Family relationships and child wellbeing in post-separation families

现有研究表明，父母离异的儿童在认知、社会、心理和健康方面的表现比生活在核心家庭的儿童更差；也就是说，家里有两个亲生父母。但是，高质量的家庭关系能否缓冲分居后家庭安排带来的负面影响呢？鉴于再婚家庭和单亲家庭所面临的独特压力和需求，拟议的项目调查了积极的家庭关系在多大程度上使儿童能够成功地应对德国的新家庭结构。研究的重点是多达五对家庭的关系质量：常住的父母-孩子，非常住的父母-孩子，亲生父母，以及（在继家庭的情况下）继父母和继父母-孩子。由于父母分居在许多西方国家变得越来越普遍，这种缓冲效应对儿童人口中相当大且不断增长的比例的福祉产生了影响。尽管已经发表了大量关于家庭结构和儿童结局之间关系的研究，但只有少数具有代表性的数据集允许研究人员分析复杂（步）家庭关系对分离后家庭中儿童福祉的影响。关于这一主题的少数研究发现，积极的（步）家庭关系与更高水平的儿童幸福有关。然而，现有的研究也存在一些不足。首先，人们对不同的家族是如何相互关联的知之甚少。其次，许多研究必须处理非常小的病例数。第三，现有的大部分研究都是在美国背景下进行的。在美国发现的结果是否可以推广到欧洲国家尚不清楚，因为各国之间存在相当大的社会和制度差异。使用来自德国家庭研究小组的数据，对再婚家庭（n=425）和单亲家庭（n=277）中8 - 15岁儿童的家庭关系和幸福感进行了调查。在一些实证分析中，这两个群体将与生活在核心家庭的2,211名儿童进行比较。调查这个丰富的数据集将揭示单亲家庭和再婚家庭的儿童结局是否会因他们所接触的家庭关系而有所不同。此外，在德国的背景下分析这些问题，将表明在美国发现的结果在多大程度上可以在欧洲国家复制。

Existing research indicates that children whose parents have separated fare worse in terms of their cognitive, social, psychological, and health outcomes than children who live in a nuclear family; i.e., with two biological parents in the household. But can high-quality family relationships buffer the negative effects of living in a post-separation family arrangement? In light of the unique stressors and demands faced by stepfamilies and one-parent families, the proposed project investigates to what extent positive family relations enable children to cope successfully with new family structures in Germany. The focus of the research is on the relationship quality of up to five family dyads: the resident parent–child, the nonresident parent-child, the biological parents, and (in the case of stepfamilies) the stepcouple as well as the stepparent–child dyad. Because parental separation has become increasingly common in many western countries, such buffering effects have implications for the wellbeing of a sizeable and growing proportion of the child population. Although a large number of studies on the association between family structure and child outcomes have been published, only a few representative datasets allow researchers to analyse the impact of complex (step)family relationships on child wellbeing in post-separation families. The few studies on this topic have found that positive (step)family relations are associated with higher levels of child wellbeing. However, there are some drawbacks of the existing studies. First, little is known about how different family dyads are interrelated. Second, many of the studies had to deal with very small case numbers. Third, most of the existing research was conducted in the US context. Whether the results found in the US can be extended to European countries is unclear, because there are considerable societal as well as institutional differences across countries. Using data from the German Family Panel pairfam, the family relationships and wellbeing of eight- to 15-year-old children in stepfamilies (n=425) and one-parent families (n=277) are investigated. In some of the empirical analyses, these two groups will be compared to 2,211 children living in nuclear families. Investigating this rich dataset will shed light on the question of whether child outcomes in one-parent families and stepfamilies vary depending on the family relations they are exposed to. Moreover, analysing these issues in the German context will indicate to what extent the results found in the US can be replicated in a European country.