Family Values
Chris Herbst & Erdal Tekin
NBER Working Paper, January 2012
Abstract:
A complete account of the U.S. child care subsidy system requires an understanding of its implications for both parental and child well-being. Although the effects of child care subsidies on maternal employment and child development have been recently studied, many other dimensions of family well-being have received little attention. This paper attempts to fill this gap by examining the impact of child care subsidy receipt on maternal health and the quality of child-parent interactions. The empirical analyses use data from three nationally representative surveys, providing access to numerous measures of family well-being. In addition, we attempt to handle the possibility of non-random selection into subsidy receipt by using several identification strategies both within and across the surveys. Our results consistently indicate that child care subsidies are associated with worse maternal health and poorer interactions between parents and their children. In particular, subsidized mothers report lower levels of overall health and are more likely to show symptoms consistent with anxiety, depression, and parenting stress. Such mothers also reveal more psychological and physical aggression toward their children and are more likely to utilize spanking as a disciplinary tool. Together, these findings suggest that work-based public policies aimed at economically disadvantaged mothers may ultimately undermine family well-being.
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The Effect of a Child's Sex on Support for Traditional Gender Roles
Emily Fitzgibbons Shafer & Neil Malhotra
Social Forces, September 2011, Pages 209-222
Abstract:
We examine whether sex of child affects parents' beliefs about traditional gender roles. Using an improved methodological approach that explicitly analyzes the natural experiment via differences in differences, we find that having a daughter (vs. having a son) causes men to reduce their support for traditional gender roles, but a female child has no such effect among women, representing less than 4 percent of the size of the standard deviation of the attitude scale.
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Desiree Baolian Qin et al.
Journal of Adolescence, forthcoming
Abstract:
Chinese American students are often perceived as problem-free high achievers. Recent research, however, suggests that high-achieving Chinese American students can experience elevated levels of stress, especially comparing to their peers from other ethnic groups. In this paper, we examine how family dynamics may influence psychological adjustment among a group of high-achieving adolescents. Drawing on survey data collected on 295 Chinese American and 192 European American 9th graders attending a highly selective magnet school, our findings show that Chinese American adolescents reported significantly lower levels of psychological adjustment (d = -.31), and significantly less family cohesion (d = -.34) and more conflict (d = .56) than their European American peers. Further, the ethnic differences on adjustment disappeared after controlling for perceptions of family cohesion and conflict, indicating that such perceptions may be a key factor in understanding the high academic achievement/low psychological adjustment paradoxical pattern of development among Chinese American adolescents.
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Expansions in Maternity Leave Coverage and Children's Long-Term Outcomes
Christian Dustmann & Uta Schönberg
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper evaluates the impact of three major expansions in maternity leave coverage in Germany on children's long-run outcomes. To identify the causal impact of the reforms, we use a difference-in-difference design that compares outcomes of children born shortly before and shortly after a change in maternity leave legislation in years of policy changes, and in years when no changes have taken place. We find no support for the hypothesis that the expansions in leave coverage improved children's outcomes, despite a strong impact on mothers' return to work behavior after childbirth.
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Observed Gender Differences in African American Mother-Child Relationships and Child Behavior
Jelani Mandara et al.
Family Relations, February 2012, Pages 129-141
Abstract:
African American mother-child dyads (N = 99) were observed interacting on a collaborative puzzle exercise. Raters blind to the purpose of the study rated the dyads on several mother and child behaviors. Mothers of daughters were rated as more empathetic, encouraging, warm, and accepting and less negative than mothers of sons. Male children were more challenging and less happy, relaxed, and engaged. Mediation analyses found that the differences in mother-child relationships explained the gender differences in child behavior. These patterns were consistent across different child age groups and after controlling for family socioeconomic status. It was concluded that many of the gender disparities may be reduced with empirically informed and culturally sensitive parent training interventions that teach parents the necessity of being warm and loving as well as encouraging both male and female children to excel.
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Eugenio Proto, Daniel Sgroi & Andrew Oswald
Experimental Economics, March 2012, Pages 1-23
Abstract:
High rates of divorce in western society have prompted much research on the repercussions for well-being and the economy. Yet little is known about the important topic of whether parental divorce has deleterious consequences upon adult children. By combining experimental and econometric survey-based evidence, this study attempts to provide an answer. Under controlled conditions, it measures university students' subjective well-being and productivity (in a standardized laboratory task). It finds no evidence that either of these is negatively associated with recent parental divorce. If anything, happiness and productivity appear to be slightly greater, particularly among males, if their parents have divorced. Using longitudinal data from the British Household Panel Survey - to control for so-called fixed effects - we then cross-check this result, and confirm the same finding, on various random samples of young British adults.
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Ashley Smith Leavell et al.
Sex Roles, January 2012, Pages 53-65
Abstract:
We examined the activities that low-income, ethnically diverse fathers of sons versus daughters engage in with their children in the preschool years. African American, Latino, and White fathers (N = 426) from research sites across the United States, were interviewed about their caregiving, play, literacy, and visiting activities when their children were 2 years, 3 years, and preschool age. Fathers of boys engaged more frequently in physical play than fathers of girls, whereas fathers of girls engaged more frequently in literacy activities. Moreover, gendered patterns of father engagement were already evident at the 2-year assessment, suggesting that fathers channel their children toward gender-typed activities well before their children have a clear understanding of gender roles. Ethnic differences were also found in fathers' activities with children, and child gender moderated ethnic patterns of behavior. For example, Black fathers of sons reported the highest levels of engagement in caregiving, play and visiting activities, and both Latino and African American fathers of sons engaged in more visiting activities compared to White fathers of sons. Fathers' education and marital status were also associated with fathers' activities. Married fathers and those with a high school diploma more frequently engaged in literacy activities than unmarried fathers without a diploma; moreover, although Latino fathers engaged less in caregiving activities than African American and White fathers, this difference attenuated after controlling for differences in fathers' education. The activities children share with their fathers vary by child gender, race/ethnicity, and family circumstances and offer insight into early gendered experiences in the family.
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Child Gender And Parental Investments In India: Are Boys And Girls Treated Differently?
Silvia Barcellos, Leandro Carvalho & Adriana Lleras-Muney
NBER Working Paper, January 2012
Abstract:
Although previous research has not always found that boys and girls are treated differently in rural India, son-biased stopping rules imply that estimates of the effect of gender on parental investments are likely to be biased because girls systematically end up in larger families. We propose a novel identification strategy for overcoming this bias. We document that boys receive significantly more childcare time than girls. In addition boys are more likely to be breastfed longer, and to be given vaccinations and vitamin supplementation. We then present suggestive evidence that the differential treatment of boys is neither due to their greater needs nor to the effect of anticipated family size.
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Neighborhood Effects on Working Mothers' Child Care Arrangements
Meirong Liu & Steven Anderson
Children and Youth Services Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
The implementation of stricter work requirements for low-income mothers following passage of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act has elevated the importance of developing quality child care options for working families. Prior research indicates that the type of child care used not only is associated with maternal labor force participation, but also affects children's later cognitive outcomes. This study used the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study to examine whether neighborhood factors were related to the types of child care selected by employed mothers of three-year old children in the post-welfare reform era. Multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that working mothers in neighborhoods with higher poverty rates were more likely to rely on relative care and family day care than on center care, and mothers in neighborhoods with higher immigrant rates were more likely to rely on family day care than center care. The findings are useful in informing social policies and interventions related to early child care education and child care provision for low-income families, particularly with respect to considering neighborhood factors in targeting parent education and child care development strategies.
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The Interactive Effect of Parental Education on Language Production
Julie Hupp et al.
Current Psychology, December 2011, Pages 312-323
Abstract:
This study examines the interactive effect of mother's and father's education on childhood language development. Parents of sixteen- and twenty-month-old children (N = 48) completed measures on their children's language production (MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences) as well as basic demographic information. There were variations in language production according to maternal education for only the older children. There was also an interaction between maternal and paternal education; children of parents with heterogeneous levels of education (that is, only one parent with a 4-year degree) had higher levels of language production than parents with homogeneous levels of education (that is, either both parents with a degree or both parents without a degree). Surprisingly, children with homogeneous levels of parental education were the ones who scored the lowest on measures of language production. This may be due to less effective parenting at both the low and high parental education levels or because disparity in parental education positively affects the home learning environment.
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Should Mom go back to school? Post-natal educational attainment and parenting practices
Thurston Domina & Josipa Roksa
Social Science Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Although the relationship between educational attainment and parenting practices is well documented, it is typically examined at only one point in time. What happens if mothers acquire more education after the birth of their children: do they alter their parenting practices?. Panel data models based on longitudinal data from ECLS-K indicate that changes in mother's educational attainment are positively associated with increases in parental school involvement, having books in the home, and participating in non-academic family activities, but not with attitudes toward discipline. Although post-natal maternal education does not change all aspects of parenting, our findings are broadly consistent with the theory of cultural mobility and provide insights into the extent of socio-cultural mobility in contemporary American society.
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Joseph Murray, Rolf Loeber & Dustin Pardini
Criminology, February 2012, Pages 255-302
Abstract:
Explanations for the fact that crime tends to run in families have focused on the deprived social backgrounds of criminal parents, methods of child-rearing, modeling processes, and genetic mechanisms. However, parental involvement in the criminal justice system itself also might contribute to the intergenerational transmission of crime and have other adverse effects on children's well-being. We investigated the development of youth problem behavior in relation to parental arrest, conviction, and incarceration in the youngest and oldest samples of the Pittsburgh Youth Study, a longitudinal survey of 1,009 inner-city boys. Parental arrest and conviction without incarceration did not predict the development of youth problem behavior. Parental incarceration was not associated with increases in marijuana use, depression, or poor academic performance. However, boys experiencing parental incarceration showed greater increases in theft compared with a control group matched on propensity scores. The association between parental incarceration and youth theft was stronger for White youth than for Black youth. Parenting and peer relations after parental incarceration explained about half of its effects on youth theft. Because the effects of parental incarceration were specific to youth theft, labeling and stigma processes might be particularly important for understanding the consequences of parental incarceration for children.
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Bruce Ellis et al.
Development and Psychopathology, February 2012, Pages 317-332
Abstract:
Girls receiving lower quality paternal investment tend to engage in more risky sexual behavior (RSB) than peers. Whereas paternal investment theory posits that this effect is causal, it could arise from environmental or genetic confounds. To distinguish between these competing explanations, the current authors employed a genetically and environmentally controlled sibling design (N = 101 sister pairs; ages 18-36), which retrospectively examined the effects of differential sibling exposure to family disruption/father absence and quality of fathering. Consistent with a causal explanation, differences between older and younger sisters in the effects of quality of fathering on RSB were greatest in biologically disrupted families when there was a large age gap between the sisters (thus maximizing differential exposure to fathers), with greater exposure within families to higher quality fathering serving as a protective factor against RSB. Further, variation around the lower end of fathering quality appeared to have the most influence on RSB. In contrast, differential sibling exposure to family disruption/father absence (irrespective of quality of fathering) was not associated with RSB. The differential sibling-exposure design affords a new quasi-experimental method for evaluating the causal effects of fathers within families.
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Jeremiah Wills & Jonathan Brauer
Social Science Research, March 2012, Pages 425-443
Abstract:
Drawing on previous theoretical and empirical work, we posit that maternal employment influences on child well-being vary across birth cohorts. We investigate this possibility by analyzing longitudinal data from a sample of children and their mothers drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. We introduce a series of age, cohort, and maternal employment interaction terms into multilevel models predicting child well-being to assess whether any potential short-term or long-term effects of early and current maternal employment vary across birth cohorts. Results indicate that maternal employment largely is inconsequential to child well-being regardless of birth cohort, with a few exceptions. For instance, children born in earlier cohorts may have experienced long-term positive effects of having an employed mother; however, as maternal employment became more commonplace in recent cohorts, these beneficial effects appear to have disappeared. We discuss theoretical and methodological implications of these findings.
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Unilateral divorce versus child custody and child support in the U.S.
Rafael González-Val & Miriam Marcén
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, February 2012, Pages 613-643
Abstract:
This paper explores the response of the divorce rate to law reforms introducing unilateral divorce after controlling for law reforms concerning the aftermath of divorce, which are omitted from most previous studies. We introduce two main policy changes that have swept the US since the late 1970s: the approval of the joint custody regime and the Child Support Enforcement program. Because those reforms affect divorce decisions by counteracting the reallocation of property rights generated by the unilateral divorce procedure and by increasing the expected financial costs of divorce, it is arguable that their omissions might obscure the impact of unilateral divorce reforms on divorce rates. After allowing for changes in laws concerning the aftermath of divorce, we find that the positive impact of unilateral divorce reforms on divorce rates does not vanish over time, suggesting that the Coase theorem may not apply to changes in divorce laws. Supplemental analysis, developed to examine the frequency of permanent shocks in US divorce rates, indicates that the positive permanent changes in divorce rates can be associated with the implementation of unilateral divorce reforms and that the negative permanent changes can be related to the law reforms concerning living arrangements in the aftermath of divorce. This seems to confirm the important role of these policies in the evolution of divorce rates.
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The Effect of Parental Employment on Child Schooling
John Ermisch & Marco Francesconi
Journal of Applied Econometrics, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper presents a model that provides conditions under which a causal interpretation can be given to the association between childhood parental employment and subsequent educational attainments of children. The key parameter comes from the conditional demand function for children's future earning capacity. Its identification rests on having data on siblings and assumptions about the timing of parents' knowledge of their children's endowments. In addition to sibling differences, the use of a fixed-effects instrumental-variables estimator identifies the parameter under weaker conditions. Empirical analysis informed by the model reveals a negative and significant effect on the child's educational attainment of the months of the mother's full-time employment when the child was aged 0-5. The effect of the mother's part-time employment is smaller and less well determined, but again negative. These results suggest that the substitution effect of the mother's employment dominates the income effects. Stronger adverse effects are found for children of less-educated mothers.
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Intergenerational Continuity of Taste: Parental and Adolescent Music Preferences
Tom ter Bogt et al.
Social Forces, September 2011, Pages 297-319
Abstract:
In this article, the continuity in music taste from parents to their children is discussed via a multi-actor design. In our models music preferences of 325 adolescents and both their parents were linked, with parental and adolescent educational level as covariates. Parents' preferences for different types of music that had been popular when they were young were subsumed under the general labels of Pop, Rock and Highbrow. Current adolescent music preferences resolved into Pop, Rock, Highbrow and Dance. Among partners in a couple, tastes were similar; for both generations, education was linked to taste; and parental preferences predicted adolescent music choices. More specifically, the preference of fathers and mothers for Pop was associated with adolescent preferences for Pop and Dance. Parents' preferences for Rock seemed to indicate their daughters would also like Rock music, but not their sons. Parental passion for Highbrow music was associated with Highbrow preferences among their children. It is concluded that preferences for cultural artifacts such as (popular) music show continuity from generation to generation.
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Hillary Fouts et al.
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, February 2012, Pages 328-348
Abstract:
Most studies of diverse populations of families within the United States have either focused predominantly on ethnicity or socioeconomic status (SES), and those that have examined both ethnicity and SES have noted difficulties in disentangling the effects of SES and ethnicity. In order to achieve a greater understanding of variation in infant experiences with parental and nonparental caregivers in differing socioeconomic and ethnic contexts, 41 infants from African American and 40 infants from European American families of lower and middle SES were observed for 12 hours each in and around their home environments. Ethnic differences were evident in the infants' overall experiences with caregivers, maternal availability, affection, caregiving, and stimulation by nonnuclear relatives; SES differences were identified for maternal and paternal holding, maternal carrying, and paternal caregiving. When caregiver availability was taken into account, variations in interactional and care experiences were predominantly predicted by ethnicity. These results underscore the need to study both ethnicity and socioeconomic variation rather than either one alone. Furthermore, the caregiving behaviors of African American mothers and fathers may be misrepresented when multiple SES contexts are not considered.
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Why Parenthood, and Why Now? Gay Men's Motivations for Pursuing Parenthood
Abbie Goldberg, Jordan Downing & April Moyer
Family Relations, February 2012, Pages 157-174
Abstract:
The current qualitative study of 35 preadoptive gay male couples (70 men) examined gay men's motivations to parent and their reasons for pursuing parenthood at the current time. Similar to heterosexual couples, gay men described a range of psychologically oriented reasons as shaping their decision to become parents. Some of these (e.g., desire to teach a child tolerance) may have been uniquely shaped by their sexual minority status, and others (e.g., desire to give a child a good home) in part reflect their adoptive status. Men named age, finances, and relationship factors, as well as unique contextual factors such as the need to find and move to gay-friendly neighborhoods, as influencing their readiness to pursue parenthood at the current time. Gay men's motivations to parent echo normative life course decision-making processes, but also reflect concerns that are uniquely informed by their sexual minority status.
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Arginine vasopressin 1a receptor gene and maternal behavior: Evidence of association and moderation
Rossana Bisceglia et al.
Genes, Brain and Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study examined associations between maternal sensitivity, mothers' early adversity and the Arginine Vasopressin 1a Receptor gene. Early adversity in mothers' background has been found to be associated with lower maternal sensitivity. Animal literature suggests that variation in the Arginine Vasopressin 1a Receptor gene is associated with parenting quality. The goal of the study was to examine the role of the Arginine Vasopressin 1a Receptor gene in maternal sensitivity, especially under conditions of high early adversity. Participants included 151 Caucasian women from a community sample. The women were videotaped in their home while interacting separately with two of their children (target child = 18 months, older sibling < 6 years). Evidence was found for an association between the Arginine Vasopressin 1a Receptor gene and maternal sensitivity. Mothers with two copies of the long RS3 alleles were less sensitive than mothers with one or zero copies of the long alleles. This association was strongest under conditions of high maternal early adversity.
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Maternal support in early childhood predicts larger hippocampal volumes at school age
Joan Luby et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Early maternal support has been shown to promote specific gene expression, neurogenesis, adaptive stress responses, and larger hippocampal volumes in developing animals. In humans, a relationship between psychosocial factors in early childhood and later amygdala volumes based on prospective data has been demonstrated, providing a key link between early experience and brain development. Although much retrospective data suggests a link between early psychosocial factors and hippocampal volumes in humans, to date there has been no prospective data to inform this potentially important public health issue. In a longitudinal study of depressed and healthy preschool children who underwent neuroimaging at school age, we investigated whether early maternal support predicted later hippocampal volumes. Maternal support observed in early childhood was strongly predictive of hippocampal volume measured at school age. The positive effect of maternal support on hippocampal volumes was greater in nondepressed children. These findings provide prospective evidence in humans of the positive effect of early supportive parenting on healthy hippocampal development, a brain region key to memory and stress modulation.
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Going Back Part-time: Family Leave Legislation and Women's Return to Work
Whitney Schott
Population Research and Policy Review, February 2012, Pages 1-30
Abstract:
Using a multinomial logit model with data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, this paper tests whether the implementation of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is associated with an increase in return to work at part-time status among first-time mothers working full-time during their pregnancy. I find a statistically significant trend of increasingly higher odds of returning to work at part-time status relative to return at full-time status, beginning in 1993 (the year in which the FMLA is implemented). Furthermore, an additional week of either state or federal leave is significantly associated with a higher odds of return at part-time status. This article provides evidence that job protection and leave legislation may help facilitate higher levels of labor force participation among women with small children, through more flexible work arrangements.
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Sarah Oberlander et al.
Journal of Family Psychology, December 2011, Pages 885-894
Abstract:
This prospective investigation used multi-informant models to examine whether parental monitoring moderated associations between child maltreatment and either emotional distress or sexual intercourse. Data included 637 youth in the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN). Child maltreatment was determined by lifetime Child Protective Service records and youth self-report and included sexual, physical, psychological abuse, and neglect (age 12). The moderating variable was youth- and caregiver-reported parental monitoring (age 12). Outcome variables were emotional distress (age 12) and sexual intercourse (age 14). Analyses included multi- and individual-informant models, adjusting for age, ethnicity/race, family income, and study site. Rates of parental monitoring did not differ by gender, but gender-specific analyses found that among girls, but not boys, youth-reported parental monitoring buffered the effect of maltreatment on emotional distress. Subtype analyses found that the buffering effects of monitoring on emotional distress were strongest for sexual and physical abuse and when youth experienced multiple subtypes of maltreatment. Caregiver-reported monitoring was not associated with reduced emotional distress. Youth and caregiver reports of parental monitoring were inversely associated with sexual intercourse, regardless of maltreatment history. Findings suggest that promoting parental monitoring among caregivers, and perceptions of monitoring among youth, may prevent early sexual intercourse regardless of maltreatment history. Promoting parental monitoring among youth with a history of maltreatment, especially girls or those who have experienced sexual or physical abuse or multiple subtypes of abuse, may reduce the likelihood of emotional distress.
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Rotem Regev, Noa Gueron-Sela & Naama Atzaba-Poria
Infant and Child Development, January/February 2012, Pages 34-51
Abstract:
This paper examines explanatory mechanisms of differences, in both positive and negative aspects of children's adjustment, between ethnic minority (i.e., Former Soviet Union-FSU origin) and ethnic majority (i.e., Israeli) children living in Israel. Seventy Israeli children (40 girls) and 75 FSU origin children (38 girls) and their parents constituted the study sample. Both mothers and fathers reported on the children's prosocial and externalizing behaviours and provided accounts of their use of corporal punishment. Analyses showed that FSU origin children displayed lower levels of prosocial behaviour as well as higher levels of externalizing problems and that their parents used more corporal punishment than their Israeli counterparts. In addition, a mediation model was determined in which both maternal and paternal use of corporal punishment mediated the link between ethnicity and the child's prosocial behaviour. Furthermore, according to the best fitting structural equation model, ethnicity did not have a direct effect on children's prosocial behaviour. This link was fully mediated by maternal and paternal corporal punishment. No mediation was revealed for the links between ethnicity and externalizing problems. The process of risk is discussed.
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Maternal modulation of novelty effects on physical development
Akaysha Tang et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Familiarity to the mother and the novelty afforded by the postnatal environment are two contrasting sources of neonatal influence. One hypothesis regarding their relationship is the maternal modulation hypothesis, which predicts that the same neonatal stimulation may have different effects depending on the maternal context. Here we tested this hypothesis using physical development, indexed by body weight, as an endpoint and found that, among offspring of mothers with a high initial swim-stress-induced corticosterone (CORT) response, neonatal novelty exposure induced an enhancement in early growth, and among offspring with mothers of a low initial CORT response, the same neonatal stimulation induced an impairment. At an older age, a novelty-induced increase in body weight was also found among offspring of mothers with high postnatal care reliability and a novelty-induced reduction found among offspring of mothers with low care reliability. These results support a maternal modulation of early stimulation effects on physical development and demonstrate that the maternal influence originates from multiple instead of any singular sources. These results (i) significantly extend the findings of maternal modulation from the domain of cognitive development to the domain of physical development; (ii) offer a unifying explanation for a previously inconsistent literature regarding early stimulation effects on body weight; and (iii) highlight the notion that the early experience effect involves no causal primacy but higher order interactions among the initial triggering events and subsequent events involving a multitude of maternal and nonmaternal influences.