Citing Scripture
An opinion piece in today's Irish Times carries the headline "Science must not be twisted to serve religion" (Opinion and Analysis, Page 14) [1]. In it, David Robert Grimes, described at the end of the article as a "physicist and researcher at Oxford University", decries the misuse and misrepresentation of research in order "to lend credibility to discriminatory views".
In what's arguably a pro-abortion and pro-same sex marriage piece, he talks about how religion can't be allowed to "obstruct a democratic mandate". All very well and good; that's a tenable position.
However, he goes on to write about how 'The American Psychological Association [APA] states "… the evidence to date suggests that home environments provided by lesbian and gay parents are as likely as those provided by heterosexual parents to support and enable children’s psychosocial growth”.'
I take issue with this line, especially in the context of an article lambasting those who cite scripture (or, in this case, research) for their own purposes.
As far as I can tell, he doesn't mention a specific study done by the APA. All I can find after some researching of my own is that the APA's policy statement page reiterates studies showing that "results of research suggest that lesbian and gay parents are as likely as heterosexual parents to provide supportive and healthy environments for their children". [2]
Nowhere in the piece does Grimes mention that APA studies regarding same-sex parenting have come under significant criticism. On FamilyScholars.com, David Lapp writes: [3]
"Marks’ contention is that the American Pyschological Association prematurely and inaccurately concluded in its 2005 brief on lesbian and gay parenting that “Not a single study has found children of lesbian or gay parents to be disadvantaged in any significant respect relative to children of heterosexual parents.”
Examining the 59 published studies that the APA relied on to make its conclusion, Marks finds the following.
1. “More than three-fourths (77 percent) of the studies cited by the APA are based on small, non-representative, convenience samples of fewer than 100 participants.” Further, many of these studies were racially homogenous, focusing on white gay couples. Furthermore, only eight of the 59 published studies focused specifically on outcomes of children from gay fathers. Of those eight, four did not include a heterosexual comparison group. Of the four that did include heterosexual comparison groups, one of them relied on a heterosexual comparison group of two single fathers.
…
4. Contrary to the APA’s assertion that “Not a single study has found children of lesbian or gay parents to be disadvantaged in any significant respect relative to children of heterosexual parents” — there was at least one notable exception: Sarantakos’s 1996 study. That study had a sample size of 174, the seventh-largest sample size of the 59 published studies listed by the APA. However, the other six with larger sample sizes relied on adult self-report studies, whereas Sarantakos’s study specifically examined children’s developmental outcomes, making it the largest study to specifically study children’s developmental outcomes. What did Sarantakos find? “Overall, the study has shown that children of married couples are more likely to do well at school in academic and social terms, than children of cohabiting and homosexual couples.” Why did the APA not take this study into consideration, particularly if it had the largest sample size that specifically addresses children’s developmental outcomes? They dismissed it because (a) the Sarantakos study was based, in part, on “subjective reports by teachers” (which is inferior to subjective reports by parents, as is frequently done in the same-sex parenting literature upon which the APA relied?), even though, as Marks points out, some of the assessment was based on “tests” and “normal school asssessments”; (b) the APA concluded that “[Children in Australia, journal where the article was published] cannot be considered a source upon which one should rely for understanding the state of scientific knowledge in this field, particularly when the results contradict those that have been repeatedly replicated in studies published in better known scientific journals.”"
In an article lambasting those who misrepresent research to further their own point of view, I find it somewhat inexcusable for the author not to mention that most of the APA studies his arguments lean on have sample sizes too small to draw meaningful conclusions from, among other shortcomings.
[1] http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/strong-religious-convictions-are-no-excuse-for-misrepresenting-research-1.1442395
[2] http://www.apa.org/about/policy/parenting.aspx
[3] http://familyscholars.org/2012/06/12/loren-marks-how-the-apa-got-it-wrong/
