Well, that's what they're saying - fathers who are involved with their children create better outcomes than when fathers are absent or abusive. This one quote doesn't really demonstrate the breadth of the studies. The pitfall of using one not-even-statistic-but-a-quote to represent a larger work!
We had a really good presentation from the director of a program to make sure COUPLES are involved with their children where possible - and the director addressed the fact that you have to deal with the abuse, the incarceration, alcoholism, drug addiction, any of those or other factors BEFORE they can be brought on board to take equal responsibility in parenting a child. Otherwise, that jeopardizes the family's stability even further as well as the child's safety.
We really understand as a culture that mothers are important to the development of a child. The major point of the research is that fathers (or stepfathers or father-figures) are too! Make them responsible! But I'm preaching to the choir :)
Honestly, this is a relatively new concept. So the research isn't necessarily there yet in covering all the populations that need to be addressed (like you said, same sex couples), and of course often it happens that socially based research - and especially those on social programs - can be difficult to evaluate when value systems are involved. This kind of research should always be taken with a grain of salt, because it does not capture all cases... but it can help to inform practices until we have broader and more diverse research available.
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Date: 2010-03-12 05:10 am (UTC)We had a really good presentation from the director of a program to make sure COUPLES are involved with their children where possible - and the director addressed the fact that you have to deal with the abuse, the incarceration, alcoholism, drug addiction, any of those or other factors BEFORE they can be brought on board to take equal responsibility in parenting a child. Otherwise, that jeopardizes the family's stability even further as well as the child's safety.
We really understand as a culture that mothers are important to the development of a child. The major point of the research is that fathers (or stepfathers or father-figures) are too! Make them responsible! But I'm preaching to the choir :)
Honestly, this is a relatively new concept. So the research isn't necessarily there yet in covering all the populations that need to be addressed (like you said, same sex couples), and of course often it happens that socially based research - and especially those on social programs - can be difficult to evaluate when value systems are involved. This kind of research should always be taken with a grain of salt, because it does not capture all cases... but it can help to inform practices until we have broader and more diverse research available.