Partnership Instability and Child Well-Being

We use data from three waves of the Fragile Families Study (N = 2,111) to examine the prevalence and effects of mothers' partnership changes between birth and age 3 on children's behavior. We find that children born to unmarried and minority parents experience significantly more partnershi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of marriage and family 2007-11, Vol.69 (4), p.1065-1083
Main Authors: Osborne, Cynthia, McLanahan, Sara
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescents
Behavior Problems
Child Behavior
Child care
Child development
Child Health
Child psychology
Child rearing
Child welfare
child well-being
Childbirth
Childhood
Children
Cohabitation
Collaboration
Correlation
Data analysis
Developmental psychology
Families & family life
Family
family instability
Family Structure
Family studies
Fragile Families
Incidence
Interpersonal Relationship
Marital Instability
Marital separation
Minority Groups
Mothering
Mothers
nonmarital births
Of General Interest
One Parent Family
Parenting Styles
Parents
Single status
Stability
Stress Variables
Well Being
Wellbeing
Whites
Young Children
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Summary:We use data from three waves of the Fragile Families Study (N = 2,111) to examine the prevalence and effects of mothers' partnership changes between birth and age 3 on children's behavior. We find that children born to unmarried and minority parents experience significantly more partnership changes than children born to parents who are married or White. Each transition is associated with a modest increase in behavioral problems, but a significant number of children experience 3 or more transitions. The association between instability and behavior is mediated by maternal stress and lower quality mothering. The findings imply that policies aimed at reducing maternal stress and partnership instability may improve child well-being.
ISSN:0022-2445
1741-3737
DOI:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2007.00431.x