Marriage & Family

Consider the following assertion: "In the traditional American nuclear family of today, once the couple has one or more children, the wife should not be employed outside the home. Rather, she should devote the majority of her time to child-rearing activities and "being there" for the children. This is the best environment for the development of healthy children in all senses of the word – physically, mentally, spiritually, and socially."

Alternatively, one could assert something such as this: "In the contemporary American family, it often takes more than one income to provide for the family's needs. Thus both parents may need or wish to work outside the home. There is little or no evidence to suggest that children who are cared for by qualified, attentive, and nurturing adults in a setting outside the home (e.g., a licensed daycare facility, a friend or a neighbor's family home, an after-school program) grow up to be somehow disadvantaged or damaged emotionally, mentally, physically, or spiritually."

Choose one of these two perspectives and write an essay of 750-1,000 words that summarizes the research evidence against that perspective. (Thus if you choose the first assertion above, you will look for evidence that this assertion is not accurate.) You may use the Marriage & Family: the Search for Intimacy text (Chapter 11) and the sources cited in the text, but you also need to use at least three scholarly sources to support your argument.