MSNBC blandly claims that children decrease the quality of "marital satisfaction."
Admittedly, one researcher notes, there are different kinds of happiness: "Children don't ruin everything, Stanley points out. 'There are different types of happiness in life and that while some luster may be off marital happiness for at least a time during this period of life, there is a whole dimension of family happiness and contentment based on the family that couples are building,' he said. " Well, duh. But I will not mock too roundly this one little piece of light in what is, for the most part, a dark piece.
Elizabeth Foss has a beautiful reply to the snippet/article, which simply begs some sort of interpretation. Read and ponder.
UPDATE: And I love the First Things comment: "Sure. If by “marital quality” one means selfishness, self-centeredness, or egoism."
2 comments:
MSNBC, like other network "news" generally serves up bland "reporting" like this, which was the same stuff I saw on the Yahoo homepage. The Denver Post (a real news organization) did a much better job with the story. In fact, they even thought to interview the researcher who conducted study! See: www.denverpost.com/news/ci_12111464
When the DP interviewed Prof. Scott Stanley it became obvious that his study wasn't part of any anti-child sensational headline but was part of his book project, which is titled "Fighting For Your Marriage."
What the DP specifically said that MSNBC didn't spell out: "What the study doesn't capture: the richer, longer-lasting contentment that comes with building a family, he said."
Thanks, Gina! Todd also commented that popular "news" outlets rarely capture the context of scientific studies. So true, so true.
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