The impact of family formation change on the cognitive, social, and emotional well-being of the next generation
The impact of family formation change on the cognitive, social, and emotional well-being of the next generation
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DOI：
10.1353/foc.2005.0012
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发表时间：
2005-09-01
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Amato, PR
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文献类型：
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作者：
Amato, PR
美国家庭结构最近的变化如何影响该国儿童的认知、社会和情感福祉？保罗·阿马托（Paul Amato）研究了家庭组建对儿童的影响，并评估了当前的婚姻促进计划是否可能满足儿童的需求。阿马托首先调查了拥有双亲亲生父母的家庭中的孩子与只有亲生父母之一的家庭中的孩子有何不同。他表明，在两个连续婚姻的父母的陪伴下长大的孩子，不仅在童年时期而且在成年时期都不太可能经历广泛的认知、情感和社会问题。尽管不可能证明家庭结构导致了这些差异，但使用各种复杂的统计方法进行的研究表明情况确实如此。阿马托随后询问是什么导致了这两组儿童之间的差异。他表明，与其他孩子相比，那些在稳定的双亲家庭长大的孩子生活水平更高，接受更有效的养育，经历更合作的共同养育，在情感上与父母双方更接近，并且受到更少的压力事件和环境。最后，阿马托评估了当前的婚姻促进政策将如何影响儿童的福祉。他发现，增加与父母共同成长的孩子比例的干预措施只能有限地改善美国儿童的整体福祉，因为儿童的社交或情感问题有多种原因，家庭结构只是其中之一。但干预措施虽然只能略微降低美国儿童经历各种问题的总体比例，但仍可能大幅降低经历这些问题的儿童数量。即使百分比略有下降，乘以人口中儿童的数量，也会产生巨大的社会效益。
How have recent changes in U.S. family structure affected the cognitive, social, and emotional well-being of the nation's children? Paul Amato examines the effects of family formation on children and evaluates whether current marriage-promotion programs are likely to meet children's needs.Amato begins by investigating how children in households with both biological parents differ from children in households with only one biological parent. He shows that children growing up with two continuously married parents are less likely to experience a wide range of cognitive, emotional, and social problems, not only during childhood but also in adulthood. Although it is not possible to demonstrate that family structure causes these differences, studies using a variety of sophisticated statistical methods suggest that this is the case.Amato then asks what accounts for the differences between these two groups of children. He shows that compared with other children, those who grow tip in stable, two-parent families have a higher standard of living, receive more effective parenting, experience more cooperative co-parenting, are emotionally closer to both parents, and are subjected to fewer stressful events and circumstances.Finally, Amato assesses how current marriage-promotion policies will affect the well-being of children. He finds that interventions that increase the share of children who grow up with both parents would improve the overall well-being of U.S. children only modestly, because children's social or emotional problems have many causes, of which family structure is but one. But interventions that lower only modestly the overall share of U.S. children experiencing various problems could nevertheless lower substantially the number of children experiencing them. Even a small decline in percentages, when multiplied by the many children in the population, is a substantial social benefit.