14 DAY TRIAL // Homosexuality is regarded as a frivolous behavior. Still, surprisingly or not, a new research published in "Developmental Psychology" has found that the same-sex couples are similarly committed in their romantic relationships as heterosexual couples. This challenges the common concept that couples in homosexual relationships are less committed than heterosexual ones and are therefore not so psychologically healthy.
The research investigated how committed homosexual couples differed from engaged and married heterosexual couples in how they interacted and their level of satisfaction with their partners. Many researchers had proven that positive interactions and increased quality of relationships boosted the health of the partners.
The team at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign compared 30 committed gay male couples and 30 committed lesbian couples with 50 engaged heterosexual couples and 40 older married heterosexual couples. The research also included dating heterosexual couples.
The subjects completed a questionnaire assessing how positively they interacted with one another on a daily basis. The couples were put to accomplish a laboratory task, and their distress level by skin conductance and heart rate were measured. Homosexual relationships appeared very similar to the heterosexual ones in various ways.
All subjects came with positive views of their relationship, but those found in committed relationships (gay and straight) could easier solve conflicts than the dating couples. Lesbian couples showed the best results during the lab tasks.
The idea that committed homosexual relationships are "atypical, psychologically immature, or malevolent contexts of development was not supported by our findings. Compared with married individuals, committed gay males and lesbians were not less satisfied with their relationships," said lead author Dr. Glenn I. Roisman.
"Gay males and lesbians in this study were generally not different from their committed heterosexual counterparts on how well they interacted with one another, although some evidence emerged the lesbian couples were especially effective at resolving conflict," added Roisman.