Young Adults' Roles as Partners and Parents in a Context of Family Complexity

The Dynamics of Intimate Relationships and Violent Victimization Among Young Women

Despite the fact that intimate partner violence (IPV) occurs within intimate relationships, we know relatively little about the characteristics of those intimate relationships, and even less about how IPV changes across time within different relationships. We use the Relationship Dynamics and Social Life (RDSL) study, based on a random sample of 1003 18-19-year-old women residing in a Michigan county. Women were interviewed weekly for 2.5 years, resulting in an age range of 18 through 22. We estimate hybrid "within-between" regression models, which allows us to directly compare the same woman's risk of experiencing IPV across her different relationships, varied in terms of resources, balance of power, conflict, childbearing, relationship type, and duration. Our analyses demonstrate that power imbalance in intimate relationships, non-monogamous and unstable relationships, relationships with men who are not the father of a woman's existing children, and serious relationships (especially stayover and cohabiting) place young women in their late teens and early twenties at particularly high risk of multiple dimensions of IPV. Our fixed-effects modeling strategy isolated the increase in IPV risk that is due to these characteristics and experiences within intimate relationships from the risk due to young women being at high risk of IPV for other reasons who might tend to choose these types of relationships. The elevated risk of IPV in relationships with these characteristics and experiences supports a causal link between them. Our research supports the potential efficacy of interventions that reduce conflict, equalize power within relationships, and encourage women-especially young mothers-to delay serious relationships.

Rates and predictors of child maltreatment re-perpetration against new victims and prior victims

BACKGROUND

Limited prior research has examined the rates or predictors of re-perpetration of child maltreatment. Yet, perpetrators may have multiple victims, and perpetrators, rather than their victims, are often the primary focus of child welfare services.

OBJECTIVE

We examine rates of child maltreatment re-perpetration of repeat and new victims, and test perpetrator demographics and maltreatment index incident case characteristics as predictors of re-perpetration.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

We use a sample of 285,245 first-time perpetrators of a substantiated maltreatment incident in 2010 from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System.

METHODS

We use linear probability models with full information maximum likelihood to test new victim and same victim perpetration by the end of FY 2018.

RESULTS

Fifteen percent of perpetrators re-maltreated one or more of their original victims ("same victim re-perpetration"); 12% maltreated a new victim. Overall, re-perpetration was more common among younger, female, and White perpetrators. Perpetrators who were the biological or adoptive parent of their initial victim(s) had higher rates of same victim re-perpetration; new victim re-perpetration was more common among perpetrators who initially victimized an adoptive or stepchild. Same victim re-perpetration was less common among perpetrators of physical abuse than other types of maltreatment, and new victim re-perpetration was more common among perpetrators of sexual abuse and neglect than physical abuse.

CONCLUSIONS

Child welfare agencies should track re-perpetration in addition to revictimization as part of agency evaluations and risk assessments.

The Rise in Single-Mother Families and Children's Cognitive Development: Evidence From Three British Birth Cohorts

This article assessed changes in the association between single motherhood and children's verbal cognitive ability at age-11 using data from three cohorts of British children, born in 1958 (n = 10,675), 1970 (n = 8,933) and 2000 (n = 9,989), and mediation analysis. Consistent with previous studies, direct effects were small and insignificant. For those born in 1958 and 1970 indirect effects, operating through reduced economic and parental resources, were associated with -.107-SD to -.156-SD lower attainment. Differences between the two cohorts, and by children's age when parents separated, were insignificant. For the 2000 cohort, effect sizes for children born to single mothers did not change significantly (-.112-SD) but attenuated for children whose parents separated in early childhood (-.076-SD) or while of school age (-.054-SD).

Becoming Multicultural: Kinship Development of Korean Adolescents With Asian Cross-Border Marriage Migrant Stepmothers

In Korea, more than one-third of cross-border marriages are remarriages for at least one spouse, yet little is known about the experiences of Korean adolescents who enter into a blended multicultural family through their father’s remarriages. The current study examined the experiences of 10 Korean (seven female) adolescents ( Mage= 15.9 years) primarily from low-income families with Korean fathers and non-Korean stepmothers using content analysis of in-depth interviews with adolescents, supplemented with field observations at after-school mentoring program. The analysis suggested that many of the Korean adolescents gained a new sense of identity as a member of a multicultural family primarily through new kinship bonds they experienced through the intimate labor of caretaking for their new half-siblings. Many of the adolescents had grown up without close kinship ties to their biological parents, thus the introduction of foreign stepmothers to the family provided opportunities for the adolescents to claim them as kins despite language and cultural barriers. At the same time, the adolescents also experienced challenges and tensions that often accompany new blended family formation. These results have implications for understanding formations of kinship and new cultural identity in blended families across borders.

Patterns of intergenerational child protective services involvement

BACKGROUND

Prior research on Child Protective Services (CPS) involvement among at-risk youth focuses on their roles as parents perpetrating maltreatment against biological offspring. Given family complexity and assortative partnering, measuring all CPS involvement - as perpetrators and non-offending parents of victims - provides new insight into intergenerational maltreatment patterns.

OBJECTIVES

Our objective was to investigate the risk of multiple forms of parent or perpetrator CPS involvement (PP-CPS) by age 25, among those exposed to three forms of adversity in their late teens (at ages 14-17): alleged victim on a CPS investigation, out-of-home care (OHC), and poverty.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

We used a sample of 36,475 individuals born in 1990-1991 from the Wisconsin Data Core longitudinal administrative database, and tracked their involvement in CPS, OHC, and the food assistance program (SNAP) over time. Our sample consisted of individuals who, at ages 14-17, met one of the following criteria: were in OHC; had CPS involvement as a victim but no OHC (CPSV group), or received food assistance without CPSV or OHC (SNAP group).

METHODS

Using logistic regression, we modeled four forms of PP-CPS involvement: parent-perpetrator, resident parent non-perpetrator, nonresident parent non-perpetrator, and non-biological parent-perpetrator.

RESULTS

Predicted risks of any PP-CPS involvement by age 25 were 10 % (SNAP group), 17-22 % (CPSV group), and 26-33 % (OHC group); among OHC youth known to have a biological child, rates exceeded 40 %. The proportion of CPS involvement that involved parent-perpetration varied substantially by sex and adversity type.

CONCLUSIONS

Focusing only on intergenerational maltreatment in which the parents are the perpetrators may substantially understate the risk of maltreatment recurring across generations.

Family Structure Experiences and Child Socioemotional Development During the First Nine Years of Life: Examining Heterogeneity by Family Structure at Birth

A vast amount of literature has documented negative associations between family instability and child development, with the largest associations being in the socioemotional (behavioral) domain. Yet, prior work has paid limited attention to differentiating the role of the number, types, and sequencing of family transitions that children experience, as well as to understanding potential heterogeneity in these associations by family structure at birth. We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study and hierarchical linear models to examine associations of family structure states and transitions with children's socioemotional development during the first nine years of life. We pay close attention to the type and number of family structure transitions experienced and examine whether associations differ depending on family structure at birth. For children born to cohabiting or noncoresident parents, we find little evidence that subsequent family structure experiences are associated with socioemotional development. For children born to married parents, we find associations between family instability and poorer socioemotional development. However, this largely reflects the influence of parental breakup; we find little evidence that socioemotional trajectories differ for children with various family structure experiences subsequent to their parents' breakup.

Family Instability, Multipartner Fertility, and Behavior in Middle Childhood

Two concepts capture the dynamic and complex nature of contemporary family structure: family instability and multipartner fertility. Although these circumstances are likely to co-occur, their respective literatures have proceeded largely independently. We used data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N=3,062) to consider these dimensions of dynamic family structure together, asking whether they independently predict children's behavior problems at age 9. Frequent family instability was consistently predictive of higher predicted levels of behavior problems for children born to unmarried mothers, an association largely attenuated by factors related to family stress. Multipartner fertility was robustly related to self-reported delinquency and teacher-reported behavior problems among children born to married mothers.

Income, Relationship Quality, and Parenting: Associations with Child Development in Two-Parent Families

Prior research suggests considerable heterogeneity in the advantages of living in a two-parent family. Specifically, children living with married biological parents exhibit more favorable outcomes than children living with cohabiting biological parents and with married and cohabiting stepparents. To explain these differences, researchers have focused almost exclusively on differences in the levels of factors such as income, parental relationship quality, and parenting quality across family types. In this paper, we examined whether differences in the benefits associated with these factors might also account for some of the variation in children's cognition and social-emotional development. Focusing on children at the time they enter kindergarten, we found only weak evidence of differences in benefits across family types. Rather, we found that children living in stepfather families experienced above average levels of parental relationship quality and parenting quality which, in turn, played a protective role vis-à-vis their cognitive and social-emotional development.