Perspectives presents both research articles and commentaries investigating topics related to the well-being of children. These works are offered to stimulate the reader's interest in matters that directly or indirectly affect children, the family, and the society in which they live. While these articles have been reviewed by the Board, they do not necessarily represent official policy or position of the American College of Pediatricians.

Click on the bolded title below to link to the article. Please note: Some files will download more slowly than others due to their large size.

Abstinence and Its Critics
The United States House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform has compiled an analysis of the effectiveness of abstinence sex education versus comprehensive sex education in public schools. This October 2006 report finds that "abstinence programs provide character development and health education that empowers children and adolescents to make healthy decisions. Studies indicate that abstinence education serves to reduce teen pregnancy and the contraction of STDs, as well as guarding the emotional health of those who participate in abstinence programs."

Corporal Punishment by Parents
Debate over the use of corporal punishment in childrearing is often heated and emotional. Is disciplinary spanking harmful to children and is it really necessary? This 1996 monograph from the Family Research Council (FRC) addresses this subject with relevant research and practical advice. This Adobe PDF version is posted with permission from the FRC.

Family Matters
This research report presents existing evidence on the association between family structure and child achievement, child behavior, and child well-being. Research has consistently shown that family structure can facilitate or limit the ways in which parents are able to positively influence the future outcomes of their children. In general, most children in non-intact families are at an educational and social disadvantage compared to children in traditional families.

Healthcare Financing Systems
Healthcare financing systems play a significant role in shaping the bioethical landscape. Dr. Willson’s paper summarizes the current state of the healthcare financing system in the United States, analyzes reformers’ basic underlying worldviews and ideologies, and evaluates implications of proposed healthcare financing systems in relation to specific bioethical issues.

Ideas Have Consequences
This condensed version of Richard Weaver's 1948 text, Ideas Have Consequences, is one of the "Essential Readings for the Modern Conservative" commissioned by the Alabama Policy Institute. Weaver's purpose for the book is "examining the dissolution of Western civilization by a deduction from first principles rather than by analogy." He promises to provide the beginnings of a solution to the crisis.

Obesity: A Different Perspective on the Obesity Epidemic
About 20% of the population is prone to store any calories not needed for basal metabolic needs as body fat. This genetic entity, known variably as metabolic syndrome, or syndrome-X, predisposes to ever-increasing body fat mass.

David Blankenhorn’s new book, The Future of Marriage, explodes the widely promoted myth that redefining marriage to include same-sex partnerships would be a harmless innovation. In this article Robert P. George & Ryan T. Anderson offer a summary of the book’s analysis of the issue.

Response to the American Psychological Association (APA)

Dale O'Leary, Dr. Dean Byrd, Dr. Richard P. Fitzgibbons, and James E. Phelan have prepared a scientific rebuttal to the brochure, Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth, released by a coalition of organizations in January 2008 and mailed to all public school superintendents in the US. These authors claim that the brochure, which portrays homosexual attraction among youth as an immutable trait, is biased and scientifically unfounded. This article was published in the August 2008 edition of the NARTH Bulletin.