Family Structure, Parenting and Child Wellbeing

描述（由申请人提供）：本项目将支持Marcia J. Carlson博士的长期研究目标，即研究家庭环境如何影响儿童和父母的幸福，特别强调母亲-父亲和亲子二元关系。作为一名家庭社会学家和人口统计学家，卡尔森博士现在通过获得发展心理学和统计/计量经济学方法的额外培训，努力拓宽她的研究技能和经验，这将提高她的研究能力，家庭结构和过程如何影响父母和孩子。这个项目将使她能够参加实质性和方法论的课程，并与四位杰出的导师一起工作。Jeanne Brooks-Gunn， Irv Garfinkel博士，Sara McLanahan博士和Jane Waldfogel博士——在各自的领域都备受尊敬。本项目将利用《脆弱家庭与儿童福利研究》的新数据，对一组非婚生儿童的家庭结构、父母关系、父亲参与和儿童福利之间的联系进行研究。特别是，本研究有以下具体目的：1)描述非婚生儿童所经历的一系列家庭环境，包括家庭结构、父母彼此关系的质量、父亲（和母亲）参与儿童的性质，以及一系列相关的社会、人口和经济特征；2)分析父母关系的状态和质量——在非婚生育后随着时间的推移而演变——如何影响父亲与孩子相处的性质和质量；3)评估父亲对孩子的参与与儿童幸福感的关系；4)评估家庭结构影响未婚父母所生子女的机制（包括直接和间接影响），以及这些中介途径与离婚文献中确定的相似或不同的程度。这项研究将使用新的数据来扩展我们对家庭过程及其对未婚父母和他们的孩子的影响的认识。为了制定健全的社会计划和政策，对这个不断增长但研究不足的人口群体有更多的了解是至关重要的。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project would provide support to Dr. Marcia J. Carlson to pursue her long-term research objective of studying how family contexts affect the well-being of children and parents, with particular emphasis on mother-father and parent-child dyadic relationships. Trained as a family sociologist and demographer, Dr. Carlson now endeavors to broaden her research skills and experience by obtaining additional training in developmental psychology and statistical/econometric methods that will enhance her ability to study, how family structure and processes affect parents and children. This project would enable her to take substantive and methodological courses and to work with four exceptional mentors--Dr. Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Dr. Irv Garfinkel, Dr. Sara McLanahan, and Dr. Jane Waldfogel---each highly esteemed in their respective fields. This project will use new data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study to examine linkages among family structure, mother-father relationships, father involvement, and child well-being for a cohort of children born outside of marriage. In particular, this study has the following specific aims: 1) To describe the range of family circumstances experienced by children born outside of marriage, including family structure, the quality of parents' relationship with each other, the nature of fathers' (and mothers') involvement with children, and a range of associated social, demographic and economic characteristics; 2) To analyze how the status and quality of the relationship between mothers and fathers--as it evolves over time following a non-marital birth--affects the nature and quality of fathers' involvement with their children; 3) To assess how fathers' involvement with their children is associated with child well-being; 4) To evaluate the mechanisms by which family structure affects children born to unmarried parents (including direct and indirect effects) and the extent to which the mediating pathways are similar to or different from those identified in the literature on divorce. This study will use new data to extend our knowledge about family processes and their consequences for unmarried parents and their children. In order to develop sound social programs and policies, it is crucial to understand more about this growing--but understudied--demographic group.