Olivia Cozzetto

HSP 385
Evaluating Evidence
When reading articles, its dangerous to assume they provide creditable and factual
evidence to support their tangible claim. When evaluating articles on their accuracy, its
important to take everything with a grain of salt. By understanding an articles claim,
hypothesis, use of evidence and other vital factors, you can reflect how precise and trustworthy
the information is from the article. Using the skills developed from class, we can recognize and
evaluate the accuracy and worth of the two articles looking at stepfathers and parenthood.
The titles of both articles present the overall claim. The identified claim is that
stepfathers are better parents than biological fathers. Both articles present evidence that show
stepfathers can be better fathers to children than biological fathers. The articles hypothesis is
that stepfathers in at-risk or fragile families are more willing to take part in parenting and are
more supportive and cooperative with mothers because biological fathers seem more removed
and uninterested in their children and more focused on careers. The claim and hypothesis is
supported through evidence from the study.
The evidence used to support the claim from the first article was collected from a survey
of 2,000 mothers of at-risk families. The qualitative data from the survey showed mothers of atrisk families thought that stepfathers were more likely to agree with them about parenting and
more likely to be engaged in parenting. From the second article, the evidence was retrieved
from 2,098 interviews of mothers who had young children under the age of 5 from a family and
child wellbeing study. The evidence from the interviews proves that stepfathers are more

compliant with the mothers than the childrens real father. The techniques used to collect data
were survey and interviewing in the two articles. No numerical data was presented in either
article.
While the articles try to make a point that stepfathers are better parents than real
fathers, theres more to uncover in these articles. First, stepfathers might be more cooperative
with mothers than biological fathers for a number of reasons; the biological mother and father
might not get along and have a bad history. The evidence that mothers find stepfathers more
obliging and supportive doesnt actually mean that are better parents to the children, but only
that they get along better with the mother. This is not supportive evidence to support the
claim. The evidence that the real fathers seem somewhat removed needs to be examined
also. Biological fathers would seem removed from their relationship and roles if mothers and
children live away from the father. Location of biological fathers and children is something that
needs to be considered in understanding this evidence. Also the relationship between mothers
and fathers needs to be examined; many times mothers do not want their ex-husbands to be a
part of their lives which could affect how active they are in the lives of their children. Both
articles only looked at-risk and fragile families which include low income and urban families
making the articles claim generalized to only a group of people in the population. Overall, the
claim of both articles is not supported in factual and practical evidence to support the idea that
stepfathers make better parents than biological fathers.