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Source: Department of Demography, Georgetown University
Resulting in 2 citations.
1. Morrison, Donna Ruane
Child Well-Being in Step-Families and Cohabiting Unions Following Divorce: A Dynamic Appraisal
Working Paper, Department of Demography and Graduate Public Policy Institute, Georgetown University, Washington DC, 1999
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Department of Demography, Georgetown University
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Children, Well-Being; Cohabitation; Divorce; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME)

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Bibliography Citation
Morrison, Donna Ruane. "Child Well-Being in Step-Families and Cohabiting Unions Following Divorce: A Dynamic Appraisal." Working Paper, Department of Demography and Graduate Public Policy Institute, Georgetown University, Washington DC, 1999.
2. Morrison, Donna Ruane
Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr.
Ritualo, Amy R.
Road to Remarriage: A Prospective Study of Child Well-Being Following Divorce
Working Paper, Washington DC: Department of Demography and Graduate Public Policy Institute, Georgetown University and Philadelphia PA: Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania, 1999
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Department of Demography, Georgetown University
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Children, Well-Being; Cohabitation; Divorce; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Remarriage

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Given the prevalence of divorce and the prominence of concerns about family structure in political debates, reassessing the implications of remarriage and post-divorce cohbitation for children is critical. Available studies have not adequately addressed either the possibility of pre-existing differences prior to divorce or the lingering effects of the divorce process when children in step-families are compared to those in two-parent nuclear families. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth mother-child data, we take a prospective approach using a pre-disruption measure of child well-being as our basis for ascertaining the effect of remarriage. We examine how children in step-families compare to their counterparts whose divorced mothers took other routes following the initial disruption including entering cohabiting unions or remaining single. Net of controls for time since disruption and the number of maternal union transitions experienced by the child, we discover remarriage is associated with fewer behavior problems than is remaining "stably" divorced, although the statisitical significance of the estimated coefficient is marginal. We found some support for the hypothesis that the more favorable economic standing of remarried families accounts for part of remarriage's salutary effect. Finally, we found no statisitcal difference between remarriage and cohabitation following divorce from the perspective of children's behavior problems, net of controls.
Bibliography Citation
Morrison, Donna Ruane, Frank F. Jr. Furstenberg and Amy R. Ritualo. "Road to Remarriage: A Prospective Study of Child Well-Being Following Divorce." Working Paper, Washington DC: Department of Demography and Graduate Public Policy Institute, Georgetown University and Philadelphia PA: Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania, 1999.