Multiverse analysis’ backs 2012 research on outcomes for kids of same-sex parents

A recent “multiverse analysis” by Cornell sociologists Cristobal Young and Erin Cumberworth demonstrated the accuracy of a controversial 2012 study that showed children of gay parents do worse than children who grow up with a married mother and father.

In a chapter of their book titled “Multiverse Analysis: Computational Methods for Robust Results,” Young and Cumberworth applied their multiverse analysis — by which they examined all the possible ways results of a study may produce varying outcomes depending on methodological choices — to a 2012 study by Mark Regnerus, a University of Texas at Austin sociology professor and president of the Austin Institute for the Study of Family and Culture.

In his study, “How Different Are the Adult Children of Parents Who Have Same-Sex Relationships?” Regnerus found that the children of same-sex-attracted parents were worse off socio-developmentally than those raised by their intact, biological families.

Young and Cumberworth noted that Regnerus’ article “is one of the most hotly-contested studies in 21st-century sociology.”

In a July 13 article in the Public Discourse, Father Paul Sullins, a senior research associate at the Ruth Institute, described the findings as “new vindication” for Regnerus, who Sullins said had faced an almost immediate “firestorm of ideological denunciation, personal vituperation, and political pressure” following the release of his study.

“We were surprised by the robustness of the Regnerus finding,” Young and Cumberworth wrote in their conclusion. “Prior to examining the data directly, we accepted the conclusions written by the critics and expected that a comprehensive multiverse analysis would drive their point home in a powerfully conclusive way.”

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