A small extension to “costs and rewards of children: The effects of becoming a parent on adults’ lives”

Developmental Shifts in the Character of Romantic and Sexual Relationships from Adolescence to Young Adulthood

“…These studies rely on change indicators of relationship satisfaction and well-being and examine whether those who had children between interview waves shifted in their reports of well-being. For example, unmarried and married mothers do not experience many negative implications of parenthood, while cohabiting mothers experience more costs to parenthood (Nomaguchi & Milkie, 2003 ;Woo & Raley, 2005 ) . Given that the majority of young adult mothers entered parenthood outside of marriage it is important to consider the relationship context of parenthood (Schoen et al, 2007 ) .…”

Becoming adults in Britain: lifestyles and wellbeing in times of social change

“…Romantic involvement with a partner is generally associated with higher levels of wellbeing, while early parenthood has been associated with negative effects on wellbeing (Nomaguchi and Milkie 2003;Kiernan 1997;Henretta 2007), largely due to relationship instability and fewer socio-economic resources. On the other hand, it has been argued that early transitions can be beneficial for certain individuals (Booth et al 2008), and the effects of parenthood on wellbeing depend on gender and marital status, as well as other circumstances in life (Nomaguchi and Milkie 2003;Woo and Raley 2005;Keeton et al 2008). Furthermore, the time frame for achieving most of the developmental demands might have expanded for the later-born cohort (Arnett 2000), and the more recent cohort might feel more relaxed about not fulfilling all five transition demands by age 26, in particular, regarding the step into parenthood.…”

Life Outcomes of Childless Men and Fathers

“…Second, previous studies have uniformly shown that partnership history is related to men's behaviour and wellbeing. Cohabiting men and especially married men have more contacts with their family (Eggebeen, 2005), are more strongly attached to the labour force (Rindfuss and VandenHeuvel, 1990) and have higher levels of physical health and psychological well-being (Coombs, 1991;Waite, 1995;Akerlof, 1998;Brown, 2000;Brown, Bulanda, and Lee, 2005;Woo and Raley, 2005). Furthermore, experiencing dissolution of a partnership is related to men's psychological, social, health, and economic activities and well-being as well; divorced men have less contact with their family (Gerstel, 1988), exhibit less healthy behaviour (Williams and Umberson, 2004), are less committed to their occupational careers (Kalmijn, 2005), and are more distressed (Wallerstein and Blakeslee, 1990;Booth and Amato, 1991).…”