Saturday, September 17, 2016

Week 1- Seeking out the real facts

Hey! My name is Becca Packer. I am currently taking the Family 160 course at BYU-Idaho, all about family relations. I am looking forward to taking this class and discussing the different issues in found families around the world.
There are so many different types of families these days. Two parent homes, single parent homes, same sex parent homes, step families, divorced families, and the list goes on and on. But is there one perfect type of family? Some might say there is. But that is not what i am here to discuss. Truthfully i would just like to post about some of my thoughts and opinions that i learn in this class, and maybe get some feedback about your thoughts and opinions as well. I am not here to start confrontations, or argue with people.
This week we talked about research. That may seem like an interesting topic, considering it doesn't have much to do with families. But it was really interesting to learn about how to find good research on the topic of family. We looked at a lot of different case studies and looked at what they studied and what they used as a comparison group. For example we were looking at studies questioning whether same sex parents are as qualified to raise children as heterosexual couples. The conclusion that was found in the study we were looking at said that same sex couples were not only qualified to raise children, but were even possibly MORE qualified. Now, i don't have a strong opinion on this topic. Honestly i think that it comes down more to the type of people in the relationship and the quality of the relationship itself, and not the type of relationship. What i did realize however was in the studies the comparison groups used to test against the same sex parents weren't ever consistent or very relevant to the actual problem being discussed. Most of the studies either didn't have a comparison group at all, or the group was compared against single parent homes, or the the study was more focused on the parenting styles of the same sex couple, instead of the outcomes of the children themselves.
What i learned the most this week is it is important to pay close attention to the research that you are using when trying to understand families. And also, for me as a possible future researcher it is important for me to conduct effective and truthful searches.

Truth is out there. It can be found. We just need to use the proper sources to find it.

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