Maternal Re-Partnering, Parenting Behaviors, and Child Development

描述（由申请人提供）： 该提案旨在提供儿童发展、人口统计学和先进统计方法方面的额外培训，并支持研究家庭结构转变、养育行为与儿童认知和行为发展之间的关系。大量研究致力于婚姻解体以及单亲家庭结构与儿童福祉之间的联系。相比之下，尽管估计近三分之一的儿童将在再婚家庭中度过一段时间，但母亲重新成为伴侣对儿童的影响受到的关注较少。本研究将集中在母亲的重新合作对养育行为和儿童发展的影响，特别注意是否有这些影响的差异时，这种“重新合作”构成同居，而不是婚姻。它有四个具体目标：（1）估计家庭结构变化对儿童认知和行为发展的影响，重点是母亲重新合作;（2）探讨母亲重新合作对母亲养育行为变化的影响;（3）比较生物学父亲和“社会”父亲使用的养育行为和纪律策略类型（即，与妇女及其亲生子女结婚或同居的男子，但不是这些子女的亲生父亲）;以及（4）检查养育行为的变化是否以及如何解释（即，家庭结构的变化与儿童的成就和行为的变化之间的联系。这些目标将使用来自3项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母亲重新合作和养育行为与婚姻状况的儿童结果之间的关联是否存在差异。他们还将考虑产妇重新伴侣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会经历母亲的重新伴侣关系，因此了解可能伴随这些转变的育儿行为，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设计方案和政策以促进复杂家庭结构中儿童的福利具有影响。

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.