Nontraditional Families and Childhood Progress Through School.

This paper uses the massive sample size of the US census to compare rates of progress through elementary school for children of different family types, specifically children of same-sex cohabiting couples with children of various types of families headed by heterosexual parents. This paper represents the first (as far as the author knows) large sample nationally representative study of the children of same-sex couples. The results show that children of same-sex couples are as likely to make normal progress through school as the children of heterosexual cohabiting couples. Heterosexual married couples are the family type whose children have the lowest rates of grade retention, but the advantage of heterosexual married couples is mostly due to their higher SES. In general there are only modest differences in progress through school between children of different family types. Children of all family types (including children of same-sex couples) are far more likely to be making normal progress through school than children living in group quarters. Some implications are discussed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]