The Relative Effects of Family Instability and Mother/Partner Conflict on Children’s Externalizing Behavior

A growing body of research has found support for the idea that children’s behavioral development and school performance may be influenced as much by multiple changes in family composition during childhood as by the quality and character of the families in which children reside at any given point (Cavanagh and Huston 2006; Cavanagh, Schiller, and Riegle-Crumb 2006; Fomby and Cherlin 2007; Heard 2007a; Heard 2007b; Heaton and Forste 2007; Osborne and McLanahan 2007; Wu 1996; Wu and Martinson 1993; Wu and Thomson 2001). Much of the research on instability has focused specifically on the effects for children of experiencing the repeated formation and dissolution of cohabiting and marital unions. Underlying the research on the effects of union instability is the concept that children and their parents or parent-figures form a functioning family system, and repeated disruptions to that system, caused by either the addition or departure of a parent’s partner or spouse, may lead to behaviors with potentially deleterious long-term consequences.

Mothers’ Time, the Parenting Package, and Links to Healthy Child Development

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142163/1/jomf12432_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142163/2/jomf12432.pd

Family Instability, Multipartner Fertility, and Behavior in Middle Childhood

Two concepts capture the dynamic and complex nature of contemporary family structure: family instability and multipartner fertility. Although these circumstances are likely to co‐occur, their respective literatures have proceeded largely independently. The authors used data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 3,062) to consider these dimensions of dynamic family structure together, asking whether they independently predict children’s behavior problems at age 9. Frequent family instability was consistently predictive of higher predicted levels of behavior problems for children born to mothers who were unmarried, an association largely attenuated by factors related to family stress. Multipartner fertility was robustly related to self‐reported delinquency and teacher‐reported behavior problems among children born to mothers who were married.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135331/1/jomf12349.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135331/2/jomf12349_am.pd

Data Collection on Sensitive Topics with Adolescents Using Interactive Voice Response Technology

We describe the development and implementation of a survey administered using interactivevoice response (IVR) technology to collect information on sensitive topics in a USnational sample of adolescents age 12-17. Respondents were participants in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics 2014 Child Development Supplement (N=1,098). We review questionnaire design, fieldwork protocols, data quality and completeness, and respondent burden. We find that in the context of research on sensitive topics with adolescents, IVR is a cost-efficient and flexible method of data collection that yields high survey response rates and low item nonresponse rates with distributions on key variables that are comparable to other national studies

Family Resources in Two Generations and School Readiness Among Children of Teen Parents

Overall, children born to teen parents experience disadvantaged cognitive achievement at school entry compared with children born to older parents. However, within this population, there is variation, with a significant fraction of teen parents’ children acquiring adequate preparation for school entry during early childhood. We ask whether the family background of teen parents explains this variation. We use data on children born to teen mothers from three waves of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (N ~ 700) to study the association of family background with children’s standardized reading and mathematics achievement scores at kindergarten entry. When neither maternal grandparent has completed high school, children’s scores on standardized assessments of math and reading achievement are one-quarter to one-third of a standard deviation lower compared with families where at least one grandparent finished high school. This association is net of teen mothers’ own socioeconomic status in the year prior to children’s school entry

Appendices to Fomby, Paula, Joshua A. Goode, Kim-Phuong Truong-Vu, and Stefanie Mollborn (2019). “Adolescent Technology, Sleep, and Physical Activity Time in Two U.S. Cohorts.” Youth & Society.

This document includes three tables and one figure provided as appendices to Fomby, Paula, Joshua A. Goode, Kim-Phuong Truong-Vu, and Stefanie Mollborn (2019). “Adolescent Technology, Sleep, and Physical Activity Time in Two U.S. Cohorts.” Youth & Society.The advent of Internet-enabled mobile digital devices has transformed U.S. adolescent technology use over the last decade, yet little is known about how these changes map onto other health-related behaviors. We provide a national profile of how contemporary technology use fits into adolescents’ daily health lifestyles compared with the previous generation, with particular attention to whether and for whom technology use displaces time spent in sleep or physical activity. Time diaries were collected from 11- to 17-year-olds in 2002-2003 (N = 1,139) and 2014-2016 (N = 527) through the U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics Child Development Supplement. Contemporary adolescents spent 40 minutes more per week in technology-focused activities, but their composition was more varied compared with the earlier cohort. Contemporary technology use was predictive of less time in physical activity, and adolescents who engaged in frequent video game play spent less time in physical activity compared with peers with other technology use profiles.National Science Foundation (NSF) grant SES 1729463; Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P2C HD066613)Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150195/1/fomby et al 2019 youth and society appendices.pdf137Description of fomby et al 2019 youth and society appendices.pdf : Main document (appendix to published article

Family Resources in Two Generations and School Readiness Among Children of Teen Parents

Overall, children born to teen parents experience disadvantaged cognitive achievement at school entry compared with children born to older parents. However, within this population, there is variation, with a significant fraction of teen parents’ children acquiring adequate preparation for school entry during early childhood. We ask whether the family background of teen parents explains this variation. We use data on children born to teen mothers from three waves of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (N ~ 700) to study the association of family background with children’s standardized reading and mathematics achievement scores at kindergarten entry. When neither maternal grandparent has completed high school, children’s scores on standardized assessments of math and reading achievement are one-quarter to one-third of a standard deviation lower compared with families where at least one grandparent finished high school. This association is net of teen mothers’ own socioeconomic status in the year prior to children’s school entry

When do socioeconomic resources matter most in early childhood?

Research has established the importance of early socioeconomic advantage and disadvantage for understanding later life outcomes, but less is known about change in the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and child development within the period of early childhood. Competing hypotheses drawn from the literature posited: (1) a stable SES-development relationship, (2) a stronger relationship in infancy than at older ages, and (3) a stronger relationship at school entry than at younger ages. Using the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (2001–2007), we followed 8600 children from infancy through kindergarten entry to model change over time in the relationship between socioeconomic status and cognitive and behavioral development. The unexpected main finding was that the relationships between three socioeconomic measures (household income, assets, and maternal educational attainment) strengthened from infancy through age 4 or 4½, then weakened slightly until the start of kindergarten. Indirect evidence suggested preschool education as one possible explanation. We argue for researchers to expand the school transition concept to include the now widespread prekindergarten year, as well as for attention to psychological and physiological developmental factors that may shape the relationship between SES and cognitive and behavioral development throughout early childhood

How Resource Dynamics Explain Accumulating Developmental and Health Disparities for Teen Parents’ Children

This study examines the puzzle of disparities experienced by U.S. teen parents’ young children, whose health and development increasingly lag behind those of peers while their parents are simultaneously experiencing socioeconomic improvements. Using the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (2001–2007; N ≈ 8,600), we assess four dynamic patterns in socioeconomic resources that might account for these growing developmental and health disparities throughout early childhood and then test them in multilevel growth curve models. Persistently low socioeconomic resources constituted the strongest explanation, given that consistently low income, maternal education, and assets fully or partially account for growth in cognitive, behavioral, and health disparities experienced by teen parents’ children from infancy through kindergarten. That is, although teen parents gained socioeconomic resources over time, those resources remained relatively low, and the duration of exposure to limited resources explains observed growing disparities. Results suggest that policy interventions addressing the time dynamics of low socioeconomic resources in a household, in terms of both duration and developmental timing, are promising for reducing disparities experienced by teen parents’ children