https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.2307/3343529.pdf

Making Ends Meet: How Single Mothers Survive Welfare and Low-Wage Work

We review research on families and health published between 2000 and 2009 and highlight key themes and findings from innovative, methodologically rigorous studies. Whereas research in prior decades focused primarily on whether family structure affects child and adult health, contemporary research examines the contextual and processual factors that shape for whom, for which outcomes, and under what conditions families affect mental and physical health. We discuss how family structure, transitions, and processes within families of origin affect children's health over the life course. We then examine the effects of marital status, transitions, and quality for adult health. We point out limitations in current research, discuss implications of recent findings for policy, and highlight theoretical and methodological directions for future research.

Advances in Families and Health Research in the 21st Century

This article reviews areas of advancement over the past decade in our understanding of remarriage and stepfamilies and suggests promising new directions for future work. Profound shifts in the demographic context of family life motivate central themes in recent scholarship on remarriage and stepfamilies, including the diversity and complexity of stepfamily structures and processes, the consequences of multiple partnerships for adults and children, and potential selectivity in the characteristics of individuals entering remarried families and stepfamilies. Despite challenges to further progress, I argue that remarriage and stepfamilies offer strategic opportunities to investigate many core concerns of family scholars.

Remarriage and stepfamilies: Strategic sites for family scholarship in the 21st century.

https://www.bgsu.edu/content/dam/BGSU/college-of-arts-and-sciences/center-for-family-and-demographic-research/documents/working-papers/2006/CFDR-Working-Paper-2006-08-Race-Ethnic-Differences-in-Marital-Quality-and-Divorce.pdf

Race-ethnic differences in marital quality and divorce

Beyond Adolescence: Problem Behavior and Young Adult Development

This study explores how cohabitation differs for older and younger adults, drawing on data from 966 cohabitors in each of the first 2 waves of the National Survey of Families and Households. Older cohabitors report significantly higher levels of relationship quality and stability than younger cohabitors, although they are less likely to have plans to marry their partners. Few differences were found in the reasons to cohabit, although assessing compatibility is a more important reason for younger cohabitors. Findings suggest that older cohabitors are more likely to view their relationship as an alternative to marriage, whereas younger cohabitors are more likely to view their relationship as a prelude to it.

A comparison of cohabiting relationships among older and younger adults

We examined the long-term direct and indirect links between coparenting (conflict, communication, and shared decision-making) and preschoolers' school readiness (math, literacy, and social skills). The study sample consisted of 5,650 children and their biological mothers and fathers who participated in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort. Using structural equation modeling and controlling for background characteristics, we found that our conceptual model of the pathways from coparenting to child outcomes is structurally the same for cohabiting and married families. Controlling for a host of background characteristics, we found that coparenting conflict and shared decision-making were negatively and positively, respectively, linked to children's academic and social skills and co-parental communication was indirectly linked to academic and social skills through maternal supportiveness. Coparenting conflict was also indirectly linked to children's social skills through maternal depressive symptoms. The overall findings suggest that for both cohabiting and married families, the context of conflicted coparenting may interfere with the development of children's social competencies and academic skills, whereas collaborative coparenting promotes children's school readiness because mothers are more responsive to their children's needs. These findings have implications for programs aimed at promoting positive family processes in cohabiting and married families.

摘要

我们考察了共同养育(冲突、交流和共同决策)与学龄前儿童入学准备(数学、识字和社交技能)之间的长期直接和间接联系。研究样本包括5,650名儿童及其亲生父母。这些父母参与了早期儿童纵向研究——出生队列。通过使用结构等式模拟及控制背景特征,我们发现,从共同养育到儿童发展成果路径的概念模式在结构上与同居和已婚家庭一致。我们在控制众多背景特征后发现,共同养育冲突和共同决策与孩子的学业和社交技能消极和积极关联,而共同养育交流通过母亲的支持间接地与学业和社交技能关联。共同养育冲突也通过母亲的抑郁症状间接地与孩子的社交技能关联。综合发现表明,对于同居和已婚家庭,冲突性共同养育的环境可能干扰孩子的社交能力和学业技能,而协作式共同养育则促进孩子做好入学准备,因为母亲对孩子的需求反应更为灵敏。这些发现对促进同居和已婚家庭的正面家庭运作过程有意义。

Resumen

Analizamos los vinculos directos e indirectos a largo plazo entre la cocrianza (el conflicto, la comunicacion y la toma de decisiones compartida) y la madurez para la escolaridad de los ninos en edad preescolar (matematica, lectoescritura y habilidades sociales). La muestra del estudio consistio en 5650 ninos y sus madres y padres biologicos que participaron en el “Estudio Longitudinal de la Primera Infancia, Cohorte de Nacimiento”. Utilizando modelos de ecuaciones estructurales y controlando las caracteristicas del entorno, descubrimos que nuestro modelo conceptual de las vias que abarcan desde la cocrianza hasta los resultados de los ninos es estructuralmente el mismo tanto para las familias formadas por padres concubinos como para las formadas por padres casados. Mediante la evaluacion de un sinfin de caracteristicas del entorno, descubrimos que el conflicto en la cocrianza y la toma de decisiones compartida estuvieron ligados de manera negativa y positiva, respectivamente, a las habilidades academicas y sociales de los ninos, y que la comunicacion entre el padre y la madre estuvo ligada indirectamente a las habilidades academicas y sociales a traves del apoyo materno. El conflicto en la cocrianza tambien estuvo asociado indirectamente con las habilidades sociales de los ninos mediante sintomas depresivos de la madre. Los resultados generales sugieren que tanto para las familias formadas por padres concubinos como para las formadas por padres casados el contexto de cocrianza conflictiva puede obstaculizar el desarrollo de las competencias sociales y las habilidades academicas de los ninos, mientras que la cocrianza colaboradora fomenta la madurez para la escolaridad porque las madres responden mejor a las necesidades de sus hijos. Estos resultados tienen consecuencias para los programas orientados a promover los procesos familiares positivos en las familias formadas por parejas en concubinato y las formadas por parejas casadas.

Coparenting and children's school readiness: a mediational model.

CONTEXT: Little research links adolescent risk behaviors to reproductive health outcomes beyond adolescence, although young adults—men and women in their early 20s— bear a disproportionate burden of STDs and unintended childbearing.

METHODS: To assess whether individuals who engaged in risk behaviors during adolescence had increased risk of negative reproductive health outcomes in young adulthood, data from Waves 1–4 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health on 5,798 sexually active respondents were analyzed. Logistic and multinomial logistic regressions examined associations between risk behaviors (cumulatively and individually) and each of three outcomes.

RESULTS: Four in 10 youth reported at least three risk factors during adolescence. Women who were exposed to an increasing number of risks had an elevated likelihood of having had multiple sex partners in the last year, rather than none (relative risk ratio, 1.3); having had an STD (odds ratio, 1.1); and having had an intended or unintended birth, as opposed to no birth (relative risk ratio, 1.1 for each). Inconsistent contraceptive use and having had multiple partners, a nonmonogamous partner or a nonromantic partner were associated with reporting multiple partners in the last year; inconsistent use, sexual debut after age 16 and not discussing contraception with a partner were associated with having any birth.

CONCLUSIONS: Teenagers’ sexual behaviors have both short-term and long-term consequences, and interventions that focus on multiple domains of risk may be the most effective in helping to promote broad reproductive health among young adults.

/pdf/risky-adolescent-sexual-behaviors-and-reproductive-health-in-3lahoz68go.pdf

Risky adolescent sexual behaviors and reproductive health in young adulthood.

This study uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to examine combinations of father residence and closeness which have received minimal examination but involve significant numbers of children. Our findings lead to a number of conclusions. First, adolescents who are close to their nonresident fathers report higher self-esteem, less delinquency, and fewer depressive symptoms than adolescents who live with a father with whom they are not close. Second, adolescents living with a father with whom they are not close have better grades, less violence and less substance use than those having a nonresident father who is not close. At the same time, however, not being close to a resident father is associated with lower self-esteem compared to having a nonresident father who is not close. Third, adolescents do best of all when they have close ties to resident fathers. A central conclusion of this study is that it is important to consider the quality of father-child relations among those who have a resident father when assessing the impact of nonresident fathers on their children.

/pdf/father-residence-and-adolescent-problem-behavior-are-youth-41oj8vvy3n.pdf

Father Residence and Adolescent Problem Behavior: Are Youth Always Better Off in Two-Parent Families?:

The claim that multiple partner fertility may pose a risk of adverse outcomes for children has not been tested We test this argument using a sample of 4,027 resident fathers and children from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Survey by examining the pathways through which fathers' multipartnered fertility is associated with children's externalizing behaviors and physical health status at 36 months Path analyses indicate that multiple partner fertility exerted both a significant direct and indirect effect through paternal depression to influence children's externalizing behaviors Fathers' multiple partner fertility also exerted a significant indirect effect through one mediator-father involvement-to influence children's physical health This evidence suggests that the disruptions brought about by multipartnered fertility are important for understanding child well-being Key Words: child/adolescent outcomes, family structure, father-child relations, fatherhood, Fragile Families and Child Well-being (FFCW) well-being Recent trends in marriage and fertility suggest that some individuals may have biological children with more than one partner - a process referred to as "multiple partner fertility" (Furstenberg, 1995; Mincy, 2001) Estimates indicate that as many as 8% of US men aged 15-44 report multiple partner fertility, and this percentage increases with age (Guzzo & Furstenberg, 2007; Logan, Manlove, Ikramullah, & Cottingham, 2006) A growing concern is the well-being of children who are the products of unions characterized by multiple partner fertility (Carlson & Furstenberg, 2006; Harknett & Knab, 2007) Although a larger body of research has examined how family complexities result from divorce, remarriage, and the creation of stepfamilies and how these new families influence child well-being, several key distinctions between multiple partner fertility and stepfamilies exist: Not all stepfamilies share a common child, not all multipartnered fertility couples have married, and men experiencing multiple partner fertility typically have repartnered earlier in the life course (Harknett & Knab) The trend toward family diversity, including multiple partner fertility, has led researchers to question the complexities and varieties of experiences that children in such contexts may face Some researchers posit that changes in family configurations and parenting across multiple households may have a cumulative negative effect on children (Elder, 1974) Regrettably, however, researchers have yet to explore the questions of whether and how parenting with multiple partners is associated with the well-being of young children Some scholars speculate that, in the context of multiple partner fertility, children may be at greater risk of adverse outcomes because of resource constraints in the form of temporal and economic supports for children (Carlson & Furstenberg, 2006; Furstenberg, 1995; Manning & Smock, 2000) and the number of competing demands that parents may have when children live across different households (Meyer, Cancian, & Cook, 2005) The stressors associated with the complex family configurations that result from multiple partner fertility may also influence the quality of parenting provided by either parent as a result of modifications in family dynamics and organization across different households These issues raise a generally important question: How do young children whose parents experience multiple partner fertility fare in terms of their well-being? In this paper, we focus on the influence of fathers' multiple partner fertility on two aspects of young children's well-being in the preschool years: externalizing behaviors and physical health status Our aim is to test the notion, suggested by Carlson and Furstenberg (2006), that young children may be at greater risk of adverse outcomes in the context of multiple partner fertility We consider whether fathers' multiple partner fertility is associated with the social and emotional well-being of children, that is, their externalizing behaviors, and physical health status, and we examine how such effects come about by testing the mechanisms through which such associations may exist …

Mindy E. Scott

Papers

A comparison of cohabiting relationships among older and younger adults

Coparenting and children's school readiness: a mediational model.

Risky adolescent sexual behaviors and reproductive health in young adulthood.

Father Residence and Adolescent Problem Behavior: Are Youth Always Better Off in Two-Parent Families?:

Fathering with Multiple Partners: Links to Children's Well-Being in Early Childhood.