(Adds Commissioner's reaction)
Joan B. Kelly, the co-author of a study cited by Commissioner for Children Helen D'Amato, has rejected the anti-divorce interpretation given to her study, the Humanist Association said.
The association said that it contacted Ms Kelly who said: "They have misunderstood the research. The comparisons have been made between groups of children whose parents remain married, and those children whose parents have divorced.
"There is no reason to expect that the psycho-social outcomes for children whose parents divorce, get an annulment, or legally separate would be any different.
"Divorce and legal separation are the same, from the perspective of the children."
Ms Kelly said:
"I don't like my articles (or interpretations of the research of hundreds of researchers) to be misinterpreted or misrepresented".
The Kelly & Emery article presents research on protective factors for children following separation and/or divorce.
The association said it was concerned voters were being misled by the implication that divorce caused negative consequences different to those caused by annulment or separation.
In cases where divorce follows separation, as was being proposed by the referendum, the problems caused by a failed marriage would have happened at least four years before.
Divorce would only be a formality that formally recognised the ending of the former marriage, allowing the couple to move on with their lives, and possibly to marry the person with whom they would have built a new, healthy relationship.
It did not create marriages that "expired", but favoured marriages based on love and respect.
COMMISSIONER'S REACTION
In a reaction, the Commissioner's Office pointed out that every time the Commissioner voiced her opinion on the effects on children, she always stressed that children did not separate, get an annulment or divorce but carried the psycho social outcomes of such situations.
Such a statement was also repeated at least twice during the said press conference.
When mentioning comparisons about risks, the Commissioner had mentioned both groups of children - children whose parents remained married and those whose parents had divorced.
When she was specifically asked by one of the journalists present, whether she attributed such consequences only to divorce, her reply was no, but that she attributed such consequences also to separations and annulments.