Convenient and Inconvenient Truths in Family Law: Preventing Scholar‐Advocacy Bias in the Use of Social Science Research for Public Policy

This is the second of two articles on the risks of advocacy bias in the reporting of research findings when boundaries are blurred between social science research and advocacy in the pursuit of public policy. In the first article we identify common ways in which social science researchers and reviewers of research—wittingly or unwittingly—can become advocates for ideological positions and social policies at the expense of being balanced reporters of research evidence. The first article discusses the difference between truth in social science and truth in law and identifies a range of scholar‐advocacy strategies that bias research evidence, illustrated by recent debates about overnight parenting of infants and toddlers. In this second article we show how biased research evidence by scholar advocates results in increased confusion and controversy that diminishes the credibility of all parties and stalemates progress in the field, using a case illustration of intimate partner violence in family court. We also show how adherence to scientific methods prevents the misuse of research and suggest a number of collaborative, integrative measures that can help transcend the adversarial stalemate. In a look to the future we consider some unbiased, standardized ways of assessing the strength and generalizability of research evidence.     

DIVORCING FAMILIES WITH YOUNG CHILDREN IN THE COURT'S FAMILY SERVICES UNIT Profiles and Impact of Services

Little is known about the families being served by court support services, or the effectiveness of the services provided. This study investigates 137 higher conflict, divorcing families with young children, who received services from the Family Services division. The study utilizes questionnaire data filled out by family services clinicians. The families presented with multiple mental health needs, including allegations of substance use and physical, emotional and sexual abuses of spouses and, to a lesser extent, children. Results detailed evaluation outcomes pertaining to joint legal and physical custody, showing an increase in joint legal custody, with little difference in physical custody arrangements. Evaluators did encourage less parental dropout. The data also profiled parents least likely to attend mandatory parenting education, accept evaluators' recommendations, and settle their case with mediation assistance. Identifying these families early can help family services clinicians track families into individualized service plans as needed.     

Law Students on Interdisciplinary,Problem‐Solving Teams: An Empirical Evaluation of Educational Outcomes at the University Of Denver's Resource Center for Separating and Divorcing Families

Models of lawyering in separation and divorce disputes are evolving to emphasize interdisciplinary collaboration, problem solving, alternative dispute resolution, and changes in legal education that reflect these changes in practice. At the University of Denver's Resource Center for Separating and Divorcing Families (Center), supervised law and mental health graduate students worked as a team to provide assessment and service planning, mediation, therapy, and agreement drafting to parents. Evaluation results showed client satisfaction, and that students acquired new knowledge, skills, and values in line with a collaborative, problem‐solving orientation. Strengths and weaknesses of the model are considered.     

Comment on Donald R. Haurin and Hazel A. Morrow‐Jones's “the impact of Real Estate Market knowledge on tenure choice: A comparison of black and white households”

Abstract

Haurin and Morrow‐Jones analyze a sample of survey respondents from Columbus, OH, and find that additional knowledge about real estate markets increases the likelihood of homeownership. They conclude that differences in real estate knowledge contribute importantly to explaining some of the racial gap in homeownership rates; this finding leads to their conclusion that the racial gap can be addressed through public policy interventions, including financial counseling programs.

Their research broadly addresses three questions: Why does the racial gap in homeownership exist? Why does it persist? What can be done to reduce it? We compare their findings with those of other researchers and conclude that improved financial literacy may well be an important tool for reducing the gap, but that the causes for its existence and persistence are complex and that improving financial literacy alone may not be sufficient to have a significant and lasting impact.     

Multi-party elections in the Arab world: Institutional engineering and oppositional strategies

Recent moves toward multi-party competition for elected legislatures in numerous Arab countries constitute a significant departure from earlier practices there, and create the basis for democratic activists to gradually chip away at persistent authoritarian rule. This article explores the institutional mechanisms by which incumbent authoritarian executives seek to engineer these elections. It documents examples of rulers changing electoral systems to ensure compliant legislatures, and demonstrates the prevalent use of winner-takes-all electoral systems, which generally work to the regimes’ advantage. I then review various strategies of opposition forces—boycotts, non-competition agreements, election monitoring, and struggles over election rules—and the dilemmas that these entail. Surmounting differences in terms of ideologies, as well as short-term political goals and prospects, is a central challenge. The future should see greater electoral participation among opposition activists, along with cleaner elections. As vote coercion and ballot box stuffing is restricted by opposition pressures, electoral institutions will take on greater importance, and struggles for proportional representation are likely to increase. Marsha Pripstein Posusney is associate professor of Political Science at Bryant College and an adjunct associate professor of International Relations (Research) at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. Her first book,Labor and the State in Egypt: Workers, Unions, and Economic Restructuring (Co-lumbia University Press, 1997) was co-winner of the 1998 Albert Hourani prize, awarded annually by the Middle East Studies Association for outstanding original scholarly work on the Middle East. She is currently completing work on a co-edited volume,Privatization and Labor: Responses and Consequences in Global Perspective (Edward Elgar Publishing, Forthcoming). Earlier versions of this article were presented at Middle East Studies seminars at Harvard and columbia Universities in April, 1998, and at a Brown University Political Science Dept. seminar in April, 1999. In addition to the feedback at these events, I would like to acknowledge helpful comments on earlier versions from Miguel Glatzer, Iliya Harik, John Kerr, Ann Lesch, Vickie Langohr, Rob Richie, Wendy Schiller, Jillian Schwedler, Joe Stork, Greg White, and especially Ellen Lust-Okar and four anonymous reviewers. I am also grateful for the research assistance of Myrna Atalla, Daria Viviano, Laurent Fauque, and Colleen Anderson. The article draws on presentations and discussion at the conference on “Controlled Contestation and Opposition Strategies: Multi-Party Elections in the Arab World”, Brown University, October 2–3, 1998. Sponsored by the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown in cooperation with the Center for Middle Eastern Studies as Harvard, it brought together ten democratic activists from seven different Arab countries. It is referenced here (to save space) as the “Brown elections conference.”     

CRITICAL ASPECTS OF PARENTING PLANS FOR YOUNG CHILDREN

The debate about the benefits and drawbacks of overnight schedules for young children is hotly contested in family law. This study investigated connections between occurrence of overnights, schedule consistency, number of caregivers, and young children's adjustment to parental separation and divorce. Families ( N = 161) with children aged 6 years or younger were recruited at the time of filing for divorce or child custody (if unmarried); follow-up data were obtained from 132 families 15 to 18 months later. Results indicated that parenting plan variables are related to children's social, cognitive, and emotional behavior, with caregivers and schedule consistency more salient than overnights. Girls benefited from overnights and more caregivers, whereas boys did not. Overnighting children aged 4 to 6 years when their parents filed manifested fewer problems 1.5 years later than did younger children. Even when controlling for parental conflict and parent-child relationship variable, the constellation of parenting plan variables contributed to young children's adaptation.