SynthesisBMJ global health2023
Family outcome disparities between sexual minority and heterosexual families: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in BMJ global health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 41 citations in OpenAlex.
- The impact of health emergencies on nurses' burnout: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC public health · 2025Pooled it
- Social determinants of health as risk and protective factors for health care access among sexual and gender minority parents.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- [From text to scene: legal devices and care trajectories in the adoption of children with disabilities].Cadernos de saude publica · 2026Article
- The early interaction of the primary caregiver and the infant with respect to sex, gender and ego-identity.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Intergenerational transmission of parental child-rearing gender-role attitudes and its influence on gender roles in single-parent families.BMC psychology · 2024Article
- The Father's Part: A Pilot Evaluation of a Father-Centered Family Intervention Group in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe number of children in sexual minority parent families has increased. This systematic review aims to synthesise the evidence of disparities in family outcomes between sexual minority and heterosexual families and to identify specific social risk factors of poor family outcomes.
methodsWe systematically searched PubMed, the Web of Science, Embase, the Cochrane Library and APA PsycNet for original studies that compared family outcomes between sexual minority and heterosexual families. Two reviewers independently selected studies and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Narrative synthesis and meta-analysis were conducted to synthesise evidence.
resultsThirty-four articles were included. The narrative synthesis results revealed several significant findings for children's gender role behaviour and gender identity/sexual orientation outcomes. Overall, 16 of 34 studies were included in the meta-analyses. The quantitative synthesis results suggested that sexual minority families may perform better in children's psychological adjustment and parent-child relationship than heterosexual families (standardised mean difference (SMD) -0.13, 95% CI -0.20 to -0.05; SMD 0.13, 95% CI 0.06 to 0.20), but not couple relationship satisfaction (SMD 0.26, 95% CI -0.13 to 0.64), parental mental health (SMD 0.00, 95% CI -0.16 to 0.16), parenting stress (SMD 0.01, 95% CI -0.20 to 0.22) or family functioning (SMD 0.18, 95% CI -0.11 to 0.46).
conclusionMost of the family outcomes are similar between sexual minority and heterosexual families, and sexual minority families have even better outcomes in some domains. Relevant social risk factors of poor family outcomes included stigma and discrimination, poor social support and marital status, etc. The next step is to integrate multiple aspects of support and multilevel interventions to reduce the adverse effects on family outcomes with a long-term goal of influencing policy and law making for better services to individuals, families, communities and schools.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.