Research Among Families

I'm going to take you on a walk down memory lane for a moment. You're sitting in your freshman English class, the teacher smells faintly of cats and looks like she hasn't seen the sun in a few years. She is droning on about a research paper you're going to have to write and mentions that you have to state where you got your information for that paper. Where on earth do you begin? You probably went straight to Wikipedia or something similar, I know that I certainly did, and all but copy and pasted what it said then submitted the paper. A great way to get it done quickly and most likely get an F. Reason being, Wikipedia and other sources like it are not a valid source of information. Anyone can edit the information on those sites at any time, without being fact checked. A little worrisome isn't it, to think that the information you consume could really just be based on some random person's opinions rather than truth. That is why it is crucial that we get our information from reliable and valid sources. 

It is the same way with information on the family. I know I would much rather get advice from proven research and professionals then someone who pretends to know something on a sketchy blog you just happened upon (you're welcome to leave at any moment.) Thankfully that valuable research is out there! However, it is important to note that this information, while helpful and instructive, has some imperfections. Most research done in the family science world is incredibly difficult to obtain. Studying human behavior and experience is a lot harder than studying that of plants or animals because no one experiences the same things in life in the same way. To try and figure out what humans are thinking and feeling individually, then attempting to apply that to humans as a whole, is a daunting and uphill task. Ethical guidelines and procedures can make it difficult to attain the desired information.  Most people don't show the affects of their upbringing until late adolescence, early adulthood, or until they start families of their own. Meaning these particular studies can take 5-10+ years to complete. Add in the fact that people probably aren't jumping at the chance to have their childhood traumas evaluated by strangers and it is easy to see why this research is so difficult to come by.

However long and exhausting these studies are, we are thankful for them! With this information we are able to see how certain things are affecting the family, how the family is changing, how the world is influenced by present family trends, and so on. In other words, we are able to see the bigger picture. A few things that we have learned about families thanks to some of these studies are; 40% of childbirths in the US in 2019 were born to single mothers (28% higher than in 1990), women in the US are expected to have 1.9 children in their lifetime (the needed "replacement rate" is about 2.1), children in traditional nuclear families (both biological parents living in the home) fair much better in life in all aspects than those in single parent homes, divorced homes, etc.  

There are obviously a lot of other things that the information gathered tells us, but the most important thing it shows us, is that we are responsible for giving children every opportunity in life to succeed. And success and happiness starts in the home! It's vital to our society and therefore to us, that we provide a place of love and safety for children to grow up in. It's what everybody born on this planet deserves!