Parenting From Abroad: Migration,Nonresident Father Involvement,and Children's Education in Mexico

In Mexico, a country with high emigration rates, parental migration matches divorce as a contributor to child–father separation. Yet little has been written about children's relationships with migrating parents. In this study, I use nationally representative data from the 2005 Mexican Family Life Survey to model variation in the interaction between 739 children in Mexico and their nonresident fathers. I demonstrate that, from the perspective of sending households, parental migration and parental divorce are substantively distinct experiences. Despite considerable geographic separation, Mexican children have significantly more interaction with migrating fathers than they do with fathers who have left their homes following divorce. Further, ties with migrant fathers are positively correlated with schooling outcomes, which potentially mitigates the observed education costs of family separation.     

Household Structure and Living Conditions in Nigeria

Data on 7,632 households from the 1999 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey are used to examine household structure and living conditions in Nigeria. The study finds significant disadvantage in living conditions of single‐adult, female‐ and single‐adult, male‐headed households relative to two‐parent households. Extended households show no significant advantage in living conditions over two‐parent households if headed by women but are consistently advantaged if headed by men. Although extended households do not entirely wipe out the disadvantage of female headship on household living conditions, they show a significant mitigating potential. Efforts to understand and alleviate poverty in Nigeria may need to address simultaneously gender imbalances in access to livelihood opportunities and factors that foster nucleation of family structure into single‐adult households.     

Life Satisfaction Among Children in Different Family Structures: A Comparative Study of 36 Western Societies

This paper examines differences in life satisfaction among children in different family structures in 36 western, industrialised countries (n = 184 496). Children living with both biological parents reported higher levels of life satisfaction than children living with a single parent or parent–step‐parent. Children in joint physical custody reported significantly higher levels of life satisfaction than their counterparts in other types of non‐intact families. Controlling perceived family affluence, the difference between joint physical custody families and single mother or mother–stepfather families became non‐significant. Difficulties in communicating with parents were strongly associated with less life satisfaction but did not mediate the relation between family structure and life satisfaction. Children in the Nordic countries characterised by strong welfare systems reported significantly higher levels of life satisfaction in all living arrangements except in single father households. Differences in economic inequality between countries moderated the association between certain family structures, perceived family affluence and life satisfaction.     

Poverty and Material Hardship in Grandparent‐Headed Households

Using the 2001 Survey of Income and Program Participation, the current study examines poverty and material hardship among children living in 3‐generation (n = 486), skipped‐generation (n = 238), single‐parent (n = 2,076), and 2‐parent (n = 6,061) households. Multinomial and logistic regression models indicated that children living in grandparent‐headed households experience elevated risk of health insecurity (as measured by receipt of public insurance and uninsurance)—a disproportionate risk given rates of poverty within those households. Children living with single parents did not share this substantial risk. Risk of food and housing insecurity did not differ significantly from 2‐parent households once characteristics of the household and caregivers were taken into account.     

Immigration and the Family Circumstances of Mexican‐Origin Children: A Binational Longitudinal Analysis

Using data from the birth cohort of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (n = 1,200) and the Mexican Family Life Survey (n = 1,013), this study investigated the living arrangements of Mexican‐origin preschool children. The analysis examined children's family circumstances in both sending and receiving countries, used longitudinal data to capture family transitions, and considered the intersection between nuclear and extended family structures. Between ages 0–1 and 4–5, Mexican children of immigrants experienced significantly more family instability than children in Mexico. They were more likely to transition from 2‐parent to single‐parent families and from extended family households to simple households. There were fewer differences between U.S. children with immigrant versus native parents, but the higher level of single parenthood among children of natives at ages 0–1 and the greater share making transitions from a 2‐parent to a single‐parent family suggest ongoing erosion of children's family support across generations in the United States.     

Children Living With Uninsured Family Members: Differences by Family Structure

Despite increased access to insurance through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, uninsurance rates are expected to remain relatively high. Having uninsured family members may expose children to financial hardships. Eligibility rules governing both private and public health insurance are based on outdated expectations about family structure. Using 2009–2011 data from the National Health Interview Survey (N = 65,038), the authors investigated family structure differences in family‐level insurance coverage of households with children. Children living with married biological parents were the least likely to have uninsured family members and most likely to have all family members covered by private insurance. Controlling for demographic characteristics and income, children in single‐mother families had the same risk of having an uninsured family member as children in married‐parent families. Children with cohabiting biological parents had higher rates of family uninsurance than children with married biological parents, even accounting for other characteristics.     

Family Structure Pathways and Academic Disadvantage among Adolescents in Stepfamilies*

Using National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) data, this research documents the prevalence of the different stepfamily forms in which American adolescents live, examines the family structure pathways through which adolescents traveled to arrive at their current family form, and explores the effects of these pathways on grades, school‐related behavior, and college expectations (N = 13,988). Compared to those who have always lived with both biological parents, youth in pathways including divorce/separation or a nonunion birth experience significantly lower academic outcomes, while those whose pathways include parental death do not. Specific effects vary, however, according to the outcome examined. For example, the combination of divorce/separation and movement into the least common of family forms is associated with particularly poor GPA outcomes. Divorce/separation is also more detrimental than nonunion birth for college expectations, particularly when coupled with a transition into a stepfamily based on cohabitation. Divorce/separation and nonunion birth have similar, negative effects on school behavior problems. Overall, results indicate that living in a stepfamily does not benefit youth, and can in some ways disadvantage them, even compared to their peers in single‐mother families. This is especially the case if youth transition into a stepfamily following a combination of stressful family experiences. These findings underscore the importance of examining family effects from a longitudinal perspective.     

Parental Divorce and Child Mental Health Trajectories

A process‐oriented approach to parental divorce locates the experience within the social and developmental context of children's lives, providing greater insight into how parental divorce produces vulnerability in some children and resiliency in others. The current study involves prospectively tracking a nationally representative sample of Canadian children of ages 4–7 and living with two biological parents at initial interview in 1994 (N = 2,819), and comparing the mental health trajectories of children whose parents remain married with those whose parents divorce by 1998. Results from growth curve models confirm that, even before marital breakup, children whose parents later divorce exhibit higher levels of anxiety/depression and antisocial behavior than children whose parents remain married. There is a further increase in child anxiety/depression but not antisocial behavior associated with the event of parental divorce itself. Controlling for predivorce parental socioeconomic and psychosocial resources fully accounts for poorer child mental health at initial interview among children whose parents later divorce, but does not explain the divorce‐specific increase in anxiety/depression. Finally, a significant interaction between parental divorce and predivorce levels of family dysfunction suggests that child antisocial behavior decreases when marriages in highly dysfunctional families are dissolved.     

When everyday life is double looped. Exploring children's (and parents’) perspectives on post‐divorce family life with two households

This article explores children's perspectives on post‐divorce family life with time‐sharing arrangements, focusing on the children's experiences of dilemmas and constraints, but also on new possibilities. In many ways, the everyday lives of children who commute between two households are double looped. These children have to be attentive to the routines, expectations and demands of each household. By assessing their conduct of everyday life, this article elucidates what children do to adapt to and make sense of this double‐looped situation. This article examines how differences between households affect children's ways of understanding themselves and their family lives.     

Parents’ Expectations About Childrearing After Divorce: Does Anticipating Difficulty Deter Divorce?

Divorce is costly for parents because of the challenges of meeting children’s economic and socioemotional needs after separation. Using the National Survey of Families and Households (N= 1,935), we investigate whether expected economic and parenting costs deter divorce. Mothers expect higher economic costs than fathers, whereas fathers expect more parenting difficulties. Most parents, however, expect high economic and parenting costs. In a large minority of families, mothers and fathers differ in their expected costs. Parenting costs deter divorce, but economic costs do not once other family characteristics are controlled. When parents disagree, mothers’ parenting concerns are a greater barrier to divorce than fathers’ concerns. Finally, parenting costs are a greater barrier to divorce for unhappy than happy couples.     

When is a family a family? Evidence from survey data and implications for family policy

This article examines the correspondence between common assumptions about the American family and actual patterns. The assessment is based on national data on individuals, households, and families. Findings indicate that the coresident nuclear model should be considereda model rather thanthe model of family. Past as well as current marital ties need to be considered in defining “family,” and divorce rather than death should be the expected cause of losing the main breadwinner in the family, except among elderly women. Parent-child ties to either young or adult children often span separate households. Coresidents can include individuals other than nuclear family members, and change rather than stability is the modal pattern in living arrangements. Rather than shaping concepts of the family from a single mold, policy makers and researchers are better advised to recognize the diversity and fluidity in family and household structures. Her major research interests include economics of the family, intergenerational transmission, intergenerational transfers, labor economics, and poverty and welfare. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan in 1977.     

Research on Divorce: Continuing Trends and New Developments

Research on divorce during the past decade has focused on a range of topics, including the predictors of divorce, associations between divorce and the well‐being of children and former spouses, and interventions for divorcing couples. Methodological advances during the past decade include a greater reliance on nationally representative longitudinal samples, genetically informed designs, and statistical models that control for time‐invariant sources of unobserved heterogeneity. Emerging perspectives, such as a focus on the number of family transitions rather than on divorce as a single event, are promising. Nevertheless, gaps remain in the research literature, and the review concludes with suggestions for new studies.     

Divorce in Norwegian Same‐Sex Marriages and Registered Partnerships: The Role of Children

Using Norwegian register data on the total population of same‐sex couples who formalized their unions from 1993 through 2010 (N = 3,422, 52% male), this study addressed the level and correlates of divorce among these couples as compared with all opposite‐sex marriages in the same period (N = 407,495). In particular, the authors investigated the role of same‐sex parenting, which has received little study so far. Multivariate results confirmed that same‐sex couples had a higher divorce risk compared with opposite‐sex couples and that female couples were more divorce prone than male couples. Furthermore, having children was negatively related to divorce among female couples, whereas male couples with common children were more divorce prone than their childless counterparts. No evidence was found that the gender gap in divorce or the difference between same‐sex and opposite‐sex couples narrowed over the study period.     

One parent or two? The intertwining of American marriage and fertility patterns

Marriage and fertility in the United States have become less firmly entwined as more women bear children without marrying and more couples with children divorce. Today a sizeable number of children are expected to spend a portion of their childhood in one-parent households. Despite the trends in illegitimacy and divorce, the actual effect of out-of-wedlock childbearing on the living arrangements of children has not been fully explicated. Using the National Survey of Family Growth Cycle III, this paper estimates the probability that children aged 0–13 in 1982 are living in two-parent households, controlling for their mothers' marital statuses at their births. We find that marital status at birth is an important predictor of household structure at later ages for both white and black populations; however, the childhood environment is actually quite elastic as women marry, divorce, remarry, and redivorce.     

Three‐Generation Family Households: Differences by Family Structure at Birth

Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 4,898), this study investigated how the share, correlates, transition patterns, and duration of 3‐generation households vary by mother's relationship status at birth. Nine percent of married mothers, 17% of cohabiting mothers, and 45% of single mothers lived in a 3‐generation family household at the time of the child's birth. Incidence over time was much higher and most common among single‐mother households: Sixty percent lived in a 3‐generation family household at least 1 wave. Economic need, culture, and generational needs were associated with living in a 3‐generation household; correlates varied by mother's relationship status. Three‐generation family households were short lived, and transitions were frequent. Kin support through coresidence was an important source of support for families with young children and in particular families in which the parents were unwed at the time of their child's birth.     

Psychosocial Well‐Being and the Relationship Between Divorce and Children's Academic Achievement

As an unprecedented number of children live in families experiencing divorce, researchers have developed increasingly complex explanations for the consequences associated with marital dissolution. Current accounts focus on changes to family finances, destabilized parenting practices, elevated parental conflict, and deterioration of the parent–child relationship, to explain the impact of divorce. A less studied explanation draws attention to children's diminished psychosocial well‐being following divorce. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten cohort (ECLS‐K) (N = 10,061), I examined the role of psychosocial well‐being in the relationship between divorce and children's outcomes. The results suggest that divorce is associated with diminished psychosocial well‐being in children, and that this decrease helps explain the connection between divorce and lower academic achievement.     

For the Sake of the Children

Without exception divorce is a significant event in the life of any child. For the child, divorce may represent a sense of loss, a sense of failure in interpersonal relationships, and a prelude to a difficult transition to new life patterns. Unfortunately, in our society today there is a limited support system available to the family through this process of change and emotional stress. Today, regardless of even religious beliefs, it is widely accepted that there are those situations in which it is impossible for all family members to remain together in the traditional pattern of living. The psychological effects of divorce and separation on children cannot be viewed in a unitary way. The circumstances around the divorce and separation must be considered as well as the age, sex, and personality makeup of the child. When we consider the effect of divorce or separation on children, we must equally consider the effects of living in a home where there may be ongoing tension, conflict and stress. "For the sake of the child," regardless of the short and long-term consequences, divorce or separation at times is the most viable solution to optimizing the potential of that child for sound emotional and personal growth.     

Parental Migration and Education of Left‐Behind Children: A Comparison of Two Settings

The out‐migration of parents has become a common childhood experience worldwide. It can confer both economic benefits and social costs on children. Despite a growing literature, the circumstances under which children benefit or suffer from parental out‐migration are not well understood. The present study examined how the relationship between parental out‐migration and children's education varies across migration streams (internal vs. international) and across 2 societies. Data are from the Mexican Family Life Survey (N = 5,719) and the Indonesian Family Life Survey (N = 2,938). The results showed that children left behind by international migrant parents are worse off in educational attainment than those living with both parents. Internal migration of parents plays a negative role in some cases, though often to a lesser degree than international migration. In addition, how the overall relationship between parental migration and education balances out varies by context: It is negative in Mexico but generally small in Indonesia.     

Money management and control in the Indian joint family across generations

Studies of money management and control will have more cross‐cultural relevance if the family context of money across generations is taken into account. The study of money management and control in middle‐income nuclear and joint family households in urban India illustrates the importance of examining money flows within the wider family context because there is a two‐way flow of money beyond the married couple – between parents and adult children, siblings and other members of the extended family. In the three or four generational joint family, control and management at the household level is not necessarily duplicated for the constituent couples. We draw on open‐ended interviews of 40 persons from 27 urban middle‐income households in North India, between November 2007 and January 2008, to show that the male control of money is the dominant pattern. This pattern is linked to the ideology of male dominance that is found among the middle, lower middle and struggling households, particularly in non‐metropolitan households. The upper‐middle‐class households predominantly in metropolitan households show a pattern of joint or independent control. The focus is on the couple's money decisions within the context of the wider family.     

Household Composition and Poverty among Female‐Headed Households with Children: Differences by Race and Residence*

Abstract We examine race and residential variation in the prevalence of female‐headed households with children and how household composition is associated with several key economic well‐being outcomes using data from the 2000 5% Public Use Microdata Sample of the U.S. Census. Special attention is paid to cohabiting female‐headed households with children and those that are headed by a single grandmother caring for at least one grandchild, because these are becoming more common living arrangements among female‐headed households with children. We find that in 2000: (1) cohabiting and grandmother female‐headed households with children comprised over one‐fourth of all female‐headed households with children, (2) household poverty is highest for female‐headed households with children that do not have other adult household earners, (3) earned income from other household members lifts many cohabiting and grandparental female‐headed households out of poverty, as does retirement and Social Security income for grandmother headed households, and (4) poverty is highest among racial/ethnic minorities and for female‐headed households with children in nonmetro compared to central cities and suburban areas.