Compared with peers who did not experience family transitions in early childhood, fifth-graders who experienced more family instability before the first grade exhibited lower levels of social competence and more behavior problems and said that they were more lonely than other children.
Compared with peers whose families were more stable, fifth graders who had experienced more family transitions exhibited lower levels of social skills and engaged in higher levels of problem behavior.
Compared with peers in intact families, children in blended or step families tended to have significantly lower GPAs and less positive engagement with school tasks and relationships.
Differences in educational attainment, income and occupational prestige at age twenty-six outcomes between children of divorce living with single parents or stepfamilies at age 14 that did not experience any changes in their family situation during late adolescence and peers who did remained significant after adjusting for differences in family financial and social resources at age 14, such as family income, educational savings, frequency of parent-child discussion about school and activities, extent to which parents trusted respondents as adolescents, number of school changes, and number of friends’ parents known by respondents’ parents.
Differences in educational attainment, income, and occupational prestige at age twenty-six between individuals from intact families and peers from stable non-intact families may be partially or fully explained, depending on the specific outcome, by differences in their families’ financial and social resources at age 14, such as family income, educational savings, frequency of parent-child discussion about school and activities, extent to which parents trusted respondents as adolescents, number of school changes, and number of friends’ parents known by respondents’ parents.
Individuals who lived in single-parent families or stepfamilies prior to the 8th grade and experienced changes in their family structure between the ages of 14 and 18 fared, on average, poorer on measures of attendance at a post-secondary educational institution, overall educational attainment, income, poverty status, and occupational prestige at age 26 compared to peers raised in intact families.
Fourteen-year-olds who watched television for one or more hours a day were more likely than peers who watched less television to experience attention difficulties, fail to do homework assignments, and have negative attitudes towards school. These attributes, in turn, made them more likely to receive failing grades in high school and to fail to complete post-secondary education: those who watched three or more hours of television a day were the least likely to achieve post-secondary education.
Compared with other peers, youths who said religion was important in their lives and/or attended religious services frequently were less likely to smoke, use alcohol, be truant, be sexually active, use marijuana, or report feelings of depression, even when controlling for family background variables and self-esteem.
Young adults of more educated mothers tended to be more supportive of premarital sex and cohabitation and less supportive of a breadwinner-housewife model than peers of less educated mothers, controlling for fathers’ education.
Young adults whose fathers showed stronger interest in their education at age 16 were less likely to fail to have their qualifications (the equivalent of dropping out of high school in the U.S.) than peers whose fathers showed less interest in their education. Each unit of increase in fathers’ interest in their children’s education was associated with a 68-percent decrease in the odds of not having qualifications. Similarly, young adults whose mothers showed more interest in their education at age 16 were more likely to have completed their qualifications than peers whose mothers showed less interest. Each unit of increase in mothers’ interest in their children’s education was associated with a 63-percent decrease in the odds of not having qualifications.
In a British sample, mothers’ and fathers’ involvement (e.g., interest in their children’s education, frequency of outings with their children) during childhood appeared to impact young adults’ educational attainment. Fathers’ interest in their children’s education appeared to have the strongest effect on educational attainment, followed by mothers’ interested in their children’s education, frequency of outings with mothers, and, finally, frequency of outings with fathers.
In a British sample, individuals whose mothers showed more interest in their education at age 11 were less likely to fail to have their qualifications (the equivalent of dropping out of high school in the U.S.) than peers whose mothers showed less interest in their education. Each unit of increase in mothers’ interest in their children’s education was associated with 44-percent reduction in the odds of failing to have their having qualifications. Similarly, individuals who enjoyed frequent outings with their mothers at age 11 were less likely to fail to have their qualifications than peers who had fewer outings with their mothers at age 11. Each unit of increase in outings with mothers was associated with 29-percent decrease in the odds of not having qualifications
In a British sample, individuals whose fathers showed more interest in their education at age 11 were less likely to have their qualifications (the equivalent of dropping out of high school in the U.S.) compared to peers whose fathers showed less interest in their education. Each unit of increase in fathers’ interest in their children’s education was associated with 59-percent reduction in the odds of their having qualifications. Similarly, individuals who enjoyed frequent outings with their fathers at age 11 were less likely not to have their qualifications compared to peers who had outings with their fathers at age 11. Each unit of increase in outings with fathers was associated with a 23-percent decrease in the odds of not having qualifications.
Living in non-intact families, as opposed to living in intact families, did not appear to have any impact on youths' expectations of attending college. However, changes in family structure during early and later childhood—particularly those regarding mothers' presence in the home—were negatively associated with having high expectations of attending college later in adolescence. Each change in the presence of the mother in home during childhood was associated with a 50 percent reduction in the odds of having high expectations of attending college later in adolescence, and each change during later childhood is associated with a 25 percent reduction in such expectations.
For adolescents, living in some types of non-intact families, relative to living in intact families, appeared to be negatively associated with their academic performance. Each year of living in families with single mothers and their cohabiting partners or with single mothers or fathers only was associated with reductions in GPA relative to living with two original parents. Changes in family structure during early childhood—be it changes in the presence of the mother or the father in the home—appeared to be associated with lower GPA as well.
Compared to young adults enrolled in four-year colleges, those who did not attend college were more likely to report a decrease in their religious service attendance, a decline in importance of religion in their lives, and a change to no religious affiliation.
Parents' discussions with their children about religion was related to a decrease in the likelihood that their children would exhibit problem behavior in school.
Children were less likely to exhibit behavioral problems at school if either of their parents (particularly their mothers) attended religious services and if both parents attended church with the same frequency, whether sporadically or frequently, than children whose parents did not attend religious services at all.
Compared with children who experienced poorer quality child care, those who experienced higher quality early child care had higher vocabulary scores in the fifth grade.
Compared with peers who were cared for by their parents, first-graders who were in center-based care had, on average, lower math scores.
African American males whose parents had an authoritarian parenting style, incorporated messages of cultural heritage, and were involved in their schoolwork were more likely to succeed in school than peers who experienced different parenting practices.
Compared with peers living with two married biological parents, children who lived with unmarried mothers and their cohabiting partners averaged lower scores on a calculation cognitive achievement test, controlling for children’s race, age, gender, family size, whether or not father pays child support, father’s age education, work hours, earnings, as well as the amount of time fathers and mothers spent doing activities with their children.
Among children living in two-parent, two-child families, those living with married biological fathers tended to have higher calculation cognitive achievement test scores and to exhibit less behavioral problems compared to peers living with unmarried biological fathers, stepfathers, or mothers’ male cohabiting partners, controlling for children’s gender, age, race, fathers’ age, family size, share of the year lived with fathers, whether fathers paid child support, fathers’ education, mothers’ and fathers’ work hours and earnings, and blended family status. Children living in intact families (married-biological-parent families) tended to score the highest on the cognitive achievement test and to have the lowest levels of behavioral problems.
Compared with peers in intact families, youths in single-parent families were more likely to have friends who engaged in physical fighting in the last 12 months, drank alcohol, smoked cigarettes, skipped schools, and had lower grades in school.
Family stability during childhood was associated with higher levels of high school math attainment. Adolescents who experienced fewer family structure changes growing up (e.g., changes in their parents’ marital status) were more likely to graduate from high school having completed Algebra II than without having completed it compared to peers who experienced less family stability. One documented change in family structure was associated with a 21-percent decrease in the odds of graduating from high school having completed Algebra II than without having completed it, controlling for teens’ demographic characteristics, family structure at birth, parental education, parent child relationship quality, school context, teens’ math attainment by 9th grade, their educational aspirations and psychological well-being.
