More Kin,Less Support: Multipartnered Fertility and Perceived Support Among Mothers

Recent research has documented the high prevalence of having children with more than 1 partner, termed multipartnered fertility. Because childbearing is an important mechanism for building kin networks, we theorize that multipartnered fertility will influence the availability of social support for mothers. Analyzing 3 waves of data from the Fragile Families study (N = 12,259), we find that multipartnered fertility is negatively associated with the availability of financial, housing, and child‐care support. Our longitudinal evidence suggests a bidirectional relationship in which multipartnered fertility reduces the availability of support, and the availability of support inhibits multipartnered fertility. We conclude that smaller and denser kin networks seem to be superior to broader, but weaker kin ties in terms of perceived instrumental support.     

Fathering With Multiple Partners: Links to Children's Well‐Being in Early Childhood

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.     

Multipartnered Fertility and Depression among Fragile Families

We used data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine the association between multipartnered fertility (MPF)-when parents have children with more than one partner-and depression. Random effects models suggested that MPF is associated with a greater likelihood of depression, net of family structure and other covariates. However, these associations disappeared in more conservative fixed effects models that estimated changes in MPF as a function of changes in depression. Results also suggested that social selection may account for the link between MPF and depression for fathers (but not mothers), as depressed fathers with no MPF were more likely to have a child by a new partner four years later. Ultimately, MPF and depression may be reciprocally related and part of broader processes of social disadvantage.     

Children’s Economic Well‐Being in Married and Cohabiting Parent Families

Increasingly, children are living with cohabiting parents. Prior work on the material well‐being of children living in cohabiting families is extended by including the biological relationship of children to adults, examining the racial and ethnic variations, and investigating the multiple indicators of material well‐being. We draw on the 1999 National Survey of America’s Families (N =34,509). Our findings suggest that children can potentially benefit from living with a cohabiting partner whose resources are shared with family members. Although children living with married rather than cohabiting parents fare better in terms of material well‐being, this advantage is accounted for by race and ethnic group and parents’ education. Marriage appears to provide more material advantages to White children than to Black or Latino children.     

Married and Cohabiting Parents’ Relationship Stability: A Focus on Race and Ethnicity

We draw on three waves of the Fragile Families Study (N =2,249) to examine family stability among a recent birth cohort of children. We find that children born to cohabiting versus married parents have over five times the risk of experiencing their parents’ separation. This difference in union stability is greatest for White children, as compared with Black or Mexican American children. For White children, differences in parents’ education levels, paternal substance abuse, and prior marriage and children account for the higher instability faced by those born to cohabiting parents, whereas differences in union stability are not fully explained among Black and Mexican American children. These findings have implications for policies aimed at promoting family stability and reducing inequality.     

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 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.     

Factors Associated With Multiple‐Partner Fertility Among Fathers

This article uses a sample of 1,731 fathers aged 16 – 45 from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth to identify factors associated with multiple‐partner fertility. Almost one third of fathers who reported multiple‐partner fertility did so across a series of nonmarital relationships, and nonmarital‐only multiple‐partner fertility has been increasing across recent cohorts of men. Being older, having a first sexual experience or a first child at a young age, and fathering a child outside of marriage or cohabitation are associated with greater odds of multiple‐partner fertility, whereas having additional children with the first birth mother is associated with reduced odds. Black, Hispanic, and young fathers have especially high odds of experiencing multiple‐partner fertility across a series of nonmarital relationships.     

Intergenerational Contact and the Life Course Status of Young Adult Children

This study examined how the life course status of young adults—whether they have a romantic partner and whether they have children—is related to how often they have contact with their parents. Hypotheses were tested using recent data from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study. The main sample included 1,911 young adults between the ages of 18 and 34. Results suggest that young adults’ entrance into cohabitation and marriage is associated with less face‐to‐face contact with parents. Young adults with children of their own tend to see their parents more frequently than young adults without offspring. Findings are congruent with the family life course perspective, contending that family relationships are related to the life course status of individual family members.     

Cohabiting and Married Individuals' Relations With Their Partner's Parents

Using Norwegian survey data on partnered individuals ages 18 to 55 (N = 4,061; 31% cohabitors), the current study investigated differences across marital and cohabiting unions regarding the patterns of contact with the parents of the partner. In addition to investigating the frequency of such contact, we assessed the nature of and perceived quality of contacts with the partner's parents. The authors grouped respondents according to whether they had children with their partner and controlled for a range of selection characteristics. Results confirmed that parents with preschool children met their in‐laws more frequently than the childless, irrespective of union type. Married respondents as well as cohabitors with preschool children reported better relations with their partner's parents than childless cohabitors. Taken together, the results imply that having small children was more decisive for the relationship with the parents of the partner than getting married, particularly with regard to contact frequency.     

Groupwork for Parents whose Children are in Care: Challenges and Opportunities

Until recently, the focus for child protection in NSW has been on risk assessment, supportive measures for parents, and ‘the best interests of the child’. The needs of the birth families, once their children have been removed have not received the same attention. An emerging body of research indicates a growing awareness of the importance of the link between good outcomes for children in care and positive ongoing links with their birth parents. Biological parents of children who have been removed invariably continue to have parenting relationships, if not with the removed child, then with subsequent birth children, step children and children in their extended family. Service provision for this group of parents is critical given the complexity and scale of their emotional needs, and the implications for the children they will care for. In this paper, we describe one such intervention: Kids in Care, a group program offered at Relationships Australia NSW, and consider the arising issues and dilemmas for both parents and group workers. Developed to address the particular needs of parents whose children have been taken into care, the group creates an environment of acceptance and support. This opens up possibilities for parents to consider issues of grief, stigma and trauma, as well as to develop skills in communication, assertiveness and emotional regulation.     

Precursors of Nonmarital Fertility in the United States

The dramatic increase in nonmarital fertility in the United States has generally been explained in terms of either economic circumstances or changing norms and values. We believe that fertility motivations, and the intentions they generate, should be taken into account, and we hypothesize that nonmarital fertility is more likely when children are seen as an important source of social capital. Using data from the first two waves of the National Survey of Families and Households (N= 1,155), we find support for these views. Women who considered the social resource value of children to be high were more likely to have an out‐of‐wedlock birth than were those who did not. Women who did not intend to have a child were less likely to have a nonmarital conception than were women who did intend to have a child. We conclude that understanding recent increases in nonmarital fertility requires an appreciation of the social benefits that children bring to their mothers, married or not.     

Birth Mothers Now Birth Grandmothers: Intergenerational Relationships in Open Adoptions

Abstract

Despite growing trends in openness between birth and adoptive families, little is known about what happens when adopted children become parents and birth mothers become birth grandmothers. These new and unique relationships between birth mothers and their grandchildren were examined through intensive case study analyses of in-depth interviews with birth mothers who placed infants for adoption more than 25?years ago (N?=?11). Findings revealed enjoyment in their role as grandmothers and emphasized the significant role the adult adoptee (parent) played in influencing communication with their grandchild and families’ incorporation of technology-mediated contact to overcome geographic barriers. Implications for practitioners, policy makers, and researchers are discussed.     

Do Sons or Daughters Give More Money to Parents in Urban China?

The patriarchal structure of the traditional Chinese family suggests that sons, more than daughters, provide financial support to elderly parents. The norm of receiving support in old age primarily from sons, however, may have been undermined by dramatic demographic, economic, and cultural changes occurring over the last several decades in China, especially in urban areas. We examine gender differences in adult children’s financial support to parents using a recent data set (“Study of Family Life in Urban China”) collected in 1999 (N = 1,801). The results show that married daughters, especially those living with parents, provide more financial support to parents than married sons do. This significant gender difference can be primarily explained by daughters’ resources, such as education and income.     

Creating Stepfamilies: Integrating Children Into the Study of Union Formation

As a result of the growth in out‐of‐wedlock childbearing and union instability, adults contemplating forming a new union are often already parents. This article examines the role of children in stepfamily formation, both coresident and not, using the 2,594 respondents in the National Survey of Families and Households who were not living with a partner in 1987/1988. We consider children of the respondent and of the partner, which allows us to examine the determinants of entering a stepfamily. We found that being a coresident father dramatically increases forming a union with a woman with children. Women’s coresidential children reduce women’s odds of forming unions with men who do not have children and increase them for unions with men who do.     

Multiple Partner Maternity Versus Multiple Partner Paternity: What Matters for Family Trajectories

In this analysis the ramifications of parents' multiple partner fertility for the trajectories of both married and unmarried stepfamilies are examined. Using a nationally representative sample of births to parents living in large cities, it was found that mother's children by prior partners are unrelated to subsequent relationship transitions within 5 years of a shared birth. However, men's other children are associated with an increase in the odds of dissolution among all couples and decrease the odds of marriage among the unmarried.     

Why Do Women Want Children? The Case of Hong Kong,China: A Lowest-Low Fertility Context

ABSTRACT

Governments in low fertility countries tend to tackle low birth rates by addressing macro-level factors rather than the meaning that having a child holds for men and women. Yet whether or not an individual decides to have a child depends in part on what they think having a child will mean for their lives. This study examines the meanings that constitute reasons for wanting a child among a sample of middle-class, married, Hong Kong Chinese women who wanted children. These women were living in Hong Kong when it had one of the lowest total fertility rates in the world and the lowest in its history. Using semi-structured, in-depth interviews, it finds that for these women, to have a child makes one’s family complete; is the next stage of life; provides happiness, fun, and enjoyment; brings care and company in old age; and children are “lovely” and “cute.” Governments concerned about low birth rates can use research on what having a child means for women to improve policy so as to make having a child more attractive, and to create messages that hold greater appeal to women.     

Feeling Caught Between Parents: Adult Children's Relations With Parents and Subjective Well‐Being

Research on divorce has found that adolescents’ feelings of being caught between parents are linked to internalizing problems and weak parent‐child relationships. The present study estimates the effects of marital discord, as well as divorce, on young adult offspring's feelings of being caught in the middle (N =632). Children with parents in high‐conflict marriages were more likely than other children to feel caught between parents. These feelings were associated with lower subjective well‐being and poorer quality parent‐child relationships. Offspring with divorced parents were no more likely than offspring with continuously married parents in low‐conflict relationships to report feeling caught. Feelings of being caught appeared to fade in the decade following parental divorce. These results suggest that, unlike children of divorce, children with parents in conflicted marriages (who do not divorce) may be unable to escape from their parents’ marital problems—even into adulthood.     

The Family Ties of Unmarried Cohabiting and Married Persons in the Netherlands

Using a nationally representative survey (N = 4,612), we analyze whether there is a difference in the Netherlands between cohabiting and married persons with regard to the frequency of contact with one’s own family as well as the parents of the partner. Clustered regression analyses show that, as expected, cohabiting persons have less contact with family members. Results are consistent with the selection perspective, which attributes the lower levels of contact to background characteristics, influencing the orientation of the cohabiting toward family. The uncertainty perspective, which attributes the lower levels of contact with the parents of the partner to the greater uncertainty regarding the stability of cohabiting relationships, is partially supported.     

Proceed With Caution? Parents' Union Dissolution and Children's Educational Achievement

Using high‐quality Norwegian register data on 49,879 children from 23,655 families, the authors estimated sibling fixed‐effects models to explore whether children who are younger at the time of a parental union dissolution perform less well academically, as measured by their grades at age 16, than their older siblings who have spent more time living with both biological parents. Results from a baseline model suggest a positive age gradient that is consistent with findings in some of the extant family structure literature. Once birth order is taken into account, the gradient reverses. When analyses also control for grade inflation by adding year of birth to the model, only those children who experience a dissolution just prior to receiving their grades appear relatively disadvantaged. The results illustrate the need to specify and interpret sibling fixed‐effects model with great care.     

The Time Squeeze: Parental Statuses and Feelings About Time With Children

Policy makers, parents, and the public are concerned with perceived declines in parents’ time with children. Data from two national surveys (N = 1,159 and N = 821) used in this study show that nearly half of parents report feeling too little time with children. Work hours are strongly related to these feelings, even controlling for time spent with children, and explain why fathers more than mothers feel time strain. For fathers, those whose youngest child is an adolescent feel more strain than similarly situated mothers. Controlling for work hours, single parents are not more likely than married parents to feel that they spend insufficient time with children.