While he was referring to the differences between his family and a typical FLDS compound family, he may have been more correct than he knew at the time.
One study of polygamist fathers found that, “There was no typical [polygamous] family.” He was speaking of Mormon polygamy.
We typically think of polygamist families having a set visitation schedule between husbands and wives. In that study, only 47% of the polygamous fathers had a regular daily or weekly visitation schedule. The remainder had: no set routine; stayed mainly with one wife; visited infrequently; or had some other arrangement. This situation existed even though 60% of the families in the study lived in the same community.
We also hear how family-oriented polygamy is and how close the children feel to each other. Again, this same study found that many polygamous children “felt little closeness, especially with their fathers.” While 65% of the polygamous children interviewed for this study said they had little to no interaction with their fathers, 84% of children from monogamous LDS families interviewed for the same study “reported that they were close to their fathers.”
What other assumptions or myths do we have about polygamous families that may or may not be true?
Source:
http://www.dialoguejournal.
