Still the Favorite? Parents' Differential Treatment of Siblings Entering Young Adulthood

This study examined within‐family stability in parents' differential treatment of siblings from adolescence to young adulthood and the effect of differential treatment in young adulthood on grown siblings' relationship quality. The author used longitudinal data on parent–child and sibling relations from the sibling sample of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 1,470 sibling dyads). Within‐dyad fixed effects regression models revealed that the adolescent sibling who was closer to parents went on to be the young adult sibling who was closer to and received more material support from parents. Results from an actor–partner interdependence model revealed that differential parental financial assistance of young adult siblings predicted worse sibling relationship quality. These findings demonstrate the lasting importance of affect between parents and offspring earlier in the family life course and the relevance of within‐family inequalities for understanding family relations.     

Psychological Implications of Motherhood and Fatherhood in Midlife: Evidence From Sibling Models

Using data from 4,744 full, twin, half‐, adopted, and stepsiblings in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, I examine psychological consequences of motherhood and fatherhood in midlife. My analysis includes between‐family models that compare individuals across families and within‐family models comparing siblings from the same family to account for unobserved genetic and environmental endowments that may confound the relationship between parenthood and mental health. Further, I examine whether the psychological effect of parenthood varies among different types of sibling dyads. The findings reveal that parenthood has similar psychological implications for middle‐aged mothers and fathers. Main differences arise from specific configurations of the parental role. The association between parenthood and mental health partly reflects genetic influences but not shared early‐life environment.     

Family Versus Individual Therapy: Impact On Discrepancies Between Parents’ And Adolescents’ Perceptions Over Time

This study examined the degree of disagreement between runaway adolescents and their primary caretakers, defined as informant discrepancies, on their view of their family. How these discrepancies changed over time and whether family therapy or individual therapy could impact that change were also explored. The current sample (N = 179 dyads) included adolescent substance abusers residing in a runaway shelter and their primary caretakers. Adolescent gender was examined as a correlate of change, and treatment attendance was controlled. The intraclass correlation coefficient was used to measure discrepancies between the individuals within a dyad. Results showed that among those receiving family therapy, but not individual therapy, informant discrepancies decreased significantly over time. Additionally, dyads with a male adolescent showed a significantly slower rate of improvement in discrepancy scores across time compared with dyads with a female adolescent. Previous research indicates that lower levels of discrepant perceptions are associated with better individual and relationship functioning. Therefore, this study’s findings support family therapy as superior to individual therapy for addressing parent–child discrepancies––possibly through its focus on improving family communication, perspective taking, and understanding.     

Short‐Term Reciprocity in Late Parent‐Child Relationships

Long‐term concepts of parent‐child reciprocity assume that the amount of support given and received is only balanced in a generalized fashion over the life course. We argue that reciprocity in parent‐child relationships also operates in the short term. Our analysis of short‐term reciprocity focuses on concurrent exchange in its main upward and downward currencies, time and money. Fixed‐effects models with data from SHARE (N = 8,816 dyads) revealed that within a family, parents gave financial transfers to those children who supported them with time transfers of help and care. Reciprocal patterns emerged most clearly if parents were highly dependent, received intense support, and had sufficient financial opportunities to reciprocate. We conclude that short‐term reciprocity eases the burden of late parent‐child relationships.     

Naturalistic social cognition: Intersubjectivity in same-sex dyads

The research paradigm that Ickes and his colleagues (Ickes, Robertson, Tooke, & Teng, 1986; Ickes & Tooke, 1988) have developed for the study of naturalistic social cognition was used to explore the phenomenon ofintersubjectivity as it naturally occurs in the initial, unstructured interactions of same-sex (male-male and female-female) dyads. The results of two studies revealed evidence of greater similarity (i.e., convergence) in the thought-feeling content of the male dyad members than in that of the female dyad members on measures pertaining to the quality of their reported feelings. These findings were consistent with the assumption that, due to a normatively narrower range of affective involvement in the male-male dyads, the male dyad members were more likely than the female dyad members to monitor closely the emotional tone of their interaction. In direct support of this assumption, there was significantly less nonverbal involvement (i.e., gesturing, smiling, gazing, mutual gaze) in the male-male dyads in both studies, along with corresponding differences in the variability of these behaviors. In addition, the results of both studies revealed serendipitous evidence of greater similarity in the thought-feeling content of the female, than of the male, dyad members on measures pertaining to the degree of metaperspective taking and to thoughts and feelings about other people. The discussion emphasized the need for theorists and researchers in cognitive social psychology to address those genuinelysocial-cognitive (i.e., intersubjective) phenomena that have traditionally been ignored.The authors would like to express their appreciation to Kristine Arnold, Ray Bristow, Robin Klemick, Laurie Luce, Julie Williams, and Mari Wilson for their assistance in coding the data for the studies reported here.     

Fathers,Mothers, and Family Structure: Family Trajectories,Parent Gender,and Adolescent Schooling

Previous research has neither fully examined family structure across the life course nor considered increasing variation in family types. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 11,318), I examine the influence of longitudinal measures across childhood of family structure duration and the number and timing of parent transitions (entrances and exits) on indicators of grade point average (GPA), college expectations, and suspension or expulsion in adolescence. I also examine whether parent gender moderates these effects. Results show that mother transitions during early childhood affect all outcomes, whereas time in mother‐absent families influences GPA and school discipline. I find evidence for parent gender differences in transition effects; mother transitions, especially early ones, have more severe consequences than father transitions.     

Family and Nonfamily Role Configurations in Two British Cohorts

The aim of this paper is to examine variations in the combination of social roles during times of social change. We specify a latent class approach to examine role configurations for individuals in their early 30s, establishing a typology of how work‐ and family‐related roles combine within individuals born 12 years apart and examine their antecedents. Drawing on data collected for two British Birth Cohorts born in 1958 (N = 10,706) and 1970 (N = 11,005), we provide empirical evidence of both consistency and change in life course patterns. Findings are discussed in terms of destandardization, differentiation, and individualization of the life course in times of social change and their implications for family research within a life course perspective.     

Marginal Structural Models: An Application to Incarceration and Marriage During Young Adulthood

Advanced methods for panel data analysis are commonly used in research on family life and relationships, but the fundamental issue of simultaneous time‐dependent confounding and mediation has received little attention. In this article the authors introduce inverse‐probability‐weighted estimation of marginal structural models, an approach to causal analysis that (unlike conventional regression modeling) appropriately adjusts for confounding variables on the causal pathway linking the treatment with the outcome. They discuss the need for marginal structural models in social science research and describe their estimation in detail. Substantively, the authors contribute to the ongoing debate on the effects of incarceration on marriage by applying a marginal structural model approach to panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (N = 4,781). In line with the increasing evidence on the collateral consequences of contact with the criminal justice system, the authors find that incarceration is associated with reduced chances of entering marriage.     

Families,Not Parents,Differ: Development of Communication in Finnish Infants

This longitudinal study on Finnish families was conducted to identify developmental differences in family‐level communication among mothers, fathers, and their infants during the second half of the infant's first year, and associations with infants' later language and communicative skills. We examined coregulated communication of parent‐infant dyads during 5‐min laboratory play sessions at 7 and 11 months. Few differences in mutually regulated communicative exchanges emerged between maternal and paternal dyads, and few developmental changes were found across the whole sample. Families with different communication profiles were identified, and changes rather than stability characterized communicative development at the family level. The family‐level differences at 7 months predicted variation in children's language and communicative skills at 14 months.     

Educational Assortative Mating and Income Dynamics in Couples: A Longitudinal Dyadic Perspective

The question of how educational assortative mating may transform couples' lives and within‐family gender inequality has gained increasing attention. Using 25 waves (1979–2012) of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and longitudinal multilevel dyad models, this study investigated how educational assortative mating shapes income dynamics in couples during the marital life course. Couples were grouped into three categories—educational hypergamy (wives less educated than their husbands), homogamy, and hypogamy (wives more educated than their husbands). Results show that change in husbands' income with marital duration is similar across couples, whereas change in wives' income varies by educational assortative mating, with wives in educational hypogamy exhibiting more positive change in income during the marital life course. The finding that husbands' long‐term economic advancement is less affected than that of wives by educational assortative mating underscores the gender‐asymmetric nature of spousal influence in heterosexual marriages.     

“Families” in International Context: Comparing Institutional Effects Across Western Societies

We review comparative evidence of institutional effects on families in Western societies. We focus on 2 key aspects of family life: gendered divisions of labor and people's transitions into, within, and out of relationships. Many individual‐level models assume the effects are robust across countries. The international evidence over the past decade suggests instead that the socioeconomic and policy contexts strongly influence the significance and even direction of individual effects. A growing body of evidence also highlights important differences across social groups and family forms within countries. The pattern of relative gender, class, and other group equality varies across countries, as do related family experiences and outcomes. We conclude with suggestions for future comparative family research.     

Intentional Families: Fictive Kin Ties Between Cross‐Gender,Different Sexual Orientation Friends

This study explores the nature of intentional family relationships between friends of different genders and different sexual orientations. Drawing on in‐depth interviews with 46 members of 23 friendship dyads, I first make the case that the friends considered one another family and I specify the criteria they use for making such designations. I then focus on the ways in which gender and sexual orientation influenced relationships between lesbians and straight men and between gay men and straight women. The data provided evidence that the dyad members identified one another as family and served the functions of family for each other. The findings also suggest that various gender issues affect cross‐gender, different sexual orientation relationships. Exploring the meaning and functioning of these intentional family ties documents their existence and illuminates their meaning and maintenance.     

Did Unilateral Divorce Laws Raise Divorce Rates in Western Europe?

The increase in European divorce rates over the past decades was accompanied by several changes in divorce laws. Yet for European countries, research on the effects of divorce law on the divorce rate is scarce. Most of the existing studies are based on data from North America and provide numerous, but inconsistent, results. We use fixed‐effects regression models to examine the impact of the introduction of unilateral divorce on the divorce rate in Western European countries. We find that de facto unilateral divorce practices led to a sustainable increase in the divorce rate, whereas legal rights to unilaterally divorce had no long‐run effects.     

YOUTH DEPRESSION AND FUTURE CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR

While the contemporaneous association between mental health problems and criminal behavior has been explored in the literature, the long‐term consequences of such problems, depression in particular, have received much less attention. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we examine the effect of depression during adolescence on the probability of engaging in a number of criminal behaviors later in life. In our analysis, we control for a rich set of individual‐, family‐, and neighborhood‐level factors to account for conditions that may be correlated with both childhood depression and adult criminality. One novelty in our approach is the estimation of school and sibling fixed effects models to account for unobserved heterogeneity at the neighborhood and family levels. Furthermore, we exploit the longitudinal nature of our data set to account for baseline differences in criminal behavior. The empirical estimates show that adolescents who suffer from depression face a substantially increased probability of engaging in property crime. We find little evidence that adolescent depression predicts the likelihood of engaging in violent crime or the selling of illicit drugs. Our estimates imply that the lower‐bound economic cost of property crime associated with adolescent depression is approximately 227 million dollars per year. (JEL I10, K42)     

Testing the Parent–Adolescent Acculturation Discrepancy Hypothesis: A Five‐Wave Longitudinal Study

This 2½‐year, 5‐wave longitudinal study tests the hypothesis that acculturation discrepancies between Hispanic immigrant parents and adolescents would lead to compromised family functioning, which would then lead to problematic adolescent outcomes. Recent‐immigrant Hispanic parent–adolescent dyads (N = 302) completed measures of acculturation and family functioning. Adolescents completed measures of positive youth development, depressive symptoms, problem behavior, and substance use. Results indicated that Time 1 discrepancies in Hispanic culture retention, and linear trajectories in some of these discrepancies, negatively predicted adolescent positive youth development, and positively predicted adolescent depressive symptoms and binge drinking, indirectly through adolescent‐reported family functioning. The vast majority of effects were mediated rather than direct, supporting the acculturation discrepancy hypothesis. Implications for further research and intervention are discussed.     

Reunion Patterns in the Still‐Face Paradigm as Predicted by Maternal Sensitivity and Dyadic Coordination

Previous studies have suggested that the reunion episode of the still‐face procedure has the potential to reveal the regulatory resources of the mother–infant dyad that appear to be predictive of future adaptation. Nevertheless, differences across dyads with respect to these resources have received little attention, as also have the factors that are responsible for such differences. This study addresses this gap in the literature by testing whether the dyad reunion patterns can be predicted by the mothers' sensitivity assessed 3 months earlier, and by the contingent degree of the matched states in the play episode. Three dyadic patterns were identified through cluster analysis, which were characterized by playful, neutrally matched, and disrupted interactions. Multinomial logistic regression shows that the mothers' sensitivity predicts membership to the playful group, and the matched states in the play episode predict membership to the neutrally matched and disrupted groups. These findings show that the vulnerability to disrupt an ongoing interaction after a temporary perturbation is seen for only some dyads; moreover, they support the view of early regulatory development as a multidetermined achievement. Overall, these findings have important theoretical implications related to the identification of early regulatory difficulties as precursors of later developmental outcomes.     

Giving Unto Others: Private Financial Transfers and Hardship Among Families With Children

Prior research shows that financial assistance from family and friends is an important source of support for families with children. Research on financial transfers has largely focused on the recipients of transfers, however. In this study, using longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (n ～ 16,000 person‐waves), the authors examine the association between the provision of financial assistance to family and friends and material hardship. The results from pooled regression and fixed effects models indicate that providing financial transfers is associated with an increased risk of hardship. The most economically disadvantaged groups, single mothers, those in the bottom income tertile, and Black mothers are the most likely to experience hardship after giving a transfer. These findings have important implications for understanding why families may have difficulty meeting basic and essential needs and how social networks may exacerbate the challenges of escaping poverty and establishing economic self‐sufficiency.     

The Transition to Parent Care: Costs,Commitments, and Caregiver Selection Among Children

This research traced the process of caregiver selection among adult children longitudinally, investigating how transitions to parent care were influenced by previous constellations of caregiving costs and commitments within sibling groups. The authors used data from 6 waves (1998–2008) of the Health and Retirement Study, selecting a sample of families (N = 641 parents comprising N = 2,452 parent–child dyads) in which they observed at least 1 adult child becoming a caregiver to a previously self‐sufficient parent. Among cost‐related factors, this transition was predicted primarily by between‐sibling differences in previous geographical distances to the parent and, to a lesser extent, competing demands in work and family spheres. The indicators for caregiving commitments showed the importance of reciprocity, path dependency, and parental expectations as motivational forces affecting the process of caregiver selection among adult children. Gender effects revealed the primacy of the mother–daughter tie, as daughters were overrepresented only in transitions to mother care.     

Double-embeddedness: Spatial and relational contexts of tie persistence and re-formation

Personal relationships are embedded in both spatial and relational contexts. Using data on 60 intentional communities from the Urban Communes Data Set, we examine how such embedding is related to the persistence and re-formation of close personal ties over a thirteen year period, beginning from when most members had been out of their group environments more than a decade. We find that local network structure—the pattern of dyads immediately surrounding any dyad—is extremely weighty in which ties persist, which lapse, and which are re-initiated, but that the precise ways in which local structure affects contact are bound up with the distance between dyad members. We also find asymmetries in these processes that other studies have been unable to uncover—that processes that lead ties to be dropped are not the same as those that lead them to be renewed; that increases in local embeddedness are not opposite of decreases; that change in contact is not the same as change in friendship. Finally, there is evidence of hierarchical effects influencing the retention of friendships more than twenty-five years after most respondents left their groups.     

Infant–Mother and Infant–Caregiver Emotional Relationships: Process Analyses of Interactions in Three Contemporary Childcare Arrangements

Emotional relationships in infant–mother dyads in families where mothers provided full‐time childcare were compared with those of families where mothers used in‐home childcare providers and family childcare providers (N = 245). Infant relationships with childcare providers were also studied. Emotional relationships were adequate in all three childcare arrangements, but infant–mother dyads in in‐home childcare arrangements displayed healthier emotional relationships than infant–mother dyads in mother care arrangements; no differences in the health of emotional relationships with infants emerged among the three types of childcare providers (mother care, in‐home childcare, family childcare). Infant–mother dyads in in‐home childcare arrangements also displayed healthier emotional relationships than infant–in‐home childcare caregiver dyads, but infant–mother and infant–caregiver dyads were comparable in family childcare families. Emotional relationships in infant–mother and infant–caregiver dyads were not correlated, regardless of the type of childcare.