Back to David Blankenhorn:
Blankenhorn quotes a "research brief" from Child Trends on the ideal family structure for children:
In 2002 - just moments before it became highly unfashionable to say so - a team of researchers from Child Trends, a nonpartisan research center, reported that "family structure clearly matters for children, and the family structure that helps children the most is a family headed by two biological parents in a low-conflict marriage."
The only problem in this context is that the study doesn't deal with children of same-sex parents. It is concerned exclusively with opposite-sex and single-parent families and deals with poverty, teenage pregnancy, and similar concerns as they affect children. (See here (PDF).) On that score, I fault the authors for an overly broad summary conclusion, since their study didn't deal with a whole population. In point of fact, the studies that do deal with comparisons of children of same-sex and opposite-sex parents find no difference in development or emotional wellbeing. Here's a summary by Charlotte Patterson of the research, posted on the APA website, along with cites of the literature. Once again, Blankenhorn is doing a quick surface scan for data that agrees with his conclusions.
OK, it's that time. I have to run off and earn money.
Really, this is like shooting fish in a barrel. Has Blankenhorn ever done any real research?
Later.
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