Domesticity
Family Complexity and Children's Behavior Problems over Two U.S. Cohorts
Paula Fomby, Ariane Ophir & Marcia Carlson
Journal of Marriage and Family, forthcoming
Method: Data are from the 1997 and 2014 cohorts of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics Child Development Supplement. Samples represent U.S. children aged 0–12 years born since 1985 (N = 5,030). Ordinary least squares regression estimated change in the association between family complexity and behavior between cohorts. Difference‐in‐difference models estimated baseline and longitudinal differences in children's behavior as linked to family complexity.
Results: The prevalence of family complexity has stabilized over the last two decades, and the antecedents to parental repartnering and complex sibship organization remain similar. The expectation that increasing family complexity contributes to elevated behavior problem scores was not supported. Instead, children who eventually acquired a step‐ or half‐sibling or who experienced parents' union dissolution had elevated behavior problems prior to those changes.
The Drug Crisis and the Living Arrangements of Children
Kasey Buckles, William Evans & Ethan Lieber
NBER Working Paper, July 2020
Abstract:
We examine the impact of the drug crisis that has unfolded over the last three decades in the United States on children’s living arrangements and environments. Because the current living arrangement could be a result of events that occurred at any point in a child’s life, we measure children’s exposure to the crisis with the cumulative drug-related mortality of likely parents. A potential omitted variables bias complicates the analysis, as the factors that may have led parents to abuse drugs could also have altered the living arrangements of their children. Within a 2SLS framework, we instrument for the cumulative mortality of likely parents with a child’s years of exposure to a non-triplicate prescription pad environment. Previous work by Alpert et al. (2019) demonstrates that pharmaceutical advertising was much more extensive in non-triplicate states and fostered the development of the drug crisis. Our results indicate that OLS and 2SLS estimates are nearly identical and the crisis increased both the fraction of children living away from a parent and in a household headed by a grandparent. We estimate that if drug abuse had remained at 1996 levels, 1.5 million fewer children aged 0-16 would have lived away from a parent in 2015.
The Rise of Working Mothers and the 1975 Earned Income Tax Credit
Jacob Bastian
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, August 2020, Pages 44-75
Abstract:
The rise of working mothers radically changed the US economy and the role of women in society. In one of the first studies of the 1975 introduction of the Earned Income Tax Credit, I find that this program increased maternal employment by 6 percent, representing 1 million mothers and an elasticity of 0.58. The EITC may help explain why the US has long had such a high fraction of working mothers despite few childcare subsidies or parental leave policies. I also find suggestive evidence that this influx of working mothers affected social attitudes and led to higher approval of working women.
Do Foster Care Agencies Discriminate Against Gay Couples? Evidence from a Correspondence Study
Mattie Mackenzie‐Liu, David Schwegman & Leonard Lopoo
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, forthcoming
Abstract:
There has been considerable recent debate regarding proposed policies that would allow foster care administrators to discriminate on the basis of the sexual orientation of the foster parent. To date, however, we know very little about the level of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in the foster care system. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first empirical investigation to ask whether foster care agencies, the public, and nonprofit firms that facilitate foster care placements respond similarly to e‐mails sent by fictitious same‐sex and heterosexual couples who inquire about becoming foster parents. Our results suggest that, while foster care agencies respond at somewhat similar rates to gay male couples, gay female couples, and heterosexual couples, responses sent to gay males are of lower quality. Gay males receive much shorter responses that take longer to receive. Responses to gay male couples are also less likely to include essential information about the process of becoming a foster parent, such as details about informational sessions or being given an application. We do not find any evidence of differential treatment towards same‐sex female couples.
The Coupon Collection Behavior in Human Reproduction
Erping Long & Jianzhi Zhang
Current Biology, forthcoming
Abstract:
There is evidence in humans for genetic influences on the probability (Pboy) that a birth yields a boy instead of a girl, suggesting a potential variation of Pboy among families. To quantify this variation, we analyze the survey data from over 300,000 UK Biobank participants primarily born between 1940 and 1970. Surprisingly, the proportion of male children in a family, or sex ratio (SR), has a significantly smaller among-family variation than expected under a uniform Pboy. We propose that this phenomenon results from reproductive behaviors reflecting a preference for having children of both sexes, much like the coupon collector’s problem in probability theory where collecting a complete set of distinct coupons is considered a win. We find that the observed deficit in SR variation is explainable by 3.3% of “coupon-collecting” families. Consistently, significantly more families than expected have all children of the same sex except for the child born last. This trend is more pronounced in the late than the early half of the families in the data, suggesting an increasing popularity of this behavior. Analysis of a Dutch genealogical dataset spanning the past 4 centuries reveals higher-than-expected SR variations over much of the history; only after 1940 did the SR variation drop below the expectation. We conclude that a significant fraction of couples now exhibit the coupon collection behavior in reproduction such that SR is more homogeneous among families than expected by chance.
Stress sensitization to depression following childhood adversity: Moderation by HPA axis and serotonergic multilocus profile scores
Lisa Starr et al.
Development and Psychopathology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Childhood adversity appears to sensitize youth to stress, increasing depression risk following stressful life events occurring throughout the lifespan. Some evidence suggests hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis-related and serotonergic genetic variation moderates this effect, in a “gene-by-environment-by-environment” interaction (G × E × E). However, prior research has tested single genetic variants, limiting power. The current study uses a multilocus genetic profile score (MGPS) approach to capture polygenic risk relevant to HPA axis and serotonergic functioning. Adolescents (N = 241, Mage = 15.90) completed contextual-threat-based interviews assessing childhood adversity and acute life events, and diagnostic interviews assessing depression. Established MGPSs indexed genetic variation linked to HPA axis (10 single nucleotide polymorphisms [SNPs]) and serotonergic (five SNPs) functioning. Results showed significant MGPS × Childhood Adversity × Recent Life Stress interactions predicting depression for both HPA axis and serotonergic MGPSs, with both risk scores predicting stronger Childhood Adversity × Recent Stress interactions. Serotonergic genetic risk specifically predicted sensitization to major interpersonal stressors. The serotonergic MGPS G × E × E was re-tested in an independent replication sample of early adolescent girls, with comparable results. Findings support the notion that genetic variation linked to these two neurobiological symptoms alters stress sensitization, and that gene-by-environment (G × E) interactions may be qualified by environmental exposures occurring at different points in development.