This article first appeared in Box Turtle Bulletin.
Wayne Besen, of Truth Wins Out, is reporting that James Dobson distorted research in an op-ed that appeared in this week's Time magazine. In his op-ed, Dobson comments on Mary Cheney's pregnancy with a child she will raise with her partner Heather Poe. He claims that children do best in heterosexually-married families, citing Dr. Carol Gilligan's research as "proof":
According to educational psychologist Carol Gilligan, mothers tend to stress sympathy, grace and care to their children, while fathers accent justice, fairness and duty. Moms give a child a sense of hopefulness; dads provide a sense of right and wrong and its consequences.
Wayne contacted Dr. Gilligan, who responded with a copy of a strongly letter she wrote to Dobson:
I am writing to ask that you cease and desist from quoting my research in the future. I was mortified to learn that you had distorted my work this week in a guest column you wrote in Time Magazine. Not only did you take my research out of context, you did so without my knowledge to support discriminatory goals that I do not agree with. What you wrote was not truthful and I ask that you refrain from ever quoting me again and that you apologize for twisting my work.
Wayne did a great job tracking this down and bringing this abuse of science to light.
It turns out that this isn't the only researcher whose work Dobson abused in the Time piece. Since the op-ed isn't footnoted, it's not easy to track down all of his sources. But in that same op-ed, Dr. Dobson writes:
The fact remains that gender matters -- perhaps nowhere more than in regard to child rearing. The unique value of fathers has been explained by Dr. Kyle Pruett of Yale Medical School in his book Fatherneed: Why Father Care Is as Essential as Mother Care for Your Child. Pruett says dads are critically important simply because "fathers do not mother."
Dr. Pruett's book has been misused before. Tim Nashif, political director of Oregon's Defense of Marriage Coalition, argued that Dr. Pruett's book proves that children do best with a married mother and father. But Dr. Pruett said he does not draw that conclusion "either scientifically or psychologically." He said children generally fare better with two parents regardless of gender, adding, "There is to date no credible research that says children raised by gay and lesbian couples are at risk."
In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics has undertaken an exhaustive review of the professional literature and found that "children's optimal development seems to be influenced more by the nature of the relationships and interactions within the family unit than by the particular structural form it takes." That is what the overwhelming research really shows.