BoreDominated t1_j0mrpt0 wrote on December 17, 2022 at 9:17 PM

Reply to comment by MittenstheGlove in Among black parents, paternal support and interparental relationship quality can play a protective role, promoting maternal mental health and wellbeing. by Respawan

But there are also white fathers who are absent, to which the findings would be equally applicable, so why focus on black fathers?

Paranoidexboyfriend t1_j0msa6v wrote on December 17, 2022 at 9:21 PM

Because the percentage of absent black fathers blows the number of absent white fathers out of the water. 58% of black children are without their father compared to 20% of white children.

BoreDominated t1_j0msp7v wrote on December 17, 2022 at 9:24 PM

I know the numbers are higher, but that doesn't imply measures taken to lower the number of absent fathers would only work on black people, does it?

Smooth_Imagination t1_j0nvhum wrote on December 18, 2022 at 2:20 AM

I get what you are saying, but they decided to focus on an area, maybe a geographical one with particular relevance to the question. They might have picked a particular racial group because it is understudied as a demographic. We could generalise these findings but since they did their study in a particular group its accurate to highlight the group and not generalise. We would hope the authors follow up in other groups, even though its bleedingly obvious its generalisable, in science you should not state beyond the scope of what your experiment examines.