Writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Dr. Caplan, a professor at George Mason University, points to studies of adoptees and separated twins as evidence that "the effect of family environment largely fades out by adulthood." In other words, he wrote, he believes that hereditary trumps environment.
"Adult siblings are equally similar whether they grew up together or apart," he writes. "Adoptive siblings are no more similar than two people plucked off the street at random. And identical twins are no more similar than one would expect from the effects of their shared genes."
Dr. Caplan uses time diaries that parents have been keeping for scientific research since 1965. The diaries are records of how many minutes parents spend with their children each day:
- Working mothers today spend about the same number of minutes with their children as stay-at-home moms did forty years ago.
- Fathers have increased their involvement: In 1965, they did three hours a week of childcare, but today that average has risen to seven hours per week.
- The problem, Dr. Caplan writes, is that parents do not enjoy taking care of their children, and most children do not want to spend a lot of time with their parents, which creates a stressful environment for both.
Posted By: Aspen Education Group