Burgess and Cottrell Data on "Desire for Children": An Example of Distortion in Marriage and Family Textbooks?
Burgess and Cottrell reported data on "desire for children" and "marital adjustment." Marriage and family textbooks have typically misrepresented the data in citing it. As one example of six criticisms, Burgess and Cottrell warn that the data refer to couples married only a few years; failure to mention this leads to gross misinterpretations. Textbook reporting of these data raise questions about the adequacy of marriage and family textbooks and, indeed, textbooks in the social sciences generally. Possibly a tightly organized, collaboratively prepared text would permit more depth in scholarship behind each chapter than is possible when one author must cover a huge range of material.