Priscilla K. Coleman

Priscilla Kari Coleman is a retired[1] Professor of Human Development and Family Studies in the School of Family and Consumer Sciences at Bowling Green State University, Ohio.[2] She is the author (or co-author) of a number of disputed academic papers, which claim to have found a statistical correlation or causal relationship between abortion and mental health problems.[3][4][5]

For the court room sketch artist, see Priscilla Coleman (artist).

Priscilla Kari Coleman
Alma materSouthern Connecticut State University, James Madison University, West Virginia University
Known forResearch regarding the proposed link between abortion and mental health problems
Scientific career
FieldsDevelopmental psychology
InstitutionsBowling Green State University
ThesisMaternal self-efficacy beliefs as predictors of parenting competence and toddlers' emotional, social, and cognitive development (1998)
Doctoral advisorKatherine H. Karraker

Her research has mostly met with a poor reception from her professional colleagues, and at least one of her manuscripts (originally published in Frontiers in Psychology) was retracted from the scientific literature due to not meeting the standards of the journal.[6] In a separate case, researchers were unable to reproduce Coleman's results on abortion and mental health despite using the same dataset,[7] and have described her findings as "logically inconsistent" and potentially "substantially inflated" by faulty methodology.[8] The American Psychological Association (APA) and other major medical bodies have concluded that the evidence does not support a link between abortion and mental health problems,[9] and an APA panel charged with reviewing the evidence were similarly critical of the methodology of Coleman's studies.[4] Coleman has responded that she is not the only qualified scientist whose research suggests that abortion may have serious mental health risks for many women.[8]

Biography and publications

Coleman graduated from Southern Connecticut State University in 1988 with a B.A. in Psychology. She obtained a M.A. in General Psychology from James Madison University in 1992, and a Ph.D. in Life-Span Developmental Psychology from West Virginia University in 1998.[2][10] She is the founder and director of the World Expert Consortium for Abortion Research and Education (WECARE),[11] which has been described by a pro-choice educational foundation as an "anti-choice misinformation group".[12]

Coleman's three most cited papers,[13] co-authored with Katherine Hildebrandt Karraker, concern parental self-efficacy and its consequences.[14][15][16] She has also published a series of articles reporting a correlation between induced abortion and mental-health problems, findings which have proven controversial.

In 2011, Coleman published a meta-analysis of 22 studies, half of which were her own, in the British Journal of Psychiatry. In this paper, she claimed to have found that women who had undergone an abortion "experienced an 81% increased risk of mental health problems, and nearly 10% of the incidence of mental health problems was shown to be directly attributable to abortion".[17] The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists noted that Coleman's results conflict with those of four previous literature reviews, all of which found that women who have abortions did not face an increased risk of mental health problems. The College suggested that Coleman's results were due to her failure to control for pre-existing mental-health problems, which tend to be more prevalent in women having abortions.[18] This meta-analysis was also criticized by Julia Steinberg and a number of other researchers, who wrote in 2012 that it contained seven significant errors, as well as three shortcomings of the included studies. Steinberg et al. concluded that these errors and shortcomings "render the meta-analysis’ conclusions invalid."[19]

Reception and reaction

The statistical methods Coleman and her co-authors use have been criticized by the American Psychological Association (APA).[4] An APA panel found that studies by Coleman and her co-authors have "inadequate or inappropriate" controls and don't adequately consider "women's mental health prior to the pregnancy and abortion."[4] Coleman defended her methodology, arguing that it is consistent with recommendations in the Handbook of Research Synthesis and Meta-Analysis.[20]

Coleman and her coauthors have also been criticized by other researchers in the field over the meaning and reproducibility of their data. Psychologist Brenda Major criticized one of Coleman's studies, saying that it did not distinguish correlation and cause; that the direction of causality could be reversed, with psychiatric problems leading to a greater incidence of abortion; and that the study failed to control for factors such as relationship stability and education.[21] Jillian Henderson, a professor of gynecology, and Katharine Miller wrote to the Journal of Anxiety Disorders, saying, "We believe that Cougle, et al., operate with strong political views regarding abortion, and unfortunately their biases appear to have resulted in serious methodological flaws in the analysis published in your journal. [Reardon, Coleman and Cougle] are involved in building a literature to be used in efforts to restrict access to abortion."[22] Nancy Russo, a psychology professor and abortion researcher, examined two of Coleman's articles and found that when the methodological flaws in the studies were corrected, the supposed correlation between abortion and poor mental health disappeared.[3]

Other researchers were unable to reproduce Coleman's analysis of the National Comorbidity Survey, which she had used to support an association between abortion and depression or substance abuse.[23] Coleman and her colleagues, according to one review, failed to control for pre-existing mental health problems and for other risk factors for mental health problems, such as sexual or physical violence.[7] Julia Steinberg, one of the researchers attempting to verify Coleman's findings, said: "We were unable to reproduce the most basic tabulations of Coleman and colleagues... Moreover, their findings were logically inconsistent with other published research—for example, they found higher rates of depression in the last month than other studies found during respondents' entire lifetimes. This suggests that the results were substantially inflated."[8]

Coleman initially responded that her analysis had used different methods and examined long-term psychological problems.[8] Subsequently, she and her coauthors issued a correction to their paper, stating that they had made an error in weighting the study variables. After correcting their error, the association between abortion and some mental-health problems weakened or disappeared, but the authors concluded that "fortunately, the overall pattern of the results has not changed very much".[24] Separately, the journal editor and the principal investigator of the NCS (from which Coleman had drawn her data) opined that, in light of the concerns raised, Coleman et al.'s analysis "does not support their assertions that abortions led to psychopathology."[25] Despite the correction, further concerns about the accuracy of Coleman's analysis were raised;[26] Coleman responded to these criticisms and pointed to other work she had published.[27]

Court witness

In an August 2022 Michigan court case challenging a 1931 abortion ban, Coleman was hired by abortion opponents to provide testimony.[28] The judge in the case, Jacob James Cunningham, stated: "Dr Coleman's testimony is dismissed as not credible, in a practical sense, completely called into question during cross-examination, nor helpful in assisting the court in defeating the plaintiff's request for a preliminary injunction. The court affords testimony no weight," and also stated: "Specifically, testimony established that 22 studies were aggregated in the metadata study. Of those 22, 11 were authored by the witness and only 14 data sets were used. Presumably, the testimony revealed 11 of them created by the witness herself."[28]

References
  1. Weber, Lauren; McGinley, Laurie; Ovalle, David & Sellars, Frances Stead (April 13, 2023). "Unpacking the flawed science cited in the Texas abortion pill ruling". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
  2. "Priscilla Coleman, Ph.D (2002)". BGSU. Bowling Green, OH. Archived from the original on June 3, 2010. Retrieved July 22, 2023.
  3. Bazelon, Emily (January 21, 2007). "Is there a Post-Abortion Syndrome?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 23, 2011.
  4. "NOW with David Brancaccio". PBS. HINOJOSA: In emails, two prominent independent scientists, on a panel that is reviewing the scientific literature for the American Psychological Association told us the studies have 'inadequate or inappropriate' controls and don't adequately control 'for women's mental health prior to the pregnancy and abortion.'
  5. "Study Purporting to Show Link Between Abortion and Mental Health Outcomes Decisively Debunked - Journal's Editor Agrees that Priscilla Coleman's Conclusions Are Not Supported By Her Analyses". Guttmacher Institute. March 5, 2012. A study purporting to show a causal link between abortion and subsequent mental health problems has fundamental analytical errors that render its conclusions invalid, according to researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the Guttmacher Institute. This conclusion has been confirmed by the editor of the journal in which the study appeared. Most egregiously, the study, by Priscilla Coleman and colleagues, did not distinguish between mental health outcomes that occurred before abortions and those that occurred afterward, but still claimed to show a causal link between abortion and mental disorders.
  6. Frontiers Editorial Office (2022). "Retraction: The turnaway study: A case of self-correction in science upended by political motivation and unvetted findings". Frontiers in Psychology. 13. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1130026. ISSN 1664-1078. PMC 9831048. PMID 36636664.
  7. Steinberg, Julia R. & Finer, Lawrence B. (2011). "Examining the association of abortion history and current mental health: A reanalysis of the National Comorbidity Survey using a common-risk-factors model". Social Science & Medicine. 72 (1): 72–82. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.10.006. PMID 21122964.
  8. Stein, Rob (December 13, 2010). "Study disputes link between abortion and mental health problems". Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 15, 2010.
  9. "Mental Health and Abortion". American Psychological Association. August 2008. Retrieved February 3, 2011.
  10. CV Archived October 2, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  11. "Priscilla K. Coleman, Ph.D., Director". WECARE. Archived from the original on July 22, 2023. Retrieved July 22, 2023.
  12. "Independent Medical Experts". NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation. Archived from the original on June 3, 2023. Retrieved July 22, 2023.
  13. "Priscilla K. Coleman". Google Scholar. Retrieved July 28, 2023.
  14. Coleman, Priscilla K. & Karraker, Katherine H. (1998). "Self-Efficacy and Parenting Quality: Findings and Future Applications". Developmental Review. Academic Press. 18 (1): 47–85. doi:10.1006/drev.1997.0448. ISSN 0273-2297.
  15. Coleman, Priscilla K. & Karraker, Katherine Hildebrandt (2000). "Parenting Self-Efficacy Among Mothers of School-Age Children: Conceptualization, Measurement, and Correlates". Family Relations. National Council on Family Relations. 49 (1): 13–24. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3729.2000.00013.x. ISSN 0197-6664. JSTOR 585698.
  16. Coleman, Priscilla K. & Karraker, Katherine Hildebrandt (2003). "Maternal self‐efficacy beliefs, competence in parenting, and toddlers' behavior and developmental status". Infant Mental Health Journal. Wiley. 24 (2): 126–148. doi:10.1002/imhj.10048. ISSN 1097-0355.
  17. Coleman, Priscilla K. (2011). "Abortion and mental health: quantitative synthesis and analysis of research published 1995–2009". The British Journal of Psychiatry. 199 (3): 180–186. doi:10.1192/bjp.bp.110.077230. PMID 21881096.
  18. "RCOG statement on BJPsych paper on mental health risks and abortion". Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. September 1, 2011. Archived from the original on November 17, 2011. Retrieved September 5, 2011.
  19. Steinberg, Julia R.; Trussell, James; Hall, Kelli & Guthrie, Kate (2012). "Fatal flaws in a recent meta-analysis on abortion and mental health". Contraception. 86 (5): 430–437. doi:10.1016/j.contraception.2012.03.012. PMC 3646711. PMID 22579105.
  20. Priscilla K. Coleman. "Re: Abortion and Mental Health". BJP.
  21. Laidman, Jenni (January 22, 2004). "After decades of research, evaluating abortion's effect still difficult". Toledo Blade. Archived from the original on January 10, 2006.
  22. Coyne, James C. (November 15, 2011). "More on Review Claiming Abortion Hurts Women's Mental Health". Psychology Today. New York: Sussex Publishers.
  23. Coleman, Priscilla K.; Coyle, Catherine T.; Shuping, Martha & Rue, Vincent M. (2009). "Induced abortion and anxiety, mood, and substance abuse disorders: isolating the effects of abortion in the national comorbidity survey". Journal of Psychiatric Research. 43 (8): 770–6. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2008.10.009. PMID 19046750.
  24. Coleman, Priscilla K.; Coyle, Catherine T.; Shuping, Martha & Rue, Vincent M. (2011). "Corrigendum to "Induced abortion and anxiety, mood, and substance abuse disorders: Isolating the effects of abortion in the national comorbidity survey" [Journal of Psychiatric Research 2009;43:770–776]". Journal of Psychiatric Research. 45 (8): 1133–1134. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2011.06.010.
  25. Kessler, Ronald C. & Schatzberg, Alan F. (2012). "Commentary on Abortion Studies of Steinberg and Finer (Social Science & Medicine 2011; 72:72–82) and Coleman (Journal of Psychiatric Research 2009;43:770–6 & Journal of Psychiatric Research 2011;45:1133–4)". Journal of Psychiatric Research. 46 (3): 410–411. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2012.01.021.
  26. Steinberg, Julia R. & Finer, Lawrence B. (2012). "Coleman, Coyle, Shuping, and Rue make false statements and draw erroneous conclusions in analyses of abortion and mental health using the National Comorbidity Survey". Journal of Psychiatric Research. 46 (3): 407–408. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2012.01.019. PMC 3699180. PMID 22348853.
  27. Coleman, Priscilla K. (2012). "Response to Dr Steinberg and Dr Finer's letter to the Editor". Journal of Psychiatric Research. 46 (3): 408–9. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2012.01.020.
  28. "Oakland County judge rips pro-life witnesses, says both are not credible". FOX 2 Detroit. August 19, 2022. Archived from the original on August 20, 2022. Dr. Coleman – deemed an expert in psychology of abortion, decision-making and mental health outcomes – testified about her research and publications regarding mental health impact to women who have abortions. "On cross-examination, in the court's eyes, Dr. Coleman's credibility was seriously called into question and her statistics and conclusions of her testimony revealed unhelpful and biased information for the court's instant inquiry," Cunningham said. "Notable was Dr. Coleman's indication that although there were 'very few' psychological studies and instances of rape or incest, resulting in birth, she nevertheless concluded - stunningly - that only 20% of those mothers harbor resentment towards that child." Cunningham said she alluded to bias and pro-choice interest groups and provided analysis of her own data. "Specifically, testimony established that 22 studies were aggregated in the metadata study. Of those 22, 11 were authored by the witness and only 14 data sets were used. Presumably, the testimony revealed 11 of them created by the witness herself," he said. When the plaintiff got a chance to question her data, Cunningham said her research didn't hold up.
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