section_path: Causes/Social hypotheses
section_name: Social hypotheses
paragraph_text: Social hypotheses
  
  In the field of genetics, any factor which is non-genetic is considered an environmental influence. However, environmental influence does not automatically imply that the social environment influences or contributes to the development of sexual orientation. There is a vast non-social environment that is non-genetic yet still biological, such as prenatal development, that likely helps shape sexual orientation.
  
  There is no substantive evidence to support the suggestion that early childhood experiences, parenting, sexual abuse, or other adverse life events influence sexual orientation. Hypotheses for the impact of the post-natal social environment on sexual orientation are weak, especially for males. Parental attitudes may affect whether or not children openly identify with their sexual orientation. Though it has since been found to be based on prejudice and misinformation, it was once thought that homosexuality was the result of faulty psychological development, resulting from childhood experiences and troubled relationships, including childhood sexual abuse. Such hypotheses "have been associated with highly charged political, moral and theological grounds for wanting to believe that it can".