Sarah Hrdy is a renowned and well-respected anthropologist. The quotes that come from her book "Mothers and Others" are either from her own research or are based on the research of others that are listed in that book.
Many of the other comments, such as about eating together comes from Drexler's research. The interview is discussing her book which is based on her years of research.
I went back and looked at the Psychology Today article and you are correct, he doesn't cite articles but is discussing a documentary where he gets his data from.
It seems self-evident to me that if only 23% of kids are growing up in mom/dad families, that not all of the other 77% are highly dysfunctional. I gave several examples of high profile men who grew up successfully without fathers. I cited a well known study about how kids of same-sex parents do better in school, and pointed out that in Paleolithic times we didn't have mom/dad dyads raising children. I'm not sure what else you expect me to say to support my point. It's pretty clearly and well laid out. I did however go back and add links to various article on this - both ones that were cited in the story and an additional news story about research that supports all of this (including a large excerpt that reiterates everything I said).
There are an estimated eight million women parenting alone, and at the very least another 100,000 families with two gay moms. Not all of those boys are growing up dysfunctionally. In fact, most of the guys who insist that "a boy needs a dad to teach him how to be a man" can't even explain what that means. It's just a deeply held cultural narrative that has no basis in reality. The fact is, all children need both men and women in their lives, and they need a couple of trusted adults who they are secure with - both financially and emotionally. And we know this not just from research but from looking around at the world. Lots of kids grow up in all sorts of family configurations, lots of people we know and who are in the public eye were raised without one (or both) of their parents. Lesbian couples raise boys just fine. To me, this just seems like basic common sense that a crappy dad like my husband had, or parents who fight a lot, or the stresses of poverty are much higher risks for kids (boys) growing up dysfunctionally. Mom/dad only nuclear families have only been around since the 1950s and they started to go by the wayside by the 70s when divorce skyrocketed. It seems absurd to me to base our current beliefs about emotional health and success in life on a brief window in time 60 years ago.
