Since the 1960’s, family instability has dramatically increased in the U.S. Research examining this trend has shown that several family variables have contributed to observed increases in family instability including a rise in parental cohabitation and premarital childbearing (Ventura & Bachrach, 2000). It has been shown that the relationships in families characterized by multiple disruptions in makeup are less stable than traditional marriages (Osborne, Manning & Smock, 2007)The increase in cohabitation indicates that children in these families are experiencing multiple changes in family structure and makeup over the course of their development. These trends in family construction have led researchers to investigate the effects of cohabitation on children’s adjustment and well-being.
A large body of research indicates that children exposed to several transition in family makeup display poorer adjustment compared to children raised in stable families. However, some resent research studies suggest that the relationship between family instability and negative child adjustment is not causal but that the relationship is accounted for by separate causal factors such as antecedent parental characteristic. Thus, current research findings lead to two different hypotheses regarding causal relationships between family disruptions and child outcomes.
The first hypothesis involves a direct relationship between these two factors, stating that parental cohabitation results in negative child cognitive, behavioral and emotional adjustment. The second hypothesis indicates that other factors account for both family instability and child outcomes stating that selection factors (e.g. parent behavior) accounts for both family instability and negative child adjustment. This paper will examine these alternate hypotheses. It is expected that the findings will indicate that there is a direct relationship between family instability and negative child adjustment outcomes, thereby accepting the instability hypothesis and rejecting the selection hypothesis.
The number of children residing with two biological parents has been steadily decreasing in the past two decades due to divorce and blended families as well as the rates of non-traditional non-marital relationships. Population studies indicate that 50 percent of children will live in a single parent household at some point in their childhood with a significant proportion of them experiencing more than one family transition (Bianchi, & Casper, 2000). An increasing number of research studies have demonstrated the deleterious effects of multiple family transitions on child adjustment. These findings have been replicated in different age groups, including early childhood, middle childhood and adolescence [e.g. Cavenaugh & Huston, 2006] and a variety of child adjustment outcomes including delinquent behavior, behavior problems, and teenage pregnancy [e.g. Fomby & Cherlin, 2007].
One of the earliest studies on cohabiting families and child adjustment was conducted by Thomson, Hanson, & McLanahan (1994). They found that children living in a cohabiting family with their mother exhibited poorer school performance and more behavior problems than children living with parents married for the first time, parents remarried for the first time after a divorce or single mothers with a male living in the household. More recent studies support these findings, demonstrating that children living in cohabiting families show poorer adjustment evidenced by lower grades and increased behavior problems compared to children living in non-cohabiting relationships (Clark & Nelson, 2000; Dunifon & Kowalski-Jones, 2002).
Although there is currently abundant research examining the relationship between family instability and negative child outcomes, almost all of it involves children living with a biological mother and co-habiting male partner. However, non-traditional unions may be made up of two unmarried biological parents or one biological parent and a cohabiting male or female same sex or opposite sex partner. Additionally, many children live in single parent households which have traditionally been characterized as less stable than families headed by married parents. As researchers attempt to tease out the contributions to the relationship between family transitions and child outcomes, the composition of the family structure is an important variable to consider.
One recent study that examines differences in family makeup was conducted by
Brown (2004). This study was aimed at answering four question. First, the author examined whether children of two unmarried, co-habiting biological parents display worse adjustment than children of two married biological parents. The second question examined was whether children in cohabiting step families demonstrate worse adjustment that those in married step families. The third question investigated whether children in two biological co-habiting step families exhibit worse adjustment than children in two biological parent step-families. Finally, the author looked at whether children in single parent households show worse adjustment than children in either type of cohabiting families. The author also expanded on previous research by exploring these questions in a wide age range with children aged 6-17 years. The sample was obtained from the NSAF which is the largest national sample of households of those under the age of 65 obtained through interviews conducted with over 40,000 families. This yielded information on 1,033 children in different types of co-habiting families including 744 children living in co-habiting step families and 289 children living in two biological parent co-habiting families. Outcome variables included child behavioral and emotional problems. These two variables were evaluated with two measures, one for children aged 6-11 years and one for children aged 12-17 years. School adjustment was also included measured by questions evaluating the degree to which the child is concerned with academic achievement, does homework and completes schoolwork assigned during school hours. Regression analyses were used to predict the child adjustment variable from type of family structure. Results indicated that children in two biological parent married households displayed better adjustment indicated by less behavior and emotional problems and better academic engagement than all other family structure types. However, when breaking down the sample into individual family structure groups for comparison, no differences were found between children in any specific subtypes. This suggests that differences in child adjustment are associated with whether the parents are married and are biological and not step-families. However, the author points out that the sample does not include a measure of how many transition a child had experienced focusing just on the current living arrangement at the time the data was collected.
References
Brown, S. L. (2004). Family structure and child well‐being: The significance of parental
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Bianchi, S. M., & Casper, L. M. (2000). American families. Population Bulletin, 55, 1–44.
Cavanagh, Shannon E., and Aletha C. Huston (2006), "Family Instability and Children's
Early Problem Behavior", Social Forces, 85, 551-581.
Clark, R., & S. Nelson. 2000. "Beyond the two-parent family." Paper presented at the
annual meeting of the Population Association of America, March 23-25. Los
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Dunifon, R., & Kowaleski–Jones, L. (2002). Who’s in the house? Race differences in
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Fomby, P., & Cherlin, A. (2007). Family instability and child well-being. American
Sociological Review, 72, 181 – 204.
Osborne, C., Manning, W. D., & Smock, P. J. (2007). Married and cohabiting parents’
relationship stability: A focus on race and ethnicity. Journal of Marriage and Family,
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Thomson, E., Hanson, T. L., & McLanahan, S. S. (1994). Family structure and child
well-being: Economic resources vs. parental behaviors. Social Forces, 73(1), 221-242.
Ventura, S.J., Bachrach, C.A. (2000). Nonmarital childbearing in the United States, 1940-
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