Irish Indo article 'Men should concentrate on playing with their children and leave the care to women '

[UntitledNo2]

Article in today's Irish Independent, see here

I am particularly annoyed by this: 'Fathers should stick to just playing with their children as their efforts to look after them just end in arguments with their wives, a study claims.' Ah yes, because of course, arguments over the raising of children are always started by the hormonal 'wives'. And of course, women are referred to as 'wives', not 'women', or indeed 'partners'. For 'partners' would surely suggest equality.

Another particularly edifying quote 'There might be some ambivalence on the part of mothers in allowing fathers to participate in day-to-day child care," she said.'. Of course, most mothers don't want their partners to be at all involved in child care. That allows fathers to abscond easily from parental duties, does it not?

Finally, I take issue with a study involving only 112 people being presented as 'fact'.

Any thoughts on this?

The Irish Independent tries to masquerade as a broadsheet, and actually espouses the worse kind of tabloid rubbish stereotypes, dressed up as "studies" they are reporting, or anecdotes they present. It has very racist undertones at times and is definately not a paper that is overly concerned with reporting facts.

I wouldnt take anything in it seriously tbh and I gave up on it in disgust a couple of years ago.

If they're going to operate at the level of a tabloid, and feed into stereotypes, then they should stop pretending their paper carries any gravitas.

This looks like their usual rubbish from your description.

Oh yes, beachholiday, the Indo is definitely a rubbish tabloid masquerading as a broadsheet. Their reportage is indeed shite, what worries me is that it is seen as an intelligent broadsheet by a vast majority... My father, for example, views it as a broadsheet, and thus, a reliable news source, when we know it is on a par with the Star/Sun et al. As a result, articles such as this are taken more seriously than they ought to be.

Ian O'Doherty, in particular, is a nail in the coffin of the II... How vile and misogynistic he is.

Backlash check list

Media hype over individual studies which imply that women are better suited to 'traditional roles - check.

Reading through the article this sentence jumped out.

''However, when fathers said they participated more in caregiving''

So basically the study and results are dependent upon fathers giving a true and accurate account of how much childcare they do.

It is truly depressing and infuriating Untitled, how many people think it is essentially a broadsheet and treat what they read in it as factual. And then people quote stereotypes of all sorts at you and back it up with a "report" or "research" they read in the Indo..

Its contibution to Irish society is hugely negative.

I wish that every child of secondary school age had to learn what constitutes sound research and how to analyse why some studies aren't worth the paper they are written on (and in the Independents case I use that term very loosely).

It would avoid a great deal of misinformation and prejudice spreading and might help raise journalistic standards.

The most disturbing thing, Beachholiday, is that when I was in third year (in Secondary), we covered 'Media Studies' as part of the English curriculum. In which we were taught about 'tabloids' (the Sun, Star etc.), 'middle of the road' newspapers (Evening Herald, to my mind, definitely a tabloid, also part of the Independent Media Group, so definitely falls into the same category as the Indo), and 'broadsheets' (Indo, Times etc.). Granted, this was 11 years ago, but if this is what we are teaching in schools, is it any wonder that the likes of the Indo is held in such high esteem?

As an aside, I once did a weeks work experience at the Irish Mirror. I was assigned several NIBs (news in briefs) to write. When I completed them, I was advised to 'dumb them down' and use shorter words. I was 16 at the time, and no more verbose than the average 16 year old. Worrying.

I really need to avoid going near it in the run-up to the election.

Ah, here. I watched the TV3 news tonight and almost spontaneously combusted with rage! Don't even get me started on the election coverage. It is either sycophantic, or just spoiling for a row/baiting the opposition parties/cheering on Gerry, depending on the source. Although, I do like Matt Cooper. He's a total hard arse. He has torn strips off both Cowen and Lenihan. For that, I fecking love him!!

the Indo is a vile rag. It features the total prick Kevin Myers, what more do you need to know?

Plus I've just read the actual study. Its small scale with a high attrition rate, and it doesn't even say what the article says it does.

This is the actual abstract;

A sample (N = 112) composed primarily of European American and middle-class two-parent families with a resident father and a 4-year-old child (48% girls) participated in a longitudinal study of associations between coparenting and father involvement. At the initial assessment and 1 year later, fathers reported on their involvement in play and caregiving activities with the focal child, and coparenting behavior was observed during triadic family interactions. Structural equation modeling was used to test cross-lagged associations between coparenting behavior and father involvement. Overall, paths from father involvement to coparenting behavior were significant, but paths from coparenting behavior to father involvement were not. Specifically, greater father involvement in play was associated with an increase in supportive and a decrease in undermining coparenting behavior over time. In contrast, greater father involvement in caregiving was associated with a decrease in supportive and an increase in undermining coparenting behavior. Multigroup analysis further showed that these cross-lagged relations did not differ for dual-earner families and single-earner (father) families, but these relations appeared to differ for families with focal daughters and families with focal sons. These findings highlight the potential for fathering to affect coparenting and the importance of the role of contextual factors in coparenting-fathering relations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (from the journal abstract).

Buzz, I have just tried to read that, what a wonderful example of using many words but not actually saying anything.

Yup yup, the Indo is pure bollocks, as, to be honest, are most Irish media sources. The GE coverage is becoming deeply embarrassing, all the backbiting and bitching going on between the parties is mortifying (and I say that as an active member of one of the more prominent political parties - not FF!!). The 'debate' on Vincent Browne tonight was utterly pathetic.