endobj Child development during early and middle childhood is of particular significance. In Panel 3, accounting for family instability yields striking results. Trends in Cohabitation and Implications for Childrens Family Contexts in the United States. The FFCWS provides a unique opportunity for this study, given the public policy concerns about higher rates of family instability, especially among socioeconomically disadvantaged populations, and its implications for child wellbeing (Ventura and Bachrach 2000). McLanahan Sara, Tach Laura, Schneider Daniel. Family instability and child wellbeing. Fam Relatsh Soc. Peters A, Liefbroer AC. For instance, Table 3 indicates that the cognitive (WJT) score differential for children born to unmarried parents is nearly 3 points as opposed to the approximate 5-point differential shown in Table 2. <>stream Cavanagh SE, Huston AC. 1 In practice, this means being consistent in your schedule, routines, and rules; in your discipline patterns; and in how you connect with your child emotionally. 34 0 obj The effects of family instability indicate experiencing multiple transitions from a coresidential union as compared to a stable coresidential union. Effects of Family Structure Transitions on Internalizing Behavior. The literature on family structure instability and child wellbeing has long acknowledged population heterogeneity. The family stability model illustrates that children in stable non-traditional as well as unstable families have more anxious/depressive symptoms relative to children of stably married parents. Research on other populations within and outside of the United States would be recommended. The New American Grandparent: A Place in the Family, A Life Apart. (This latter category is defined as stable since the child is living with both biological parents from birth to age five with only a change in their marital status). <>0]/P 14 0 R/Pg 9 0 R/S/Link>> Brown SL. These findings remain robust even after addressing selection. These variables, all measured at the time of the childs birth include: child gender, parents age, mothers race/ethnicity, whether father is of a different racial-ethnic group, mothers education, and whether father has more, less or the same level of education as the childs mother. Children in the treated group (those who have experienced a family structure change at time t) are given a weight of 1/p, thereby assigning lower weights to children with higher probabilities and higher weights to children with lower probabilities. 16 0 obj ivAlthough in principle, there might be a fourth category, in which a childs mother is coresiding with someone other than the childs biological father, this is rare at the time of birth. 55 0 obj Centre for Research on Child Wellbeing Working Paper 2005-01-FF. Coping with divorce, single parenting, and remarriage. Increasing the minimum wage Stable, fairly compensated work provides a solid foundation for the creation and maintenance of strong and healthy family relationships. While invaluable, research to date has provided only limited insights on population heterogeneity in family instability effects. The withdrawn subscale contains items on being alone rather than with others, uninvolved in social activities, secretive, shy, underactive, and refusing to talk. Living Arrangements and Childrens Development in Low-Income White, Black, and Latino Families. As shown in Table 2, more than 50% of children in our unweighted sample were living in unstable families. endobj Sarkisian Natalia, Gerstel Naomi. Children born to cohabiting parents see their parents break up more often than do children born to married parents. the contents by NLM or the National Institutes of Health. Childrens scores on both tests were standardized in order to adjust for each childs performance in comparison to his/her peers of the same age (in months). Maternal characteristics include age, race/ethnicity (black, Hispanic, white, and other), immigration status (1 if immigrant; 0 if otherwise), educational attainment (less than high school, high school or GED, some college, and college degree or more), age at first birth, cognitive ability (a subtest score of Wechslers [1981] Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised), impulsivity (an abbreviated form of Dickmans [1990] dysfunctional impulsivity scale), and whether she lived with both parents at age 15 (1 if yes; 0 if no). Robust standard errors are in parentheses. In addition, children of single mothers are at a unique disadvantage since only approximately one-third of noncustodial fathers pay any child support (Carlson and Corcoran, 2001; Sorenson, 1997; Freeman and Waldfogel, 2001). The other cognitive, behavioural, and health outcome measures were retrieved from the Five-Year In-Home Longitudinal Study. Family instability by year five is extremely common. Magnuson Katherine, Berger Lawrence M. Family Structure States and Transitions: Associations with Childrens Well-Being during Middle Childhood. An accumulating body of evidence documents the relatively high risk of family separation among families experiencing housing instability and homelessness, the extent of housing problems experienced by families involved in the child welfare system, and the disproportionately high rates . The vehicle . In contrast, our approach examines period-specific instability rather than cumulative instability. The past literature has not distinguished between at-birth and contemporaneous family structures partly because they are highly correlated (Osborne, Manning and Smock, 2007; Raley and Wildsmith, 2004). The coefficients of these covariates are not shown to conserve space. FOIA The family stability model, now accounting for selection bias, also yields different findings. Although the relative effects of different types of family structure transitions and the direction of effects are theoretically ambiguous, several studies find that different types of family structure transitions have differential impacts on child wellbeing. and stability of a child's human relationships . whether the parent(s) with whom a child lives changed over time. The Future of Children 33 Family Stability and Healthy Child Development Child development can be understood as the physical, cognitive, social, and emotional maturation of human beings from conception to adulthood, a process that is inuenced by interacting biological and environmental processes. Cooper CE, McLanahan SS, Meadows SO, Brooks-Gunn J. Aughinbaugh Alison, Pierret Charles R, Rothstein Donna S. The Impact of Family Structure Transitions on Youth Achievement: Evidence from the Children of the NLSY79. This measure has six categories: (1) stable coresidential union; (2) moving out of a coresidential union into a single-mother family (one transition); (3) multiple transitions from a coresidential union; (4) stable single-mother family; (5) moving out of a single-mother family into a coresidential union (one transition); and (6) multiple transitions from a single-mother family. <>1]/P 6 0 R/Pg 9 0 R/S/Link>> 5We do not use scores on the cognitive achievement test conducted in Spanish because of their incompatibility with those in English. According to the FEM estimates, multiple transitions out of a married-parent family increase childrens externalizing and internalizing behaviors by .233 SDs (p < .01) and .189 SDs (p < .05), respectively. As a result, racial/ethnic minority groups have likely developed larger kinship networks for coping with family instability (Cherlin and Furstenberg 1986; McLoyd et al. Baseline interviews were conducted shortly after the birth, with mothers interviewed in the hospital and fathers interviewed either in the hospital or by phone as soon as they could be located. 1998).7 Domestic violence (1 if yes; 0 if no) is based on mothers reports of any exposure to physical and emotional violence and coercive control by their spouse or partner. Effects of Family Structure Transitions on Cognitive Achievement. These findings suggest that future research should pay more attention to the type of family structure transition and to population heterogeneity. As far as we know, our study is the first to use marginal structural models to examine the effects of family structure transitions on child outcomes. The stable family structure categories include: stable marriage, stable cohabitation, stable single-parent, and stable transition from cohabitation with the biological father to marriage with the biological father. Stability and Change in Family Structure and Maternal Health Trajectories. Future research undertaken by Child Trends will continue to advance the field's understanding of present-day Black families' cultural assets by examining how they are transmitted, their relative significance for Black family stability and well-being, and factors that impact their presence among families that differ in multiple ways . Two percent of children live with their grandparents without a parent present, and 1% live with other relatives without a parent [ 1 ]. Julius B. Richmond FAMRI Professor of Child Health and . Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States. Each item consists of a three-point Likert scale on which mothers reported whether their childrens behavior is not true (0), sometimes or somewhat true (1), or often or very true (2).. To examine diversity in family instability, we conducted additional analyses using more fine-grained measures of family structure transitions. In: Dechter R, Geffner H, Halpern JY, editors. Heckman James. 14The analysis excludes other racial/ethnic groups due to their small sample size. The site is secure. Results (available on request) indicate that although MSM estimates are sensitive to bias in some cases, unobserved heterogeneity does not substantively alter the main findings reported here. These results (panel A) show that experiencing one family structure transition leads to more internalizing behavior, even in the presence of various forms of selection bias (REM: about .06 SDs, p < .01; FEM: .061 SDs, p < .01; MSM: .049 SDs, p < .05). National Center for Health Statistics Data Brief 18. von Hippel Paul T. Regression with Missing Ys: An Improved Strategy for Analyzing Multiply Imputed Data. 3Mother-child pairs that were lost to follow-up include those who permanently dropped out of the survey and those who left the survey but rejoined later. 9The FEM can be inefficient if within-child variation is limited. HHS Vulnerability Disclosure, Help However, compared to children in stable single-mother families, children who experience any transitions do not significantly differ. Note: All models include survey year, its square term, childs age, and its square term. A study carried out by the U.S. Census Bureau, published in 2021, found that women without children had the highest net worth out of peers of both genders with or without children. The FFCWS collects detailed information on both the number and the type of family structure transitions from a childs birth to age 9. Weighted means indicate that about 60% of parents were married at the time of the focal childs birth. Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing. AppendPDF Pro 6.3 Linux 64 bit Aug 30 2019 Library 15.0.4 Beyond marital status: Partner history and well-being in old age. For children to achieve their full potential, as is their human right, they need health care and nutrition, protection from harm and a sense of security, opportunities for early learning . Americas Families and Living Arrangements: 2006. Similarly, while the transition out of a two-parent family into a single-mother family is expected to be detrimental for children by reducing parental resources, children may benefit from such a move if the parental relationship involved high levels of conflict and if the mother has access to social support from her extended family. However, when we account for both selection and contemporaneous family structure at age five, the at-birth marriage premium dissipates for half the child outcomes. The effects of time-varying changes in family structure, therefore, cannot be viewed in isolation but must be considered in the context of other time-varying factors. Stable marriage yields lower obesity relative to single-parent families, and lower probability of asthmatic episodes relative to step-parent families. We find that while family structure has persistent links to child outcomes, the effects are significantly altered by stability of the family structure over time. These findings raise the question, as to which of these family processes are really at work: family structure at the time of birth, the current family structure in which the child resides, or cumulative changes in family structure over time. Generally speaking, transitions out of a two-parent family are more negative for childrens development than transitions into a two-parent family. As our study examines changes in family structure throughout the childs life course, only those mothers interviewed in all waves will be included in the analysis (N = 3,676). Levels of internalizing behavior are significantly higher for children who experience only one family transition. Entwisle Doris R, Alexander Karl L, Olson Linda S. Fomby Paula, Cherlin Andrew J. Cherlin AJ. Manual for the Child Behaviour Checklist /4-18 and 1991 Profile. Researchers studying family structure have found that children who live with two married, opposite-sex, biological parents, on average, have better educational outcomes than children living in alternate family structures, perhaps due to higher resources, lower stressors, or different selectivity patterns. August 31, 2009 Family stability may be more crucial than two parents for child success by Jeff Grabmeier The advantage that children get from living in two-parent families may actually be. Children in foster care, as a result of exposure Table 7 reports results for gender differences. Changing Patterns of Nonmarital Childbearing in the United States. A mothers current employment status, in turn, may affect subsequent family structure transitions, insofar as working may affect her likelihood of finding a new partner by increasing her exposure to men with more favorable labor market characteristics. So how large are these effects? The FFCWS also provide detailed information on the relationship patterns, family structures, transitions, and characteristics of the focal childs parents. Because a small number of observations with extreme weights (outliers) may distort the estimation process (Hernn, Brumback, and Robins 2002), we compute stabilized IPT weights to increase efficiency: is the product operator; the denominator is the probability that child i received the actual treatment of family instability at time t, conditional on prior family instability history, and time-constant and time-varying covariates at time t 1; and the numerator is the probability that child i received the actual treatment of family instability at time t, conditional on prior family instability history, and time-constant covariates.11 We compute IPT weights by fitting a series of pooled logit regression models in which we contrast each treatment of family structure transitions with the corresponding comparison groups.12 For example, children experiencing two or more transitions are contrasted with those experiencing no transition. Our study adopts a rigorous approach to addressing bias due to the presence of both unmeasured time-constant covariates and measured time-varying covariates. More research using larger panel data is needed to substantiate the findings of this study. We define three models: one that measures family structure at birth only, a second that measures current family structure at year five conditional on family structure at birth, and a third that measures changes in family structure from birth to age five. Once again, there is some evidence that multiple transitions from a single-mother family reduce internalizing behavior among girls, although this effect is much smaller and insignificant in the FEM. Sara McLanahan is the William S. Tod Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University. However, is this disadvantage persistent or is the current family structure responsible? Thus, confirming our third hypothesis, it is marital stability that largely accounts for the observed marriage premiums given that instability from divorce, remarriage, and even marriage after the childs birth yield worse outcomes relative to stable marriages. Here, the REM estimates indicate that family instabilityboth moving out of a coresidential union and experiencing multiple family transitionssignificantly reduces childrens PPVT scores (column 2: .068 SDs, p < .01 and .102 SDs, p < .01, respectively). REM and MSM also control for observed time-constant covariates. Unmarried cohabiting parents have lower incomes, and less education than married parents (Carlson and Corcoran, 2001; Hanson, McLanahan and Thomson, 1997; McLahanan and Sandefur, 1994; Brown, 2004), and cohabiting mothers usually have higher levels of depression relative to married mothers (Brown, 2000, 2002, 2004; Demo and Acock, 1996; Friedlander, Weiss and Traylor, 1986; Waldfogel, Craigie, and Brooks-Gunn, 2010). The characteristics of children associated with higher scores are: being a girl, and being the fathers firstborn child. Bzostek Sharon, Beck Audrey. 2011; Wu and Thomson 2001). endobj So, from the start, stability and security provide an anchor for human growth and development. For the most part, if a mother is not married to or cohabiting with the childs biological father at birth, she is not married to or cohabiting with anyone else at that time. Since then numerous other researchers have documented an association between family structure change and declines in childrens wellbeing, including declines in cognitive development (Magnuson and Berger 2009), increases in behavioral problems (Cavanagh and Huston 2006; Fomby and Cherlin 2007; Osborne and McLanahan 2007), and declines in physical health (Bzostek and Beck 2011). <> Whos in the House? endobj From Neurons to Neighborhood: The Science of Early Childhood Development. %PDF-1.7 % endobj Friedlander S, Weiss DS, Traylor J. Assessing the influence of maternal depression on the validity of the child behaviour checklist. In contrast to family structure at birth, there are five current family structure types: biological parents are married to each other, biological parents are cohabiting with each other (but not married), the childs biological mother is single, the childs biological mother is cohabiting with a new partner, and the childs biological mother is married to a new partner. As a result, the estimated effect of family structure and stability may well be driven by these unobserved characteristics and will be biased. Parental Divorce and the Well-Being of Children: A Meta-Analysis. The fact that the FEM estimate is twice as large as the REM estimates suggests that unobserved time-constant characteristics associated with a move in may be masking the benefits of this type of transition. No change is more striking than the increase in the share of children who are born to unmarried parents. Physical Health Research continues to link lower SES to a variety of negative health outcomes at birth and throughout the lifespan. In a supplemental analysis (not shown), we found that among children experiencing two or more transitions, the majority experience only two (86 percent between birth and age 3, 92 percent between ages 3 and 5, and 75 percent between ages 5 and 9). <. A critical question is whether all changes in family structure are equally important or whether certain types of changes are more important than others. As discussed earlier, prior studies suggest that family instability has more deleterious consequences for boys than for girls, especially for behavior problems (Cavanagh et al. Inequality due to family structure is increasing as family life fractures. This effect is sensitive to selection bias, however, due to unobserved time-constant confounding as indicated by the FEM. Table 4 reports results for childrens externalizing behavior. We consider our approach and longitudinal latent class modeling approaches as complementary to one another in enhancing our understanding of family instability effects. Using detailed migration histories, this study identifies the left-behind trajectories of rural Chinese children throughout childhood (age 1-12) and examines the impact on psychological well-being (N = 3,961). We exclude mothers who were lost to follow-up (n = 1,791), who lived less than half time with their focal child (n = 102), and who did not report their complete family structure history (n = 53).3 For missing observations on covariates due to item-nonresponse, we use a multiple imputation (MI) procedure (Allison 2002). If children in racial/ethnic minority families are more likely than white children to rely on extended kinship networks, they may be better equipped to absorb the impacts of changes in the nuclear family structure. Our analysis is based on 2,952 mother-child pairs. McLoyd Vonnie C, Cauce Ana Mari, Takeuchi David, Wilson Leon. A stable family provides a nurturing relationship between parent and child, which is essential for a child to continue movement along positive pathways in development. According to this view, family disruptions are often accompanied by changes in the roles and routines of parents and children alike, which in turn are associated with fluctuating parental resources, deteriorating parenting quality, and emotional insecurity (Coleman, Ganong, and Fine 2000; George 1993). Any costs arising from moving out of a two-parent family may be attenuated for racial/ethnic minority children insofar as they are already dealing with multiple stressors engendered by higher levels of socioeconomic disadvantages. The model uses an inverse probability of treatment (IPT) weighting estimator by which children who experience family instability and those who do not are sequentially balanced on measured covariates (Robins 1999; Robins, Brumback, and Hernn 2000). We also find some evidence that family structure transitions may reduce the internalizing behavior of girls, which is inconsistent with prior research. Adults numbered 314,000, equally distributed between men and women with 332,000 children. = 14.99) respectively. 2008; Cooper et al. Fomby Paula, Mollborn Stefanie, Sennott Christie A. Race/Ethnic Differences in Effects of Family Instability on Adolescents Risk Behavior. By defining family structure and stability models separately, we were also able to uncover more nuanced findings. 2012 Mar 1; 1(1): 4361. Partnership Transitions and Maternal Parenting. Brown SL.
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