Family hardship, family instability, and cognitive development

Schoon, Ingrid; Jones, Elizabeth; Cheng, Helen; Maughan, Barbara

doi:10.1136/jech.2010.121228

Cited by 104 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…In addition to whether or not a child is ever a member of a vulnerable family, it may also be important when and for how long this occurs (Mishra et al 2009, Pearce et al 2014. Relatedly, there is some debate as to whether it is membership in a vulnerable family or experience of family transitions that is behind the relatively poor outcomes of children in vulnerable families (Fomby and Cherlin 2007, Bachman et al 2011, Schoon et al 2012, Ryan and Claessens 2013. Here, we will adopt a life course approach to understanding child development and conceptualise family structure as dynamic, i.e.…”

Section: Family Structure and Child Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most efforts in the field have been devoted to establishing which factors promote or detract from children's physical health and cognitive development, but a literature on children's socio-emotional and behavioural functioning is rapidly emerging. Within this, there is a focus on the social origins of child wellbeing, including the potential influences of family structure, composition and stability (Kiernan and Mensah 2009, Schoon et al 2012, Pearce et al 2013.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Early Life Course Family Structure and Children’s Socio-Emotional and Behavioural Functioning: A View from Australia

2015

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Children's early life experiences are important not only for their contemporary wellbeing, but also for their subsequent life outcomes as adolescents and adults. Research from developed countries has demonstrated that children in one-parent and reconstituted families, have worse socio-emotional and behavioural functioning than children from 'normative' or 'intact' families. We use recent Australian data from a nationally representative birth cohort study to examine the associations between family structure and children's socio-emotional and behavioural outcomes. We contribute to the literature in two ways: by testing whether previously established relationships in the US and the UK apply in Australia, and by deploying an innovative life course methodological approach that pays attention to the accumulation, patterning and timing of exposures to different family types during childhood.As in other countries, children in Australia who spend time in one-parent or reconstituted families experience more socio-emotional and behavioural problems than other children.Such differences disappear when accounting for socio-economic capital and maternal mental health. This suggests that providing additional income and mental health support to parents in vulnerable families may contribute to mitigating children's socio-emotional and behavioural difficulties in Australia.

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Section: Family Structure and Child Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early Life Course Family Structure and Children’s Socio-Emotional and Behavioural Functioning: A View from Australia

2015

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“…A review of the literature in this field indicates that child's gender, family composition, maternal education, maternal employment, ethnicity of mother, birth order of the child, and the age of the mother at the birth of her first child have an independent effect on child SEB wellbeing and need to be controlled for (Kiernan and Huerta, 2008;Kiernan and Mensah, 2009;Schoon et al, 2010;Schoon et al, 2012). These control variables are briefly described below.…”

Section: Control Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social assets, low income and child social, emotional and behavioural wellbeing

Treanor

2016

Families, Relationships and Societies

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This article examines the association between mothers’ social assets and child social, emotional and behavioural (SEB) wellbeing for children living in a family with a persistently low income. The results show that low income is associated with lower social assets and lower SEB wellbeing in children; however, mothers living with a persistently low income but who have high social assets are significantly associated with higher levels of SEB wellbeing in their children, an interaction that is not significant for any other income quintile. Additionally, many of the sociodemographic variables assumed in the literature to be important in terms of child SEB wellbeing, such as family composition, young motherhood and maternal ethnicity, reduce in significance once income and mothers’ social assets are taken into account.

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“…The poorer child-peer behaviours described in the current research may be the first step towards later life problems identified in older age groups of adolescents without an involved father (Amato & Keith, 1991;Clarke-Stewart et al, 2000;Hetherington et al, 1982;Nair & Murray, 2005;Woodward et al, 2000). Historically, interventions commonly either focus on improving SES of single mothers (Schoon et al, 2012), or attempt to improve mother-child interactions through parenting programmes (e.g. Hutchings, Bywater, Daley, & Lane, 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This inconsistency has led, in some cases, to fathers' potential contribution to child development being either ignored (e.g. Emerson, Donenberg, & Wilson, 2012;Schoon, Jones, Cheng, & Maughan, 2012) or undervalued (e.g. McIntosh, Smyth, & Keleher, 2010).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Applying Pleck's model of paternal involvement to the study of preschool attachment quality: a proof of concept study

Kennedy

Betts

Dunn

et al. 2014

Early Child Development and Care

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Recent re-conceptualisation of paternal involvement (Pleck, J. H. (2010). Paternal involvement: Revised conceptualization and theoretical linkages with child outcomes. In M. Lamb (Ed.), The role of the father in child development (5th ed., pp. 67-107). London: Wiley), while proving fruitful, has yet to be applied to investigations into what extent a father's level of involvement may affect childpeer interactions in the preschool age range, over and above the effects of motherchild attachment quality and socio-economic status (SES). Patterns of associations between attachment quality, sensitivity and general caregiving behaviours have also yet to be compared in equally involved mothers and fathers. Thirty preschool children (17 males:13 females) with similar SES profiles and their immediate caregivers participated in hour-long observations, conducted in the home. Even when attachment quality was controlled for, children with low paternal involvement were found to have higher levels of child-peer aggression. Further, patterns of effects between caregiver sensitivity, child-caregiver attachment quality and general caregiver interactions were similar for equally involved mothers and fathers. These preliminary data support the concept of applying Pleck's (2010) re-conceptualisation of paternal involvement to preschool attachment, and have implications towards the wider study of child-father attachment. Limitations of the current study and directions for future research are discussed.

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Family hardship, family instability, and cognitive development

Cited by 104 publications

References 52 publications

Early Life Course Family Structure and Children’s Socio-Emotional and Behavioural Functioning: A View from Australia

Early Life Course Family Structure and Children’s Socio-Emotional and Behavioural Functioning: A View from Australia

Social assets, low income and child social, emotional and behavioural wellbeing

Applying Pleck's model of paternal involvement to the study of preschool attachment quality: a proof of concept study

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