On the Brighter Side: Strike one up for Nurture

I've been hearing some rather dismaying arguments recently about how important biological ties are -- that family is biological, not social -- a form of what I view as genetic determinism -- and it's a view that seems to miss the point that our choices to love and form relationships is one of the things that distinguishes us from other mammals (generally). So I was heartened to see the recent study that showed that adoptive parents invest more time and financial resources in their children than biological parents.

The study, published in the new issue of the American Sociological Review, found that couples who adopt spend more money on their children and invest more time on such activities as reading to them, eating together and talking with them about their problems.

The researchers examined data from 13,000 households with first-graders in the family. The data was part of a detailed survey called the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and other agencies. The entire report can be downloaded here: http://www.asanet.org/galleries/default-file/Feb07ASRAdoption.pdf.