Although attachment theory posits that the use of nonmaternal care undermines quality of mothers’ parenting, empirical evidence for this link is inconclusive. Using data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N =1,233), the authors examined the associations between nonmaternal care characteristics and maternal sensiti…
Key Words: child well-being, mass imprisonment, parental incarceration, selection bias.
This research explored how older people describe their paths to late-life childlessness. Indepth accounts from 38 childless older people, age 63 – 93, highlight the complex journeys and diverse meanings of childlessness for male and female participants, single and partnered, including some who had outlived children. Positioning theory is used to show how the conventional voluntary – involun…
Guided by life course and stress process theory, this study investigated pathways of adult child caregivers’ family (caregiving, marital, parenting) and nonfamily (employment) roles. Eight waves of data from the Health and Retirement Study were analyzed for 1,300 adult child caregivers. Latent class analysis provided strong evidence for a 4-class model of caregivers’ role pathways. The four…
Adolescents’ hyperactivity, impulsivity, and attention problems (HIA) have been shown to make parents feel powerless. In this study, the authors examined whether these feelings were dependent on parents’ experiences with their older children. Two models that offer different predictions of how parents make use of their earlier experiences when raising their later-born children were explored:…
Substantial research concludes that most Americans want to have ‘‘at least 1 boy and 1 girl,’’ yet few have empirically explored what drives this preference. The author used nationally representative data from the National Survey of Families and Households (N =5,544) and generalized ordered logistic regression to evaluate 3 potential psychosocial frameworks motivating the mixed-sex id…
Large numbers of infants and toddlers have parents who live apart due to separation, divorce, or nonmarital/noncohabiting childbearing, yet this important topic, especially the controversial issue of frequent overnights with nonresidential parents, is understudied. The authors analyzed data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a longitudinal investigation of children born to pri…
This study investigated the common assumption that measures of father involvement are invariant across child age, gender, and reporter. Measurement invariance was tested with 320 families who were interviewed at child ages 10, 12, and 14. Criterion validity was also examined, using observational, survey, and physiologic measures with factor rotation type considered. It was found that invariance…
Using the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (2001 – 2006; N ≈ 7,900), the authors examined child-care arrangements among teen parents from birth through prekindergarten. Four latent classes of child care arrangements at 9, 24, and 52 months emerged: (a) ‘‘parental care,’’ (b) ‘‘center care,’’ (c) ‘‘paid homebased care,’’ and (…
This study explored the involvement of grandparents in the care for young children and its effect on subsequent child births in dual-earner families, using data on 898 Dutch men and women aged 18 – 49 from the Netherlands’ Kinship Panel Study. Three theoretical perspectives were used to develop hypotheses: (a) needs and opportunities, (b) normative preferences, and (c) gendered involvement …