Arlene Skolnick and Stacey Rosencrantz

In the following viewpoint, Arlene Skolnick and Stacey Rosencrantz refute claims that the traditional nuclear family is the only successful family structure. According to the authors, the notion that most social problems are caused by “the breakdown of the family” relies on flawed research that exaggerates the negative effects of divorce on children. Skolnick and Rosencrantz argue that the most important determinant of a child’s well-being is not a two-parent family, but a close relationship with one parent. Skolnick is a research psychologist at the Institute of Human Development, University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Embattled Paradise: The American Family in an Age of Uncertainty.

Rosencrantz was a graduate student in Stanford University’s psychology department at the time this viewpoint...