CONTRO VERSY Nostalgia as family policy

N "For the Sake of the Children" [Summer 1992], Richard Gill criticizes a study several collaborators and I published on the effects of divorce on children.* Gill first charges that our methodology and our interpretation are flawed, then launches into a broader discussion of contemporary marriage and divorce. In an earlier Public Interest article, "Day Care or Parental Care?" [Fall 1991], Gill expressed similar concerns about the direction of family policy and the well-being of American children. Gill's concern about children is well-founded, and we share it. It was never our intent to conduct a study that would absolve divorcing parents of guilt. In our current research, in fact, we have found some harmful effects of divorce on young children who were assessed shortly after their parents' marriages broke up. Nevertheless, we think that Gill's procedural criticisms are groundless and, more important, that the underlying themes of both his articles are unhelpful as a guide to public policy concerning children and families. In this reply, I will address Gill's specific criticisms and then respond more generally to his two articles.