Written for PSYC6211, June 25, 2009

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Culture & Media Institute author, ignoring evidence, makes faulty comparisons and contorts ‘Today Show’ guest’s remarks to further her agenda.

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On a recent segment of the Today Show, Dr. Robi Ludwig discussed new (and potentially surprising) information about marriage and divorce with Al Roker. According to Ludwig, new data shows that in some cases, specifically those where the ongoing home environment is violent, combative, and conflict-ridden, children experience detrimental effects. Ludwig challenged the conventional wisdom that an intact family is always best and stated that these effects can be mitigated by divorce *if* the parents are able to work together in a cooperative manner to co-parent. Ludwig emphasized that she was not referring to disagreements (and even stated that children’s ability to understand that love and disagreement can coexist is healthy), but rather to cases where stress ruled the roost (‘Is staying together good for the kids?,’ 2009).

From her description in nearly-identical articles for NewsBusters and the Culture and Media Institute (CMI), Catherine Maggio (2009) seems to have viewed a quite different home and parenting segment. Maggio suggests that Ludwig acted as a proponent — an apologist, even — of divorce, and accuses Ludwig of ignoring the dire consequences of divorce that children suffer (Maggio, 2009)(Maggio, 2009). Maggio’s insistence that intact marriage is always the best option is problematic, filled with fallacy and bias.

Confirmation bias (Ruscio, 2006)
The articles’ author expected a certain “liberal bias” from Dr. Ludwig’s presentation, and, as a result, found it. It is *obvious* to Maggio that, while Ludwig speaks of holding children’s best interests at heart, that rather she is a selfish liberal who thinks that if marriage is inconvenient in the least, one should jump to divorce. The possibility that data might support divorce in some cases is inconceivable.

3rd variables (Stanovich, 2007)
In her insistence that in intact marriage is always a better option than divorce, Maggio ignores the possibility that other factors come into play, and that perhaps divorce isn’t the causal variable for her data. Not surprisingly, many of the same effects of divorce are also prevalent in children from conflict-ridden homes. Perhaps, for instance, the conflict and accompanying stress, rather than divorce itself, actually cause health issues.

Self-selection, lack of study design (Stanovich, 2007)
Any analysis of divorce and home conflict is, by nature, not going to include a double-blind, randomly-assigned study design. (Wouldn’t you love to be the kid who gets assigned to the parents who constantly call each other nasty names?) Because of this, it is not possible to truly control for which effects are from divorce, and which are from other, perhaps only tangentially related, causes. In other words, even if an analyst is aware of possible alternate causes of issues, he or she cannot eliminate them entirely and give a definitive answer on causation.

Cherry-picked, self-serving references (Ruscio, 2006)
In the CMI version of her article, Maggio provides links to evidence that divorce is always, without exception, a tragedy for the children involved. A glance at these links shows, in one instance, mainstream media articles, cherry-picked statements from research which showed that a combative divorce can cause major issues. A second link brings the reader to a sensationalistic roundup of divorce-related data (all at least 15 years old) presented by, surprise, an alarmist with a stake in the belief that divorce is the moral equivalent of devil worship.

Beyond the article author herself, the site and its readers also bump into deception and bias. NewsBusters is a political and social action group committed to the documentation of “liberal media bias” (‘About NewsBusters.org, n.d.), and the promotion of the right’s perspective on what defines appropriate culture and morality. It is not a journalistic outlet. Yet, the NewsBusters site prominently features the AP logo next to a link to an actual Associated Press article, giving the deceptive impression that NB is a legitimate news source.

The NewsBusters site allows reader comments, and even the first two comments to this article provide a (sadly, representative) glimpse into the bias that feeds the site readers’ worldviews. The first commenter launches an ad-hominem attack on Dr. Ludwig:

Not sure of how much of an “expert” she is. Her undergrad work was in Media Studies and she earned a Masters in Social Work. Don’t consider her more than an apologist for divorce.

If this contributor discovered these portions of Ludwig’s background, s/he also likely chose to ignore her more recent bona fides: a post-masters certificate in clinical work and PsyD from Southern California University for Professional Studies (‘Dr. Robi Ludwig – Bio,’ n.d.).

Another commenter exposes his or her own bias against attractive blonde women:

This “woman” is a laughable blond ditz who clearly has no inkling of the devastation divorce causes in a child’s mind and life.

I’m uncertain how the hair color, questionable (or not?) gender, and appearance of the psychologist on the ‘Today Show’ apply in relation to empirical data, but this reader seems to assume 1) that the good doctor is an idiot and 2) that she has an agenda that involves intentionally ruining children’s lives.

As much as the shocked and offended story author and outraged commenters may not like to hear it, Dr. Ludwig’s comments derived from actual empirical data, not from some left-wing-inspired wish for more households to break into divorce. The studies to which Dr. Ludwig referred were likely the series of analyses in the February 2009 issue of “Marriage and Family Review” (currently only available in abstract form, except to subscribers). In an analysis of data from the NLSY97 cohort, a longitudinal study of approximately 9,000 youths, researchers learned that high-conflict marriages correlate with poor mental and physical health(Hair, et al., 2009), substance abuse(Hair, et al.), and risky sexual behavior (Kaye, et al., 2009). While single-parent homes showed a lower rate of high school graduation than even high-conflict two-parent homes, children from high-conflict two-parent homes demonstrated a markedly lower rate of post-secondary education among those who did graduate (Orthner, et al., 2009).

When it comes down to it, both the left (the psychologist talk show guest) and the right (the ‘cultural values’ organization author) agree that ensuring the best possible outcome for kids is important. The difference that I see is that on the left, the “best outcome” is a moving target informed by each particular family’s circumstance and dynamic. On the right, the starting assumption is that an intact marriage is essential to a good outcome. From there, any information about positive effects of divorce *for some children* is irrelevant. The question instead is, “how can we ensure parents remain married?”

References

About NewsBusters.org (n.d.). NewsBusters. Retrieved June 25, 2009, from http://newsbusters.org/about

About the Culture and Media Institute (n.d.). Culture and Media Institute. Retrieved June 25, 2009, from http://www.cultureandmediainstitute.org/about/about.aspx

Dr. Robi Ludwig – Bio (n.d.). Dr. Robi Ludwig. Retrieved June 25, 2009, from http://www.drrobiludwig.com/bio.htm

Hair, E. C., Anderson Moore, K., Hadley, A. M., Kaye, K., Day, R. D., & Orthner, D. K. (2009). Parent marital quality and the parent-adolescent relationship: Effects on adolescent and young adult health outcomes [Abstract]. Marriage & Family Review, 45(2/3), 218-248. Retrieved June 25, 2009, from SocINDEX database.

Is staying together good for the kids? (2009). Today Show [Video]. Retrieved June 25, 2009, from http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/31385534#31385534

Kaye, K., Moore, K. A., Hair, E. C., Hadley, A. M., Day, R. D., & Orthner, D. K. (2009). Parent marital quality and the parent-adolescent relationship: Effects on sexual activity among adolescents and youth [Abstract]. Marriage & Family Review, 45(2/3), 270-288. Retrieved June 25, 2009, from SocINDEX database.

Maggio, C. (2009). Today Show: Don’t stay together for the kids. NewsBusters. Retrieved June 25, 2009, from http://newsbusters.org/blogs/catherine-maggio/2009/06/17/today-show-don-t-stay-together-kids

Maggio, C. (2009). ‘Today Show’: Don’t stay together for the kids: NBC guest, ignoring evidence, suggests divorce is sometimes better for children. Culture and Media Institute. Retrieved June 25, 2009, from http://www.cultureandmedia.com/articles/2009/20090617080839.aspx

Orthner, D. K., Jones-Sanpei, H., Hair, E. C., Moore, K. A., Day, R. D., & Kaye, K. (2009). Marital and parent relationship quality and educational outcomes for youth [Abstract]. Marriage & Family Review, 45(2/3), 249-269. Retrieved June 25, 2009, from SocINDEX database.

Ruscio, J. (2006). Critical thinking in psychology: separating sense from nonsense (Second Ed.). Belmont, California: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.

Stanovich, K.E. (2007). How to think straight about psychology (Eighth Ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon/Pearson Education, Inc.