Breast FeedingStatistical Mistakes by the Media
The Washington Post story, “Breast Milk’s Link to IQ Reiterated,” printed on Sept. 23, 1999, reported that a study found breast feeding increases a baby's IQ, however the Washington Post left out material about the study's biases.
Dating
U.S. media reported that a study published in the Journal of American Medical Association proved dating violence leads teenage girls to risky lifestyle behaviors, but the opposite is true. The study's racial sampling also was not representative of the nation.
Divorce
Brighter
Light on a Dark Topic
An August 12, 1999 Associated Press report on research presented at the American Sociological Association meetings said that “adult children of divorced parents are less likely to dissolve their own marriages than they were two decades ago.” However, the Associated Press left out social factors that affect the issue.
Domestic Violence
President Clinton said during his Oct. 28, 2000 radio address, “In America today, domestic violence is the number one health risk for women between the ages of 15 and 44 ... Every twelve seconds, another woman is beaten. That’s nearly 900,000 victims a year.” But none of the statements are true. The statistics are based on a 1995 study when domestic violence has decreased 30 percent since then, bad calculations, and a small emergency room study.
“Domesticated”
News About Violence Against Women?
Two studies show women’s relative risks of experiencing injury from domestic violence are tied to social characteristics.
Martial
Art-less: Misleading Numbers on Macho Military
CBS's 60 Minutes recently broadcasted a program that reported domestic violence is higher in the military than civilian life. The program was based on faulty reporting of studies on domestic violence in the military.
Family
Dysfunctional
Families or Dysfunctional Research
Research that reports "U.S. youngsters with emotional and behavioral problems... soared in the past two decades, partly blaming single-parent families and more children on Medicaid" is not based on the same research methods.
Gender
A NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll on Oct. 13, 2000 reported a major gender gap between men and women in support for Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush in the 2000 U.S. presidential election. But when factors such as region or social standing (education, marital status, children, education, business or stock ownership) are considered, the gender gap is small.
The Washington Post on Aug. 30, 1999 misinterpreted a study in the British Medical Journal by saying that if you want your baby to be a girl, move somewhere prone to smog, floods or earthquakes.
Which
Direction Were We Going In?
The U.S. Department of Transportation reported men are much more likely to be involved in car accidents and kill someone in car accidents than women. But men and women are involved in about the same number of car accidents, but men are more likely to kill someone in car accidents.
Health
USA Today reported in its November 20 story, “Fatter women end up with thinner wallets,” that obese women are discriminated in ways obese men are not. But the USA Today left out facts that show discrimination against obese men could be gaining ground and show discrimination against obese women is not as serious as thought.
Simple
Prejudice or a Complicated Result? What did the Heart Study Demonstrate?
An article by Jack White in Time said a study found in The New England Journal of Medicine (Feb. 25, 1999) reported that "doctors were 40 percent less likely to order sophisticated cardiac tests for women and blacks who complained about chest pains than for men and whites with identical symptoms... the study’s authors concluded that the disparity ... was most likely due to unconscious bias about gender and race.” White had apparently left out why doctors made their conclusions and the race and gender of doctors surveyed, which were not mainly white males.
In the July 22, 1999 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, the editors said that the results were overstated. See Further Matters of the Heart .
Income Equality
Income
Inequality, All in the Family?
The income gap among the classes is smaller than Americans imagine because the family structure has changed in the past several decades.
Rape
Serious
Subject, Unhealthy Statistics
The validity of the National Violence Against Women (NVAW) survey, which reported rapes at a much higher rate than the Department of Justice's National Criminal Victimization Survey (NCVS), is questioned because the sample size is small for a national survey.
The Chicago Tribune published an article about this controversy. Click here for the article.
Women's Health
A report shows that women overestimate their chances of getting breast cancer and other diseases.
Working Mothers
Good
News for Moms: No One Misses You
The media reported that a study by researcher Elizabeth
Harvey proved that the number of hours mothers worked and how early mothers
leave their newborn children don't make a difference. However, the study,
which has bias, is not a valid study.
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