This debate-style reader is designed to introduce students to controversies in global issues through readings that reflect a variety of viewpoints. Each issue is framed with an issue summary, an issue introduction, and a postscript. The Taking Sides readers feature annotated listings of selected World Wide Web sites. Taking Sides is supported by our student website at www.dushkin.com/online/.
PART 1. Infancy
ISSUE 1. Is Institutional Child Care Beneficial to Children?
YES: Greg Parks, from “The High/Scope Perry Preschool Project,” Juvenile Justice Bulletin (October 2000)
NO: T. Berry Brazelton and Stanley I. Greenspan, from The Irreducible Needs of Children: What Every Child Must Have to Grow, Learn, and Flourish (Perseus, 2000)
Greg Parks, an intern program specialist at the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, details the results of the Perry Preschool Project. Parks contends that evaluations of the program show significant benefits in adulthood for the children who attended the preschool. Pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton and Stanley I. Greenspan, clinical professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at George Washington University Medical School, question the practice by many families of placing their children into the institutional settings of child-care centers.
ISSUE 2. Does Maternal Employment Have Negative Effects on Children’s Development?
YES: Wen-Jui Han, Jane Waldfogel, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, from “The Effects of Early Maternal Employment on Later Cognitive and Behavioral Outcomes,” Journal of Marriage and Family (February 2001)
NO: Thomas M. Vander Ven, Francis T. Cullen, Mark A. Carroza, and John Paul Wright, from “Home Alone: The Impact of Maternal Employment on Delinquency,” Social Problems (May 2001)
University professors and researchers Wen-Jui Han, Jane Waldfogel, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn from Columbia University conclude that maternal employment in the first year of a child’s life has a significant negative effect on verbal ability at age 3 or 4 and lowered math achievement when children were 7 to 8. When ethnicity was controlled for, these negative effects were found for white children, but not for African-American children. University professors and researchers Thomas M. Vander Ven, Francis T. Cullen, Mark A. Carrozza, and John Paul Wright found that mother’s employment in the first year of the baby’s life had no effect on child delinquency when the child got older.
ISSUE 3. Should Scientists Be Allowed to Clone Children?
YES: Kyla Dunn, from “Cloning Trevor,” The Atlantic Monthly (June 2002)
NO: Robert A. Weinberg, from “Of Clones and Clowns,” The Atlantic Monthly (June 2002)
Kyla Dunn, a former biotech researcher and now a reporter for PBS and CBS, details the six months that she spent with scientists inside the labs of Advanced Cell Technology (ACT), a group openly pursuing human cloning for medical purposes. Dunn outlines what the group hopes to accomplish through cloning, why the group believes that cloning is the best way to accomplish these goals, and the political and monetary trials that ACT faces. Robert A. Weinberg, a member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and a biology professor at MIT, offers his concerns about what he calls the "cloning circus." Weinberg discusses the damage that many cloning groups have been doing to serious research and the impending dangers of reproductive cloning.
ISSUE 4. Does Transracial Adoption Harm a Child’s Development?
YES: Leslie Doty Hollingsworth, from “Symbolic Interactionism, African American Families, and the Transracial Adoption Controversy,” Social Work (September 1999)
NO: Rudolph Alexander, Jr. and Carla M. Curtis, from “A Review of Empirical Research Involving the Transracial Adoption of African American Children,” Journal of Black Psychology (May 1996)
Leslie Doty Hollingsworth, assistant professor at the University of Michigan, contends that socialization within an African American family is a unique and distinct experience for children. As a consequence, children not socialized in these families cannot effectively embrace African American definitions of self and family. Rudolph Alexander, Jr. and Carla M. Curtis, both professors at Ohio State University, offer research maintaining that African American children are not psychologically harmed by transracial adoptions.
PART 2. Early Childhood
ISSUE 5. Is Spanking Detrimental to Children?
YES: Elizabeth Thompson Gershoff, from “Corporal Punishment by Parents and Associated Child Behaviors and Experiences: A Meta-Analytic and Theoretical Review,” Psychological Bulletin (vol. 128, no. 4, 2002)
NO: Diana Baumrind, Philip A. Cowan, and Robert E. Larzelere, from “Ordinary Physical Punishment: Is It Harmful? Comment on Gershoff (2002),” Psychological Bulletin (vol. 128, no. 4, 2002)
Columbia University researcher Elizabeth Thompson Gershoff analyzed results from 88 studies and concluded that corporal punishment negatively affected children’s behavior. Among the 10 negative outcomes were increased child aggression, decreased quality of the parent-child relationship, and increased risk of abusing a child or spouse in adulthood. Diana Baumrind and Philip A. Cowan, researchers from the University of California-Berkeley, and Robert E. Larzelere, from the Nebraska Medical Center, refuted Gershoff’s findings by questioning her definition of corporal punishment and analysis techniques of the 88 studies. They feel mild spankings, when appropriately administered, are useful in shaping children’s behavior.
ISSUE 6. Are Fathers Really Necessary?
YES: W. J. Doherty, Edward F. Kouneski, and Martha F. Erickson, from “Responsible Fathering: An Overview and Conceptual Framework,” Journal of Marriage and the Family (May 1998)
NO: Alexis J. Walker and Lori A. McGraw, from “Who Is Responsible for Responsible Fathering?” Journal of Marriage and the Family (May 2000)
Professor of family social science W. J. Doherty, psychologist Edward F. Kouneski, and Martha F. Erickson, director of the University of Minnesota’s Children, Youth and Family Consortium, explore the contextual influences on fathering and conclude that a quality marriage in the optimal context promotes responsible fathering. Professor of human development and family sciences Alexis J. Walker and Lori A. McGraw, 4-H program coordinator at Oregon State University, contend that there is no empirical evidence that children need active fathers in their lives.
ISSUE 7. Does Divorce Create Long-Term Negative Effects for Children?
YES: Karl Zinsmeister, from “Divorce’s Toll on Children,” The American Enterprise (May/June 1996)
NO: David Gately and Andrew I. Schwebel, from “Favorable Outcomes in Children After Parental Divorce,” Journal of Divorce and Remarriage (vol. 18, nos. 3–4, 1992)
Karl Zinsmeister, editor in chief of The American Enterprise, argues that divorce causes damage from which children never recover and that the conflict within a marriage will not cause the same amount of problems for children that the breakup of a marriage creates. Educators David Gately and Andrew I. Schwebel contend that children of divorce are not doomed to failure; they often display positive characteristics, such as enhanced levels of maturity, self-esteem, empathy, and adaptability.
ISSUE 8. Is Television Violence Viewing Harmful for Children?
YES: Merrilyn O. Johnson, from “Television Violence and Its Effect on Children,” Journal of Pediatric Nursing (April 1996)
NO: Jib Fowles, from “The Whipping Boy: The Hidden Conflicts Underlying the Campaign Against Violent TV,” Reason (March 2001)
Merrilyn O. Johnson, MSN, RN, is from the Nursing Ph.D. Collaborative Program at the Medical University of South Carolina and the University of South Carolina, Columbia. She argues that the negative impact of television viewing is so great that it should be included in health professionals’ assessments of children and families. Jib Fowles, a professor of communication at the University of Houston, asserts that although television violence has increased steadily, the violent crime rate has in fact decreased.
PART 3. Middle Childhood
ISSUE 9. Does Marriage Improve Living Standards for Children?
YES: Wade F. Horn, from “Healthy Marriages Provide Numerous Benefits to Adults, Children, and Society,” Insight on the News (March 18, 2002)
NO: Stephanie Coontz and Nancy Folbre, from “Marriage, Poverty, and Public Policy,” The American Prospect Online, (March 19, 2002)
Wade F. Horn, who heads the Marriage Initiative for President George W. Bush, asserts that marriage can remedy the ills of society, including family poverty and poor living standards for children. Stephanie Coontz, author and family advocate, and Nancy Folbre, professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts, contend that improving the living standards of children is a complicated issue, which needs to be approached from many different angles in order to make improvements.
ISSUE 10. Are Stepfamilies Inherently Problematic for Children?
YES: David Popenoe, from “The Evolution of Marriage and the Problem of Stepfamilies: A Biosocial Perspective,” in Alan Booth and Judy Dunn, eds., Stepfamilies: Who Benefits? Who Does Not? (Lawrence Erlbaum, 1994)
NO: Lawrence A. Kurdek, from “Remarriages and Stepfami lies Are Not Inherently Problematic,” in Alan Booth and Judy Dunn, eds., Stepfamilies: Who Benefits? Who Does Not? (Lawrence Erlbaum, 1994)
Professor of sociology David Popenoe contends that children from ...
