Citation

Fomby P, Osborne C. J. Marriage Fam. 2017; 79(1): 75-93.

Affiliation

Cynthia Osborne, University of Texas at Austin, LBJ School of Public Affairs, 2315 Red River St., PO Box Y, Austin, TX 78713.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, National Council on Family Relations, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/jomf.12349

PMID

28260813

PMCID

PMC5331486

Abstract

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. We 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 unmarried mothers, 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 married mothers.

Language: en