iTable 1 presents weighted means and standard deviations that are nationally representative of families living in large U.S. cities. Family stability is an overarching theme when thinking about family factors affecting child behavior. Robins James M. Association, Causation, and Marginal Structural Models. Inclusion in an NLM database does not imply endorsement of, or agreement with, To deal with this problem in a parsimonious way, the family structure and family stability multivariate regression models all account for a rich set of parental and family background characteristics that serve as proxy variables for these unobserved parental attributes. 1 0 obj 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. This is an important distinction for two main reasons: (1) Marriage at birth potentially provides children with an initial boost to their development regardless of their later family settings. Manning WD, Lichter DT. Children moving out of a two-parent family are contrasted with those living in a stable two-parent family. Nonrandom attrition, in turn, may yield biased results. and transmitted securely. The MSM yields similar estimates. Table 4 reports results for childrens externalizing behavior. What also becomes clear is that relative to stable marriage, single-parenthood (regardless of stability) is associated with higher levels of child aggressive behaviours and obesity; living with a social father is associated with increased likelihood of asthmatic episodes. Teachman J. Childhood living arrangements and the formation of coresidential unions. sharing sensitive information, make sure youre on a federal An unexpected finding is that multiple family transitions from a single-mother family appear to lower externalizing behavior among girls. For children with physical disabilities, disability severity has been found to significantly impair a child's development (Shonkoff et al., Citation 1992).Yude and Goodman (Citation 1999) reported that children with physical disabilities were more likely to be rejected, isolated, and victimised by other children without disabilities, even when the physical disabilities were mild. Marital Processes and Parental Socialization in Families of Color: A Decade Review of Research. The legal age of marriage is 18 in Jordan but judges could allow 15-year-old girls to marry in exceptional cases until April 2019 when this age increased to 16. How Family Stability Affects Children Ventura Stephanie J, Bachrach Christine A. Ventura Stephanie J. Relative to stable married families, unstable families and stable non-traditional families are both linked to lower cognitive scores and more behavioural problems. Generally speaking, previous research suggests that family instability effects are weaker (less negative) for racial/ethnic minority groups than they are for whites, and stronger (more negative) for boys than they are for girls (Cooper et al. Children of stably married parents appear to have at least some advantage in their cognitive, behavioural, and health development relative to children raised in other stable and unstable family structures. Using data from the FFCWS, we extend prior research in several important ways. Wu Lawrence L, Thomson Elizabeth. Future work would therefore do well to replicate our analyses with other samples as well as to explore mediating effects. Even the development of a child's brain architecture depends on the establishment of these rela- Brown SL. Second, studies have yet to incorporate the number and the type of family transitions in assessing population heterogeneity in the effects of family instability on child development. Reinvestigating Remarriage: Another Decade of Progress. Osborne Cynthia A, Manning Wendy D, Smock Pamela J. metropolitan areas. Nonetheless, accounting for selection bias in this way tempers the marriage premium considerably. Our inspection (available on request) indicates that the MSMs are well-behaved, as the weight distribution is centered around values close to 1, has small variance, and is only slightly skewed to the right. Race/ethnicity is also significantly linked to early child health. How Family Stability Affects Children - Texas Medical Center The Causal Effects of Father Absence. Our analytic models include a rich array of covariates that have been shown to influence both family instability and child developmental outcomes, alongside a host of covariates that are typically treated as unobservable in prior research. The children of cohabiting families are shown to have worse outcomes relative to children of married parents (Brown, 2004; Manning and Brown, 2006; Manning and Lichter, 1996; Schmeer, 2011; Waldfogel, Craigie and Brooks-Gunn, 2010). Magnuson K, Berger LM. Family Structure, Family Stability, and Outcomes of Five-Year-Old Children The FEM estimates indicate that multiple transitions out of a two-biological-parent family increase childrens externalizing and internalizing behaviors by .179 SDs (p < .001) and .129 SDs (p < .05), respectively. Response rates for the baseline survey were 82 percent for married mothers, 87 percent for unmarried mothers, 89 percent for married fathers, and 75 percent for unmarried fathers.2 Follow-up surveys were conducted when the focal child was 1, 3, 5, and 9 years of age. Nonetheless, these findings only describe the uncontrolled correlation between family type and child wellbeing other child and family attributes may be driving this relationship. 1This model also creates collider stratification bias (Pearl 2009). Family structure and child health outcomes in fragile families. We address the issue of sample attrition by incorporating censoring weights in our marginal structural models. 2020-12-21T11:33:33-08:00 Even in instances where unmeasured covariates are not seen as a problem, researchers who want to estimate the causal effect of family instability on child wellbeing may face a dilemma with respect to how to treat measured covariates that change over time and are related to both family instability and child wellbeing. Thus, it is important to examine the links between family instability and early to middle childhood development. All supplemental analyses discussed here are available from the first author on request. Family Structure Transitions and Child Development: Instability The .gov means its official. Mothers re-partnerships are potentially linked to residential instability (Amato, 2000; Cavanagh and Huston, 2006; Kelly and Emery, 2003; Osborne and McLanahan, 2007; Magnuson and Berger, 2009; Waldfogel, Craigie, and Brooks-Gunn, 2010); this may explain the frequency in child asthmatic episodes in families where mothers have re-partnered. Osborne Cynthia A, Berger Lawrence M, Magnuson Katherine A. Weighted means indicate that about 60% of parents were married at the time of the focal childs birth. Effects of Family Structure Transitions on Externalizing Behavior. Ermisch JF, Francesconi M. Family structure and childrens achievements. Family structure transitions are typically characterized as the presence or absence of (or a change in) a male role model, which may be more consequential for boys identity formation than for girls (Allison and Furstenberg 1989). Children born to cohabiting parents see their parents break up more often than do children born to married parents. Family structure and childrens behavioural and cognitive outcomes. 55 0 obj Table 3 indicates that conditional on the current family structure in which children reside, being born to unwed parents has potentially enduring effects on child anxious/depressive symptoms and obesity. Mitzi Dean, Minister of Children and Family Development, has issued the following statement in response to the representative for children and youth's investigation announcement on Monday, June 26, 2023: "I am heartbroken at what these children endured and I extend our deepest apologies and condolences to the family, friends and communities . Cherlin AJ. w. thomas boyce, m.D. Julius B. Richmond FAMRI Professor of Child Health and . This approach likely understates the effect of family instability on child outcomes, because some children in the reference group will have experienced instability in an earlier period. Early childhood offers a critical window of opportunity to shape the trajectory of a child's holistic development and build a foundation for their future. So, from the start, stability and security provide an anchor for human growth and development. The effect of family instability is stronger for childrens socioemotional development than for their cognitive achievement. iiiMissing observations in the independent variables are imputed using the multiple imputations method. Dickman Scott J. Functional and Dysfunctional Impulsivity: Personality and Cognitive Correlates. First things first: Family activities and routines - ScienceDirect Hanson T, McLanahan S, Thomson E. Economic resources, parental practices and childrens well-being In: Duncan GJ, Brooks-Gunn J, editors. Our findings that family stability and family structure play an important role for child wellbeing are not only relevant for the U.S., but also for other countries where there is an increasing share of children being raised in nonmarital and unstable families. Child Development and Family Center Employment and Volunteer Magnuson Katherine, Berger Lawrence M. Family Structure States and Transitions: Associations with Childrens Well-Being during Middle Childhood. All the models in panel A indicate that family instability increases childrens externalizing behavior. Conversely, being born to cohabiting parents or single parents may yield relative disadvantages to children. 36 0 obj Our reference group in each period is thus families that are stable during a specific period, rather than families that have been stable since the focal childs birth. Obesity (n = 2030) in children is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) at or above the 95th percentile for their age-group (as provided by the Five-Year In-Home activity assessment); in the unweighted sample, 17% of children were obese at age five. 6Because union status at a point in time is correlated with the number of family transitions, we treat union status as a time-varying covariate in models that estimate the effects of the number of family transitions. Our results indicate that family instability has a causal effect on children's development, but the effect depends on the type of change, the outcome assessed, and the population examined. Our study has several limitations. We consider our approach and longitudinal latent class modeling approaches as complementary to one another in enhancing our understanding of family instability effects. 2013). Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R (Std.)) To examine diversity in family instability, we conducted additional analyses using more fine-grained measures of family structure transitions. Comparisons by types of family structure transitions indicate that these differences are more common among children born into two-parent families than among children born into single-mother families. Panel B of Table 3 shows that being born to married parents is associated with less aggressive behaviour, anxious/depressive symptoms, and obesity in five-year-old children. Heard Holly E. The Family Structure Trajectory and Adolescent School Performance: Differential Effects by Race and Ethnicity. Our analysis is based on 2,952 mother-child pairs. 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. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. First, we examine the number and the type of family structure transitions to determine whether it is the quantity or the type of transition that matters most for childrens development. In addition, our approach is designed to estimate the effects of repeated treatments on repeated outcomes. Cognitive, Socio-emotional and Health Outcomes Means by Family Structure and Family Stability, PPVT-R (Std.) This study uses three panel models to estimate the effects of family instabilitythe number and the type of family structure transitionson each of the child developmental outcomes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Heuristics, Probability and Causality: A Tribute to Judea Pearl. Based on mothers reports at baseline and ages 3 and 5, we measure poverty status (poverty, near poverty, or no poverty), union status (married to biological father, married to social father, cohabiting with biological father, cohabiting with social father, or single),6 employment status (not employed, part-time, or full-time), living with a parent (childs grandparent) (1 if yes; 0 if no), number of children, depression status, domestic violence, religious attendance (from never to every day), alcohol/drug problems (1 if any; 0 if otherwise), and physical health status (poor, fair, good, very good, or excellent). Durable Effects of Concentrated Disadvantage on Verbal Ability among African-American Children. Therefore, these findings suggest that family structure at birth is strongly linked to the outcomes of children, even up to five years old. Cole Stephen R, Hernn Miguel A. Constructing Inverse Probability of Treatment Weights for Marginal Structural Models. This measure is one of the most common approaches to gauging family instability. But two-parent families are a diverse group who differ by paternal relationship with children (biological or social father) and marital status (marriage or cohabitation). For children living in a single-mother family, we do not find consistent patterns using the disaggregated measures. Ruhm C. Parental employment and child cognitive development. More recent research, however, suggests that the type of transition may be more important than the number of transitions (Magnuson and Berger 2009; Meadows, McLanahan, and Brooks-Gunn 2008; Osborne et al. Our measure of a coresidential union does not distinguish between biological and social fathers; nor does it distinguish between married and cohabiting parents. 17 0 obj In contrast to child anxiety/depression, the instability hypothesis in general does not hold, except for children of divorce. The Woodcock Johnson Letter-Word Identification Test (WJT) measures word recognition and pronunciation abilities of children (Woodcock and Johnson, 1990). 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). Using stratified random sampling, the FFCWS randomly samples cities, then hospitals within each city and then births within each hospital. Effects of Family Structure Transitions on Child Developmental Outcomes, by Race/Ethnicity.
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