A bit more on Scott Coltrane

In a previous post, I criticized Tom’s comments about sociologist Scott Coltrane. Tom explains that his comment was tongue-in-cheek. So I misinterpreted Tom’s statement; sorry about that, Tom.

Tom also refered to an article by Scott Coltrane, which he said proved Coltrane’s foolishness. Having read Coltraine’s article, it may be true, as Tom said, that Coltrane misrepresents the culture of the National Fatherhood Initiative. Since Tom used to work for NFI, I’ll take his word on that. Nonetheless, Coltraine’s strongest critique of the fatherhood and marriage movements rings true to me:

…they are guilty of oversimplifying and often misrepresenting research on marriage, divorce, and parenting. Through sheer frequency of repetition, their public proclamations and media rhetoric about the dangers of fatherlessness and the evils of divorce come to be seen as “facts.” In truth, the social science evidence on these topics is much more mixed.

.

This entry was posted in Families structures, divorce, etc. Bookmark the permalink.