES, April 27 (Reuters) - Children raised by homosexual couples have
different attitudes toward gender roles and sexual preferences than
children
raised by heterosexuals, according to a University of Southern
California
analysis of studies on the subject published this week.

USC
sociologists Timothy Biblarz and Judith Stacey examined 21 studies on
the
subject dating back to 1980 and found that children of lesbians and gays
are
more likely to depart from traditional gender roles than children of
heterosexual couples. Their findings were published in the American
Sociological
Review. In an interview on Friday, Biblarz said that the study found
that
information on the subject had previously been stifled and the
differences
played down.

"Social
research hasn't been fully free to explore differences among
children. Research has been stifled and researchers have downplayed
almost any
finding of difference at all between children raised in gay and lesbian
families
versus straight families. Unfortunately, this produces a consequence in
the
science arena of not advancing knowledge," he said.  "One of the
things we are calling for in the paper is that sometimes a difference
really is
a difference and we ought to be exploring them and acknowledging them,"
Biblarz added.

 Biblarz
said there were some modest "but very interesting
differences ... as we would expect there should be." For example, he
said,
teenage boys with homosexual parents were more sexually restrained then
their
counterparts who were raised by heterosexual couples. And boys raised by
lesbian
couples exhibited less aggressive and more nurturing social behavior
then boys
raised in heterosexual families.

On the
other hand, teenage girls showed an opposite trend. Girls raised by
lesbians gravitated towards less stereotypically feminine dress, play
and
occupations, Biblarz said.

KIDS FROM HOMOSEXUAL FAMILIES 'DOING
EXTREMELY WELL'

Teenage
girls raised by lesbians also appeared to be more sexually
adventurous and less chaste than girls raised by heterosexuals. The
study also
showed that more children from homosexual households gravitated towards
same-sex
relationships although they were not statistically more likely to
identify
themselves as lesbian, gay or bisexual.

There
seemed to be no difference in the mental and emotional health of
children based on whether their parents were homosexual or heterosexual,
or in
the quality of the parent-child relationships, the analysis said.

"They
are doing extremely well," Biblarz said. "There's no
evidence that in terms of their adjustment and development and well
being ...
that kids (from homosexual families) are suffering greater harm." He
added
that, "Children brought up by lesbians and gay men are well adjusted,
have
good levels of self esteem, are as likely to have high educational
attainments
as children raised in more traditional heterosexual families.

Biblarz
said the USC study focused mainly on children raised by lesbians,
because fewer studies of co-fathers exist. He added that there seemed to
be
advantages to lesbian over heterosexual parenting in that co-mothers
tend to be
more involved in their childrens' lives and more nurturing than
heterosexual
couples. They also exhibited greater harmony in their parenting
approaches, he
said. "Co-moms seem to spend more time with their children than their
hetero male counterparts," Biblarz said. "Women in general seem to
come out (higher) in many dimensions having to do with care of children
relative
to men and that's a function of gender differences," he said.