In the Press

By Christy J. Zink

A new scapegoat may be replacing schools as the purported "cause'' of America's troubled social landscape for children, according to the Summer 1994 edition of The American Prospect: the single-parent family.

In a special series on "Family Fractures,'' the quarterly journal of liberal thought examines terrain first broached by Dan Quayle during the 1992 Presidential campaign and forecasts the raised profile of family structure and policy as a divisive political issue.

Arlene Skolnick and Stacey Rosencrantz, psychologists from the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University, respectively, critique in one article "the new crusade for the old family'' being waged by pundits, radio personalities, and politicians. They argue that an unyielding push to recapture the nuclear family in the name of "family values'' may harm more children than...