Family Structure, Parenting and Child Wellbeing

说明(由申请人提供)：该项目将支持Marcia J.Carlson博士实现她的长期研究目标，即研究家庭环境如何影响儿童和父母的福祉，特别强调母亲-父亲和父母-孩子的二元关系。作为一名受过家庭社会学家和人口学家培训的卡尔森博士，现在努力通过接受发展心理学和统计/计量经济学方法的额外培训来拓宽她的研究技能和经验，这些培训将增强她研究家庭结构和过程如何影响父母和孩子的能力。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合作。Jeanne Brooks-Gunn、Irv Garfinkel博士、Sara McLanahan博士和Jane Waldfogel博士-他们在各自的领域都很受尊敬。该项目将使用脆弱家庭和儿童福祉研究的新数据来检查家庭结构、父母关系、父亲参与和非婚生子女队列中儿童福祉之间的联系。具体来说，这项研究有以下具体目的：1)描述非婚生子女所经历的家庭环境的范围，包括家庭结构、父母关系的质量、父亲(和母亲)与子女的关系的性质，以及一系列相关的社会、人口和经济特征；2)分析父母关系的地位和质量--随着非婚生育后的时间而演变--如何影响父亲与子女交往的性质和质量；3)评估父亲与子女的参与与子女幸福的关系；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)，以及中介途径与离婚文献中所确定的途径相似或不同的程度。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了解。为了制定合理的社会方案和政策，更多地了解这一不断增长但未得到充分研究的人口群体至关重要。

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.