Taking Sides Paper
Laura Stapley
Brigham Young University
SFL 210, Section 003
Taking Sides: Divorce The world today is filled with so much information, opinions and controversy on endless issues and subjects that it is difficult to differentiate between what is accurate and what is contrived. Therefore, it is important to be able to decipher a credible source of information from a lacking one, especially in published articles. An article written in 1996 by Karl Zinsmeister discusses research conducted on the impact divorce has on children. The article, while thought provoking, has many weaknesses and flaws in its credibility. It is the purpose of this paper to demonstrate how Zinsmeister’s research loses authority through …show more content…
He used the term children, or youngsters, very broadly in that it could possibly mean a person from two years old up to seventeen. That is a very large age gap and certainly a two-year-old or a person old enough for high school would be impacted by divorce in very different ways. A study Zinsmeister references by Guidubaldi and Petty used 700 ‘youngsters’ to test behavioral changes of children from divorced families (Zinsmeister, 1996, para. 25). The behaviors tested were types of mental issues from to inattention and unhappiness to dependency. Without knowing the ages of said youngsters it difficult to ascertain that those types of behaviors are truly related to divorce. It could be argued that a three-year-old is dependent because they are young and unable to do things for themselves, or that a 11-year-old is bored and uninterested because they have small attention span. To really say those mental issues are caused by divorce, the research would need to show that similarly aged children were tested. This example also indicates that culture and background were not considered. It is not mentioned anywhere what the background and/or culture of the children who were surveyed which would impact their mental health. Those children who come from divorced families who live in poverty verses children from a wealthy family would be affected differently. Another study mentioned used 700 junior high students in a survey to measure stressful life events, one being divorce (Zinsmeister, 1996, para. 9). These ages which would probably range from 11 to 15 is a four year age difference that may not seem like much but it is another broad group where it is difficult to say they are not impacted by divorce differently because of their age and maturity. Also, this study made no mention of what background and/or
Laura Stapley
Brigham Young University
SFL 210, Section 003
Taking Sides: Divorce The world today is filled with so much information, opinions and controversy on endless issues and subjects that it is difficult to differentiate between what is accurate and what is contrived. Therefore, it is important to be able to decipher a credible source of information from a lacking one, especially in published articles. An article written in 1996 by Karl Zinsmeister discusses research conducted on the impact divorce has on children. The article, while thought provoking, has many weaknesses and flaws in its credibility. It is the purpose of this paper to demonstrate how Zinsmeister’s research loses authority through …show more content…
He used the term children, or youngsters, very broadly in that it could possibly mean a person from two years old up to seventeen. That is a very large age gap and certainly a two-year-old or a person old enough for high school would be impacted by divorce in very different ways. A study Zinsmeister references by Guidubaldi and Petty used 700 ‘youngsters’ to test behavioral changes of children from divorced families (Zinsmeister, 1996, para. 25). The behaviors tested were types of mental issues from to inattention and unhappiness to dependency. Without knowing the ages of said youngsters it difficult to ascertain that those types of behaviors are truly related to divorce. It could be argued that a three-year-old is dependent because they are young and unable to do things for themselves, or that a 11-year-old is bored and uninterested because they have small attention span. To really say those mental issues are caused by divorce, the research would need to show that similarly aged children were tested. This example also indicates that culture and background were not considered. It is not mentioned anywhere what the background and/or culture of the children who were surveyed which would impact their mental health. Those children who come from divorced families who live in poverty verses children from a wealthy family would be affected differently. Another study mentioned used 700 junior high students in a survey to measure stressful life events, one being divorce (Zinsmeister, 1996, para. 9). These ages which would probably range from 11 to 15 is a four year age difference that may not seem like much but it is another broad group where it is difficult to say they are not impacted by divorce differently because of their age and maturity. Also, this study made no mention of what background and/or