Charlotte J. Patterson is a professor of psychology at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

. Patterson is also a member of the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

's National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic and Other Populations, established in 2012, as well as a fellow of the

Association for Psychological Science The Association for Psychological Science (APS), previously the American Psychological Society, is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to promote, protect, and advance the interests of scientifically oriented psychology in ...

and

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...

(APA). She is known for her research into the psychological effects of

LGBT parenting LGBT parenting refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people raising one or more children as parents or foster care parents. This includes: children raised by same-sex couples (same-sex parenting), children raised by single LGBT ...

, for which she was awarded the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Research in Public Policy in 2009 by the APA.

Research and views

Patterson has been described as "the world’s expert on psychological research on children and youths raised by lesbian and gay parents." In addition to publishing numerous scientific studies on this topic, she testified before the

Institute of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, E ...

on the topic of lesbian-related research in 1997. Her research has found that children raised by same-sex parents develop at least as well as children raised by heterosexual parents. She also authored a report, released by the APA in 2004, which stated that "Not a single study has found children of lesbian or gay parents to be disadvantaged in any significant respect relative to children of heterosexual parents."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Patterson, Charlotte Jessie American women psychologists University of Virginia faculty Pomona College alumni Stanford University alumni LGBT parenting Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American women academics 21st-century American women American child psychologists