Audrey N. Beck (Princeton University) Carey E. Cooper (Princeton University) Sara S. McLanahan (Princeton University) Jeanne Brooks-Gunn (Columbia University)
Abstract
Recent scholarship has begun to investigate the consequences of instability in the family over a period of time, as compared to examining family status at a particular point in time (Fomby & Cherlin, 2007; Osborne & McLanahan, 2007; Wu & Martinson, 1993; Wu & Thomson, 2001). This body of research has primarily focused on the implications of instability for children’s wellbeing, and has largely neglected how instability may shape children’s home environments, especially early parenting behaviors. The lack of research in this area is problematic because parenting has been found to be a key predictor of children’s ability to successfully transition into school (Brooks-Gunn & Markman, 2005; Hill, 2001). Additionally, while extensive attention has been given to divorce as a source of instability, we know much less about the consequences and nature of instability in nonmarital relationships. In fact, much of the existing literature does not consider cohabiting or noncoresidential relationships as a source of instability. These relationships are especially important not only because they have increased dramatically during recent decades but also because they are more common among disadvantaged families that are already at risk for poor child outcomes. In this paper we address three questions: 1) Are family structure transitions during a child’s first five years associated with parenting at age 5? 2) Does the type and timing of transitions matter? And 3) do the associations between transitions and parenting quality vary by family structure, or maternal education?
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing. in its series Working Papers with number
1082.