Sociologists Paula Fomby and Andrew Cherlin of Johns Hopkins University have found that children who go through frequent changes in family structure are more likely to have behavioural problems than are children raised in stable families, possibly including even lone-parent families as well as two-parent families.

Fomby and Cherlin note that with each breakup, divorce, remarriage or new cohabitation, there is a period of adjustment as parents, partners and children establish their places in a new family setting. Studying a nationally representative sample of mothers and their children, the researchers found that children who go through frequent transitions are more likely to have behavioral problems than children raised in stable two-parent families and maybe even more than those in stable single-parent families.

Looking at children's scores on a mother-reported assessment of behavior problems with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15 (similar to how an IQ test is scored), the authors found that a child who experienced three transitions would have a behavior problems score about six points higher than a child who had experienced no transitions. Experiencing multiple transitions was also associated with children's more frequent delinquent behavior, including vandalism, theft and truancy.

The researchers also found that changes in family structure had a greater impact on white children than on black children. Two possible explanations for this were offered.  First, black children may be able to rely on extended family to a greater extent than white children.  Also, the study included only children born to mothers aged 21 through 38, and black mothers tend to have children at a younger age than do white mothers.

For both white and black children, Fomby and Cherlin found a persistent association between living in a mother-only household during the child's first four years and mother-reported behavior problems and, for white children, reading recognition.

The paper, entitled “Family Instability and Child Well-Being”, has been published in the April issue of the American Sociological Review.

h/t: LifeSite

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