Head of household
Mark Brandt, P.J. Henry & Geoffrey Wetherell
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Members of stigmatized social groups are typically more authoritarian than their nonstigmatized or higher status counterparts. We draw on research demonstrating that authoritarianism compensates for the negative effects of stigma to predict that this endorsement will be more psychologically beneficial (and less harmful) for the stigmatized compared to their high-status counterparts. Consistent with this idea, data from the 2008 (N = 2,322) and 2012 (N = 5,916) American National Election Study indicate that for members of stigmatized social groups (low income, low education, and ethnic minority), authoritarian child rearing values have more positive psychological effects than for members of high-status groups. These results were robust to covariates, including demographics, religiosity, political ideology, and cognitive style.
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Maternal Education and the Unequal Significance of Family Structure for Children's Early Achievement
Jennifer March Augustine
Social Forces, forthcoming
Abstract:
The diverging destiny of US children is a modern-day phenomenon driven, in part, by the rise in women's education and its connection to patterns in women's union formation. In short, more educated mothers are more likely to be in stably married families, whereas less educated mothers are more likely to be in unmarried-parent families, because of either a nonmarital birth or a union dissolution, or remarried ones. This connection between education and family structure means that children of less educated mothers are often raised in homes with fewer resources to promote their well-being than children of more educated mothers. In this study, I argue that these patterns in women's education and family structure have implications for children's diverging destinies that also play out in a more subtle way. Specifically, unmarried or disrupted family structures will result in lower-quality parenting for less educated mothers than for more educated mothers in the same family types, producing greater negative consequences for the achievement trajectories of their children. The results of this study, based on data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (n = 1308) and a longitudinal moderated path model, provide support for this argument. In fact, I find that family structure had no connection to the parenting of more educated mothers, or to their children's achievement. These findings provide novel insight into the advantages that maternal education confers to children, beyond the various well-documented demographic and economic correlates that are accounted for in the study.
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The Happiness of Single Mothers: Evidence from the General Social Survey
John Ifcher & Homa Zarghamee
Journal of Happiness Studies, October 2014, Pages 1219-1238
Abstract:
A vast “single mothers’ well-being” literature exists but has not studied single mothers’ subjective well-being (SWB). This shortcoming is important since it has been shown that there are potentially large slippages between economic indicators and SWB. Using repeated cross-sectional data from the General Social Survey 1972–2008, we examine single mothers’ happiness in the US both in absolute terms and relative to other groups: all respondents who are not single mothers, all female respondents who are not single mothers, single childless women, and married mothers. In levels, we find a significant single-mother happiness deficit compared to other groups. This deficit is explained by being single, with the happiness of single mothers statistically indistinguishable from single women without children. Over time, however, the deficit has shrunk relative to all other groups except married mothers. We discuss possible explanations for our findings, including: changes to social welfare programs, increased labor force participation, compositional shifts in single motherhood, and stigma. Our findings are most consistent with compositional shifts and changes in the stigma associated with being a single mother.
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Do childhood experiences of neglect affect delinquency among child welfare involved-youth?
Susan Snyder & Darcey Merritt
Children and Youth Services Review, November 2014, Pages 64–71
Abstract:
Child neglect, which is the most common form of maltreatment in the United States, has been repeatedly linked to an increased risk of delinquency. However, the existing literature lacks studies that simultaneously investigate how distinct types of neglect differentially influence delinquency among child welfare involved-youth. In addition, few studies of the relationship between neglect and delinquency include measures of ADHD, peer deviance or community violence, even though these variables have been strongly associated with delinquency. This study uses data from 784 11 to 17 year old youth who participated in Wave I of the Second National Survey of Child and Adolescent Wellbeing (NSCAW II) to examine whether supervisory neglect, physical neglect and parental substance abuse affect delinquency after controlling for ADHD, peer deviance, exposure to community violence, and out-of-home placements. We conducted a negative binomial regression to account for the low rates of delinquency among NSCAW II participants. We did not find significant main effects for supervisory neglect, physical neglect or parental substance abuse. Our study found that as youth age the count of delinquency acts increases. Black and Hispanic youth had higher counts of delinquency than youth with White, multi-racial, or “other” racial identities. Youth in out-of-home care had nearly double the rate of delinquency. Youth with more deviant peer affiliations and youth who had been exposed to community violence engaged in more delinquent behaviors. Our findings underscore the importance of the environment surrounding the youth, and the peers with whom the youth affiliates.
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Jörg Nikitopoulos et al.
Journal of Psychiatric Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Insensitive and unresponsive caregiving during infancy has been linked to externalizing behavior problems during childhood and adolescence. The 7-repeat (7r) allele of the dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) gene has meta-analytically been associated with a heightened susceptibility to adverse as well as supportive environments. In the present study, we examined long-term effects of early maternal care, DRD4 genotype and the interaction thereof on externalizing and internalizing psychopathology during adolescence. As part of an ongoing epidemiological cohort study, early maternal care was assessed at child's age 3 months during a nursing and playing situation. In a sample of 296 offspring, externalizing and internalizing symptoms were assessed using a psychiatric interview conducted at age 15 years. Parents additionally filled out a questionnaire on their children's psychopathic behaviors. Results indicated that adolescents with the DRD4 7r allele who experienced less responsive and stimulating early maternal care exhibited more symptoms of ADHD and CD/ODD as well as higher levels of psychopathic behavior. In accordance with the hypothesis of differential susceptibility, 7r allele carriers showed fewer ADHD symptoms and lower levels of psychopathic behavior when exposed to especially beneficial early caregiving. In contrast, individuals without the DRD4 7r allele proved to be insensitive to the effects of early maternal care. This study replicates earlier findings with regard to an interaction between DRD4 genotype and early caregiving on externalizing behavior problems in preschoolers. It is the first one to imply continuity of this effect until adolescence.
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Rebecca Ryan, Amy Claessens & Anna Markowitz
Child Development, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study investigated conditions under which family structure matters most for child well-being. Using data from the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (n = 3,936), a national sample of U.S. families, it was estimated how changes in family structure related to changes in children's behavior between age 3 and 12 separately by household income level to determine whether associations depended on families' resources. Early changes in family structure, particularly from a two-biological-parent to single-parent family, predicted increases in behavior problems more than later changes, and movements into single and stepparent families mattered more for children of higher versus lower income parents. Results suggest that for children of higher income parents, moving into a stepfamily may improve, not undermine, behavior.
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Dylan Gee et al.
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Mature amygdala-prefrontal circuitry regulates affect in adulthood but shows protracted development. In altricial and semialtricial species, caregivers provide potent affect regulation when mature neurocircuitry is absent. The present investigation examined a potential mechanism through which caregivers provide regulatory influences in childhood. Children, but not adolescents, showed evidence of maternal buffering, such that maternal stimuli suppressed amygdala reactivity. In the absence of maternal stimuli, children exhibited immature amygdala-prefrontal connectivity. However, in the presence of maternal stimuli, children’s connectivity was more mature, resembling adolescents’ connectivity. Children showed improved affect-related regulation in the presence of their mothers. Individual differences emerged, with greater maternal influence on amygdala-prefrontal circuitry associated with stronger mother-child relationships and maternal modulation of behavioral regulation. These findings suggest a neural mechanism through which caregivers modulate children’s regulatory behavior by inducing more mature connectivity and buffering against heightened reactivity. Maternal buffering in childhood, but not adolescence, suggests that childhood may be a sensitive period for amygdala-prefrontal development.
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Female face preference in 4-month-olds: The importance of hairline
Anne Hillairet de Boisferon et al.
Infant Behavior and Development, November 2014, Pages 676–681
Abstract:
At 3–4 months of age, infants respond to gender information in human faces. Specifically, young infants display a visual preference toward female over male faces. In three experiments, using a visual preference task, we investigated the role of hairline information in this bias. In Experiment 1, we presented male and female composite faces with similar hairstyles to 4-month-olds and observed a preference for female faces. In Experiment 2, the faces were presented, but in this instance, without hairline cues, and the preference was eliminated. In Experiment 3, using the same cropping to eliminate hairline cues, but with feminized female faces and masculinized male faces, infants’ preference toward female faces was still not in evidence. The findings show that hairline information is important in young infants’ preferential orientation toward female faces.
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Neoliberal Mothering and Vaccine Refusal: Imagined Gated Communities and the Privilege of Choice
Jennifer Reich
Gender & Society, October 2014, Pages 679-704
Abstract:
Neoliberal cultural frames of individual choice inform mothers’ accounts of why they refuse state-mandated vaccines for their children. Using interviews with 25 mothers who reject recommended vaccines, this article examines the gendered discourse of vaccine refusal. First, I show how mothers, seeing themselves as experts on their children, weigh perceived risks of infection against those of vaccines and dismiss claims that vaccines are necessary. Second, I explicate how mothers see their own intensive mothering practices — particularly around feeding, nutrition, and natural living — as an alternate and superior means of supporting their children’s immunity. Third, I show how they attempt to control risk through management of social exposure, as they envision disease risk to lie in “foreign” bodies outside their networks, and, therefore, individually manageable. Finally, I examine how these mothers focus solely on their own children by evaluating — and often rejecting — assertions that their choices undermine community health, while ignoring how their children benefit from the immunity of others. By analyzing the gendered discourse of vaccines, this article identifies how women’s insistence on individual maternal choice as evidence of commitment to their children draws on and replicates structural inequality in ways that remain invisible, but affect others.
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Child care instability from 6 to 36 months and the social adjustment of children in prekindergarten
Mary Bratsch-Hines et al.
Early Childhood Research Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
Most children in the United States experience nonparental child care during early childhood, and many children experience changes in their care during this period. Changes in care, or child care instability, have been argued to disrupt children's emerging relationships with others and may impede children's social-emotional development, particularly when changes occur during infancy and toddlerhood. Data for this study were drawn from the Family Life Project, a longitudinal study representative of families living in rural low-wealth areas. With a sample of 1292 children who were followed from six months to prekindergarten, this study examined the associations between cumulative child provider instability (measured as overall changes or changes across or within settings) from 6 to 36 months and children's social adjustment at prekindergarten. A number of factors were included to control for family selection into child care. Results suggested that more overall child care provider instability was negatively associated with teacher ratings of social adjustment at prekindergarten. This association was driven by provider instability across but not within settings, though effect sizes were small. These findings point to an increased need to understand how early child care instability may be related to children's subsequent development.
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Work Hours, Schedules, and Insufficient Sleep Among Mothers and Their Young Children
Ariel Kalil et al.
Journal of Marriage and Family, October 2014, Pages 891–904
Abstract:
Studies have linked parents' employment, work hours, and work schedules to their own sleep quality and quantity, but it is unclear whether these associations extend to children. The authors used data from the 5-year in-home survey of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 1,818) to examine the associations between maternal work hours and schedule and insufficient sleep among disadvantaged mothers and their young children. They found that mothers who worked more than 35 hours per week were more likely to experience insufficient sleep compared to mothers who worked fewer hours, whereas children were more likely to experience insufficient sleep when their mothers worked between 20 and 40 hours. Nonstandard work schedules were associated with an increased likelihood of insufficient sleep for mothers but not their children. The results highlight a potentially difficult balance between work and family for many disadvantaged working mothers in the United States.
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Can babies learn to read? A randomized trial of baby media
Susan Neuman et al.
Journal of Educational Psychology, August 2014, Pages 815-830
Abstract:
Targeted to children as young as 3 months old, there is a growing number of baby media products that claim to teach babies to read. This randomized controlled trial was designed to examine this claim by investigating the effects of a best-selling baby media product on reading development. One hundred and seventeen infants, ages 9 to 18 months, were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. Children in the treatment condition received the baby media product, which included DVDs, word and picture flashcards, and word books to be used daily over a 7-month period; children in the control condition, business as usual. Examining a 4-phase developmental model of reading, we examined both precursor skills (such as letter name, letter sound knowledge, print awareness, and decoding) and conventional reading (vocabulary and comprehension) using a series of eye-tracking tasks and standardized measures. Results indicated that babies did not learn to read using baby media, despite some parents displaying great confidence in the program’s effectiveness.
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Single Parents, Unhappy Parents? Parenthood, Partnership, and the Cultural Normative Context
Olga Stavrova & Detlef Fetchenhauer
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Although the question of whether parenthood is generally beneficial for well-being is currently being hotly debated in the social sciences, single parents are nearly unanimously assumed to be worse off than their partnered counterparts. The present research questions this finding by demonstrating that whether single parents are actually less happy than partnered parents depends on a country’s cultural norms regarding childbearing practices. Using two large-scale international data sets (the European Values Study [EVS] and the European Social Survey [ESS]) covering altogether 43 countries, we show that only in collectivist countries and countries with a strong two-parent family norm did parenthood negatively affect the life satisfaction and the emotional well-being of single but not partnered (married or cohabiting) individuals. Most notably, the detrimental effect of a country’s social norm of a two-parent family existed even among single parents who did not share this norm themselves.