Changes in Wives' Income: Effects on Marital Happiness,Psychological Well‐Being,and the Risk of Divorce

We investigate the effects of increases in married women's actual income and in their proportion of total family income on marital happiness, psychological well‐being, and the likelihood of divorce. We use data from a sample of 1,047 married individuals (not couples) in medium‐duration marriages, drawn from a five‐wave panel survey begun in 1980 and continuing to 1997. Structural equation modeling is used to assess the impact of increases in married women's absolute and relative income from 1980 to 1988 on the marital happiness and well‐being of married men and women in 1988. Event history analysis is used to determine how these changes affect the risk of divorce between 1988 and 1997. We find that increases in married women's absolute and relative income significantly increase their marital happiness and well‐being. Increases in married women's absolute income generally have nonsignificant effects for married men. However, married men's well‐being is significantly lower when married women's proportional contributions to the total family income are increased. The likelihood of divorce is not significantly affected by increases in married women's income. Nevertheless, increases in married women's income may indirectly lower the risk of divorce by increasing women's marital happiness.     

Marital Quality,Socioeconomic Status,and Physical Health

Recent efforts to promote marriage among the socioeconomically disadvantaged are based on the assumption that marriage is equally beneficial for persons with varying levels of socioeconomic status. Using 3 waves of data from a sample of married adults (the National Survey of Families and Households; N = 1,849), the authors evaluated whether the health benefits of marital happiness and the health costs of marital conflict might vary by education and income levels. They found that increases in marital happiness were associated with increases in self‐rated health for individuals with more education. In addition, increases in marital conflict were linked to greater increases in functional impairment for persons with lower income. Although the results were not consistent and effect sizes were modest, the evidence nonetheless tentatively suggests that higher levels of marital happiness may be less beneficial for health and that higher levels of marital conflict may be more detrimental to health among persons with lower socioeconomic status.     

A Longitudinal Examination of Support,Self‐Esteem,and Mexican‐Origin Adolescent Mothers' Parenting Efficacy

Guided by a risk and resilience framework, this study used a prospective longitudinal, multiple‐reporter design to examine how social support from a mother figure during pregnancy interacted with Mexican‐origin adolescent mothers' self‐esteem to inform their parenting efficacy when their children were 10 months old. Using reports of perceived social support by adolescent mothers (M_age = 16.24, SD = 0.99) and their mother figures (M_age = 40.84, SD = 7.04) in 205 dyads, and controlling for demographic factors (i.e., adolescent age, adolescent nativity, family income, mothers' educational attainment, adolescent – mother coresidence) and adolescents' social support from a significant other, the findings indicated that social support during pregnancy was positively associated with adolescent mothers' future parenting efficacy when adolescent mothers had relatively lower self‐esteem. The findings were consistent for adolescents' and mothers' reports and emphasize the value of social support from a mother figure among adolescent mothers with lower self‐esteem. Implications for interventions are presented.     

Single,Cohabitating, and Married Mothers’ Time With Children

Utilizing the 2003 and 2004 American Time Use Survey (ATUS), this study examines the relationship between family structure and maternal time with children among 4,309 married mothers and 1,821 single mothers with children less than 13 years of age. Single mothers spend less time with their children than married mothers, though the differences are not large. Marital status and living arrangement differences in time with children largely disappear or single mothers engage in more child care than married mothers after controls for socioeconomic status and other characteristics are introduced. Thus, less maternal time with children appears to be mainly attributable to the disadvantaged social structural location of single mothers rather than different proclivities toward mothering between married and single mothers.     

Effect on Preschoolers' Literacy when Never‐Married Mothers Get Married

Healthy Marriage programs in the United States aim to promote marriage primarily among low‐income individuals. There is little research assessing whether children fare better when their never‐married mothers get married. The present study uses the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey–Birth Cohort to test the hypothesis that children have higher literacy scores when their mothers who had never married when the children were 9 months old had married when the children were 48 months old (N = 2,800). A small positive effect was found, but only when marriage was compared with cohabitation. The association between marriage and literacy is partially explained by mothers' increased household income. The children of mothers who were single noncohabitants or married and then divorced or separated were also doing better with respect to literacy than children of cohabiting mothers. Future research is needed to better understand how cohabitation is associated with negative effects on children's literacy.     

“I'll Give You the World”: Socioeconomic Differences in Parental Support of Adult Children

Research has shown that parents with higher socioeconomic status provide more resources to their children during childhood and adolescence. The authors asked whether similar effects associated with parental socioeconomic position are extended to adult children. Middle‐aged parents (N = 633) from the Family Exchanges Study reported support they provided to their grown children and coresidence with grown children (N = 1,384). Parents with higher income provided more emotional and material support to the average children. Grown children of parents with less education were more likely to coreside with them. Parental resources (e.g., being married) and demands (e.g., family size) explained these patterns. Of interest is that lower income parents provided more total support to all children (except total financial support). Lower income families may experience a double jeopardy; each grown child receives less support on average, but parents exert greater efforts providing more total support to all their children.     

Parental Financial Assistance and Young Adults' Relationships With Parents and Well‐being

Drawing on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study examined the impact of parental financial assistance on young adults' relationships with parents and well‐being. Conditional change models were estimated to evaluate the effects of parental financial assistance reported in Wave 3 (ages 18–28) and Wave 4 (ages 24–34) of the study. The results (Ns ranged from 9,128 to 13,389 across outcomes) indicated that financial assistance was positively associated with changes in depressive symptoms and closeness to both mothers and fathers in both periods. Changes in self‐esteem were less robustly linked to parental financial assistance. Although the observed pattern with respect to parent–child relations held regardless of the progress young people had made in the transition to adulthood, the effects for well‐being, which were also relatively small in magnitude, did not. In particular, changes in depressive symptoms associated with financial assistance were concentrated among individuals occupying adult social roles.     

Living Arrangements, Employment Status, and the Economic Well-Being of Mothers: Evidence from Brazil, Chile, and the U.S

Using data from Brazil, Chile, and the U.S., we estimate country specific models of household income that characterize mothers according to their marital status, living arrangement, and employment status. We assess the predicted economic well-being of each type of mother relative to a benchmark of married mothers in the same country, and at various points in the income distribution. We find dramatic cross-country differences in the distribution of mothers across categories, but few differences in each type's relative economic status. In all three countries and at all points in the income distribution, mothers who are the only adults in their households have the lowest levels of predicted income, while married mothers—followed closely by cohabitors—have the highest levels.     

MALE MARITAL WAGE DIFFERENTIALS: TRAINING,PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS,AND FIXED EFFECTS

Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, we replicate previous estimates of the marital wage differential for white men, extend the analysis to African American men, then explain the within and between race differentials. We first control for formal job training, then for cognitive skills, parental background, and self‐esteem with little effect. By contrast, the white differential but not the black differential disappears in fixed‐effects estimation. We reconcile the cross‐section/panel differentials by focusing on the distinct identification conditions employed by each technique. Men who never change marital status play a significant role in white cross‐sectional estimates. (JEL J31, J12)     

Gender,Preloss Marital Dependence,and Older Adults’ Adjustment to Widowhood

I examine how preloss emotional and instrumental dependence on one's spouse affects older adults’ psychological adjustment to widowhood. Analyses are based on 297 persons from the Changing Lives of Older Couples (CLOC) study, a prospective study of widowhood among adults aged 65 and older. Women who were most emotionally dependent on their spouses had the poorest self‐esteem while still married, yet evidence the highest levels of self‐esteem following loss. Men who were most dependent on their wives for home maintenance and financial management tasks experience the greatest personal growth following loss. These results suggest that widowed persons who were once highly dependent upon their spouses reap psychological rewards from the recognition that they are capable of managing on their own.     

Who Experiences Leisure Deficits? Mothers' Marital Status and Leisure Time

The authors used the 2003 to 2012 American Time Use Survey to examine marital status variation in mothers' leisure time. They found that never‐married mothers have more total leisure but less high‐quality leisure when compared with married mothers. Never‐married mothers' leisure is concentrated in passive and socially isolated activities that offer fewer social and health benefits. Black single mothers have the highest amount of socially isolated leisure, particularly watching television alone. Results suggest that differences in the context and type of leisure are salient dimensions of the divergent and stratified life conditions of married, divorced, and single mothers.     

Parental Involvement Promotes Rural African American Youths’ Self‐Pride and Sexual Self‐Concepts

This study, an evaluation of the Strong African American Families Program, was designed to determine whether intervention‐induced changes in targeted parenting behaviors were associated with young adolescents’ development of racial pride, self‐esteem, and sexual identity. Participants were 332 African American mothers and their 11‐year‐old children in 9 rural Georgia counties. Families were randomly assigned to a control group or an intervention group. Unlike those in the control families, mothers in the intervention group reported increases in targeted parenting behaviors, which promoted self‐esteem, positive racial identity, and positive sexual self‐concepts among their children. These findings expand the study of African American youths’ identity development by including broader domains of identity and parenting processes other than racial socialization.     

Economic Circumstances and Family Outcomes: A Review of the 1990s

This review documents the economic context within which American families lived in the 1990s. Despite nearly full employment and growing income and wealth for many Americans, problem areas included persistent racial gaps in economic well‐being, growing inequality, and declining wages for young men. Women showed stronger income growth than men in the decade, and 2‐earner households became increasingly associated with advantage. We review the consequences of these trends and of economic well‐being generally on 4 dimensions of family outcomes: family formation, divorce, marital quality, and child well‐being. Despite hypotheses suggesting that women's earnings might have different effects on family outcomes than men's earnings, generally the review supports the expectation that both men's and women's economic advantage is associated with more marriage, less divorce, more marital happiness, and greater child well‐being. Important issues regarding measurement, reciprocal relations between family structure and economic well‐being, and race and gender effects remain unresolved.     

Marriage and the Motherhood Wage Penalty Among African Americans,Hispanics, and Whites

This study draws on data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 5,929) to analyze the moderating effects of race and marriage on the motherhood wage penalty. Fixed‐effects models reveal that for Hispanic women, motherhood is not associated with a wage penalty. For African Americans, only married mothers with more than 2 children pay a wage penalty. For Whites, all married mothers pay a wage penalty, as do all never‐married mothers and divorced mothers with 1 or 2 children. These findings imply that racial differences in the motherhood wage penalty persist even for women with similar marital statuses, and they suggest that patterns of racial stratification shape women’s family experiences and labor market outcomes.     

Adolescent Well‐Being in Cohabiting,Married, and Single‐Parent Families

Cohabitation is a family form that increasingly includes children. We use the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to assess the well‐being of adolescents in cohabiting parent stepfamilies (N= 13,231). Teens living with cohabiting stepparents often fare worse than teens living with two biological married parents. Adolescents living in cohabiting stepfamilies experience greater disadvantage than teens living in married stepfamilies. Most of these differences, however, are explained by socioeconomic circumstances. Teenagers living with single unmarried mothers are similar to teens living with cohabiting stepparents; exceptions include greater delinquency and lower grade point averages experienced by teens living with cohabiting stepparents. Yet mother's marital history explains these differences. Our results contribute to our understanding of cohabitation and debates about the importance of marriage for children.     

Gender,the Marital Life Course,and Cardiovascular Disease in Late Midlife

Drawing on 5 waves of the Health and Retirement Study, we examine the influence of the marital life course on the prevalence and incidence of cardiovascular disease among 9,434 middle‐aged individuals. Results show that compared to continuously married persons, both men and women with a marital loss have significantly higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease at baseline. Men and women, however, differ in the effects of marital loss on the incidence of cardiovascular disease over the course of the study. Women with a marital loss have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease in late midlife compared to continuously married women, whereas marital loss is not associated with men’s risk of cardiovascular disease. Emotional distress and socioeconomic status account for the higher risk of cardiovascular disease among divorced women.     

Till Death Do Us Part: Marital Status and U.S. Mortality Trends, 1986 – 2000

Although the association of being married and a lower mortality rate has been well established, most previous research on marital status and mortality did not consider potential change in this relationship over time. In this study, I adopted a survey cohort perspective to examine both overall and cause‐specific mortality trends by marital status from 1986 to 2000 in the United States. On the basis of data from the National Health Interview Survey‐Longitudinal Mortality Follow‐up (N = 517,314), I found that mortality generally decreased or remained stable for the married from the 1986 to 2000 NHIS cohort, except for diabetes deaths. There is evidence showing divergent mortality trends between the married and unmarried, especially the widowed. Race and gender variations are examined.     

Core Self‐Evaluations,Work–Family Conflict,and Burnout

This study investigated how core self‐evaluations relate to work–family (and family–work) conflict and burnout. Drawing from a sample of 289 police officers and civilian staff who were either married or living in a union as common‐law partners, this study advances an empirical integration of work–family and core self‐evaluations research. The results suggested that even when work, nonwork, and demographic variables are controlled for, positive core self‐evaluations (i.e., composite scale, self‐esteem, locus of control, emotional stability) are related to less work–family (and family–work) conflict. The associations between core self‐evaluations and burnout are partially mediated by work–family (and family–work) conflict. Finally, core self‐evaluations moderated the association between work–family conflict and burnout, but not the one between family–work conflict and burnout.     

Self‐Esteem Trajectories among Ethnic Minority Adolescents: A Growth Curve Analysis of the Patterns and Predictors of Change

The current study presents a growth curve analysis of self‐esteem among Black, Latino, and Asian American high school students. A series of hierarchical linear models were used to examine patterns and predictors of change in self‐esteem over time. Results revealed an average increase in self‐esteem with age. Although boys and girls experienced similar trajectories of self‐esteem, ethnicity was a significant moderator of developmental change. Black adolescents reported higher self‐esteem, while Asian American adolescents reported lower self‐esteem, compared with their Latino peers. Latino adolescents experienced a sharper increase in self‐esteem over time compared with Black adolescents. The unique and conjoint effects of adolescents' experiences with peers, family, and school were examined in relation to self‐esteem trajectories. Results revealed that each perceived context was significantly associated with self‐esteem trajectories when examined independently, but family experiences emerged as most strongly related to changes in self‐esteem. Results underscore the need to examine change at the individual level, as well as the importance of studying the unique and conjoint effects of individual and contextual‐level variables on developmental processes among ethnic minority adolescents.