Rockway Institute In the News

What Straights Can Learn From Gays about Relationships and Parenting Social Work Today E-Zine January 17, 2008

Psychological studies of lesbian and gay couples reveal two key factors that promote healthier relationships and provide examples for all couples: flexibility about gender roles, and equal division of parenting and household tasks. “It all comes down to greater equality in the relationship,” says Robert-Jay Green, PhD, executive director of the Rockway Institute and a nationally recognized researcher in both family issues and gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender relationships.

In a series of studies Green conducted, lesbian couples were found to be emotionally closer than gay male couples who, in turn, were found to be emotionally closer than heterosexual married couples. Lesbian and gay male couples also showed dramatically more flexibility in the way they handled rules and roles in the relationship. Thus they avoided the traditional division of labor and division of expressive versus instrumental roles toward which heterosexual couple typically evolve over time despite their best intentions, especially after the birth of children.

“Our research found that the most successful couples demonstrate closeness and flexibility,” says Green. “We found high levels of both characteristics in 79% of lesbian couples, 56% of gay male couples, but in only 8% of heterosexual married couples. Clearly, the more egalitarian approach taken by same-sex couples is an advantage that could benefit straight couples too,” he concludes.

— Source: Alliant International University