Maternal Relationship Instability Influences on Children’s Emotional and Behavioral Functioning in Low-Income Families

Abstract

The present study investigated associations between maternal relationship instability patterns and children's behavioral and emotional functioning in middle childhood in a representative sample of low-income urban families (N = 891). Data from the Three-City Study tracked maternal partnerships through the child's life, assessing total marital and cohabiting relationship transitions and delineating transitions by developmental timing, and by directionality (i.e., entrances into versus exits from partnerships). Analyses linking instability to child behaviors at age 8 found that a greater total number of maternal relationship transitions predicted higher anxious, somatic, and conduct problems, with recent transitions (in the prior 2 years) driving these results. Consideration of partnership formations versus dissolutions indicated that recent entrances into new partnerships, and entrances into cohabitations, were most consistently associated with problematic functioning across numerous aspects of children's emotional and behavioral functioning. Policy implications of these findings are discussed.

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

“…More recent studies have shed light on these issues by considering the family histories of children. Their results support the thesis that instability in family structure contributes negatively to child wellbeing (Bachman et al 2011, Cavanagh and Huston 2006, Fomby 2007, Osborne and McLanahan 2007. There is also some evidence that the timing of family instability matters, with the worst outcomes experienced by children who experience instability while very young Huston 2008, Ryan andClaessens 2013), and of accumulation effects, whereby increased duration of exposure to vulnerable family types decreases socio-emotional and behavioural functioning (Pearce et al 2014).…”

“…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.…”

The Multivariate Roles of Family Instability and Interparental Conflict in Predicting Children’s Representations of Insecurity in the Family System and Early School Adjustment Problems

“…However, although associations between family instability and the two dimensions of insecure family representations were significant in bivariate analyses (see Table 1), family instability was not a significant predictor of children’s insecure representations in the broader multivariate model involving destructive interparental conflict and the covariates. Given that interparental conflict and parenting dimensions were moderately correlated with family instability, it is possible that family instability may indirectly increase children’s insecure representations through its association with instability and discord in the interparental relationship (Bachman et al, 2011; Davies & Cummings, 1994). Likewise, family instability may be part of a broader constellation of disadvantageous socioeconomic (e.g., family income, parent education) indices that alter children’s ways of appraising and interpreting family events.…”

“…Family instability is specifically characterized by disruptive events that undermine the predictability, consistency, and cohesiveness of family life for children. Notably, the cumulative frequency of unstable events in the form of caregiver intimate relationship changes, residential mobility, changes in caregivers, and death of close family members have been consistently linked with a variety of negative outcomes for children (e.g., Ackerman, Kogos, Youngstrom, Schoff, & Izard, 1999; Bachman, Coley, & Carrano, 2011; Cavanagh & Huston, 2008). Because frequent unstable family events are regarded as concrete manifestations of a fragile, chaotic family system, family process models have posited that family instability increases children’s vulnerability to adjustment difficulties by amplifying their representations of the family unit as unpredictable and threatening (e.g., Ackerman et al, 1999).…”

“He’s Had Enough Fathers”: Mothers’ and Children’s Approaches to Mothers’ Romantic Relationships Following the Dissolution of Previous Partnerships

“…Furthermore, these transitions are associated with delinquency, conduct problems, behavior problems, psychological distress, and poorer health for residential children. These outcomes have been found where transitions are operationalized as occurring through residential or marital changes (e.g., Bachman, Coley, & Carrano, 2011;Bzostek & Beck, 2011;Goodnight et al, 2013;Magnuson & Berger, 2009) and where transitions are operationalized as total maternal partnership changes, regardless of residence of partner (e.g., Cooper, Osborne, Beck, & McLanahan, 2011;Osborne & McLanahan, 2007). Family instability continues to have an impact on the children involved across their life course; being associated with a reduced likelihood of university completion, early family formation, an increased likelihood of having multiple marriages, and for men to have children outside of marriage (Fomby & Bosick, 2013;Hofferth & Goldscheider, 2010).…”