Maternal Re-Partnering, Parenting Behaviors, and Child Development

描述（由申请人提供）：本提案旨在提供儿童发展，人口学和高级统计方法方面的额外培训，并支持研究家庭结构转变，父母行为和儿童认知和行为发展之间的关系。相当多的研究致力于婚姻破裂以及单亲家庭结构与儿童福祉之间的关系。相比之下，尽管估计有近三分之一的孩子会在再婚家庭中度过一段时间，但母亲再婚对孩子的影响却较少受到关注。本研究将重点关注母亲重新合作对养育行为和儿童发展的影响，特别关注当这种“重新合作”构成同居而不是婚姻时，这些影响是否存在差异。它有四个具体目标：(1)评估家庭结构变化对儿童认知和行为发展变化的影响，重点是母亲的重新伙伴关系；(2)探讨母亲再伴侣对母亲教养行为变化的影响；(3)比较亲生父亲与“社会”父亲（即与女性及其亲生子女结婚或同居，但不是这些子女亲生父亲的男性）所使用的育儿行为和管教策略的类型；(4)研究父母行为的变化是否以及如何解释（即调解）家庭结构变化与儿童成就和行为变化之间的关联。这些目标将使用3个基于人口的纵向研究的数据来解决：脆弱家庭和儿童福利研究，收入动态小组研究和全国青年纵向调查。所有的分析都将专门测试婚姻状况对母亲再婚、养育行为和儿童结局之间的关联是否存在差异。他们还将考虑母亲再婚的影响是否因儿童年龄和性别以及家庭社会经济地位而异。最后，他们将评估母亲重新合作对养育子女和儿童福祉的影响是暂时的还是长期持续的。由于相当大比例的儿童在童年时期将经历母亲的重新伙伴关系，因此了解这些转变可能伴随的父母行为、家庭动态和儿童发展的变化至关重要。这项研究对旨在鼓励婚姻和家庭形成的公共政策，以及为复杂家庭结构中的儿童设计促进儿童福祉的项目和政策具有启示意义。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal is intended to provide additional training in child development, demography, and advanced statistical methods and to support research examining relationships between family structure transitions, parenting behaviors, and children's cognitive and behavioral development. A considerable body of research has been devoted to marital dissolution and associations between single-parent family structure and child wellbeing. In contrast, the effects of maternal re-partnering on children have received less attention, despite estimates that nearly a third of children will spend some time in stepfamilies. This research will focus on the effects of maternal re-partnering on parenting behaviors and child development, paying specific attention to whether there are differences in these effects when such "re-partnering" constitute cohabitations, as opposed to marriages. It has 4 specific aims: (1) To estimate the effects of changes in family structure, with an emphasis on maternal re-partnering, on changes in children's cognitive and behavioral development; (2) To explore the effects of maternal re-partnering on changes in maternal parenting behaviors; (3) To compare the types of parenting behaviors and discipline strategies utilized by biological fathers to those utilized by "social" fathers (i.e., men who are married to, or cohabiting with, women and their biological children, but who are not those children's biological fathers); and (4) To examine whether and how changes in parenting behaviors may explain (i.e., mediate) associations between changes in family structure and changes in children's achievement and behavior. These aims will be addressed using data from 3 population based longitudinal studies: the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. All analyses will specifically test whether there are differences in associations between maternal re-partnering and parenting behaviors and child outcomes by marital status. They will also consider whether the impact of maternal re-partnering varies by child age and gender, as well as family socioeconomic status. Finally, they will assess whether effects of maternal re-partnering on parenting and child wellbeing are transitory or persist over time. As a sizeable proportion of children will experience maternal re-partnerships during the course of their childhoods, it is crucial to understand the changes in parenting behaviors, family dynamics, and child development that may accompany these transitions. This research has implications for public policies intended to encourage marriage and family formation, as well as for designing programs and policies to promote child wellbeing for children in complex family structures.