"An important parenting study came out in March. It tracked the effects of good fathering on 19,000 children born in 2000 and 2001 and found that by age three a child would have more emotional and behavioral problems if the father had not taken time off after the birth," writes J. Goodrich. It was roundly ignored by the press. Goodrich continues:
Another study, published the same month, did get that kind of attention...It was about daycare and its possible deleterious behavioral effects on children, especially when compared to children reared by stay-at-home mothers. It found that children who had attended high-quality daycare had better vocabularies as late as age ten, but also exhibited more "problem behavior," with their teachers more likely to report aggression and disobedience. The researchers stressed that the children's behavior was "within the normal range and was not considered clinically disordered".
But the popularized message was a little different, at least as seen in the headlines selected for reports on the study. The Times chose "Poor Behavior Is Linked to Time in Day Care." The International Herald Tribune picked "Study Links Extensive Child Care with More Aggressive Behavior in School." And the Telegraph of the U.K. went with the even more guilt-inducing "How Nurseries 'Still Breed Aggression'."
As Goodrich shows, the media is all too eager to trumpet studies* -- methodological rigor be damned -- that encourage adherence to traditional gender roles for parents interested in raising healthy children. The reports exploit deep anxieties about the tradeoffs necessitated by the need for two incomes, even as data shows plenty of problems for a child growing up without sufficient assets and monetary support. This is not to encourage the suppression of worrying science, of course. Results are results, and goo data should be publicized. But the striking gulf -- and Goodrich offers many example -- between the attention lavished on traditionalist findings and the relative obscurity of findings that militate towards an evolution in family roles is telling.
*I should of course note here that, unlike bloggers, the media's only concern in the whole wide world is capital-T Truth, and that any agenda apparent in their reporting surely results from a grievous error in my analysis.
