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Title: Family Structure and Children's Social and Emotional Development: Marital Quality, Mother-Child Interaction and Child Outcomes in Mother-Father and Mother-Stepfather Families
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Rogers, Stacy J.
Family Structure and Children's Social and Emotional Development: Marital Quality, Mother-Child Interaction and Child Outcomes in Mother-Father and Mother-Stepfather Families
Presented: Miami, FL, Population Association of America Meetings, May 1994
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Child Health; Family Characteristics; Family Circumstances, Changes in; Family Income; Family Structure; Fathers, Absence; Fathers, Biological; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Marital Stability; Maternal Employment; Self-Esteem; Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC)

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

In this research, a sample of 697 8 to 12 year old children from the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey's Youth Cohort in 1988 is used to consider family interaction patterns and their effects for children's self-esteem and behavior problems in mother-father and mother-stepfather families. I also consider the extent to which children's feelings of self-esteem may mediate the effect of mother-child interaction on child behavior problems. The results indicate that more supportive mother-child interaction is significantly related to higher self-esteem and lower levels of behavior problems for children, regardless of family structure. There are also important differences in family process and its effects on children. In mother-father families, a higher quality marital relationship is significantly and directly related to more supportive mother-child interaction and lower levels of behavior problems in children. In contrast, the marital relationship in mother-stepfather families does not significantly effect other aspects of family life. The effect of self-esteem on children's behavior problems is also different for children in the two types of families. For children in mother-father families, having higher self-esteem is significantly related to lower levels of behavior problems. Children's self-esteem does not significantly effect their level of behavior problems for children in mother-stepfather families. The implications of these findings for children's social capital are discussed.
Bibliography Citation
Rogers, Stacy J. "Family Structure and Children's Social and Emotional Development: Marital Quality, Mother-Child Interaction and Child Outcomes in Mother-Father and Mother-Stepfather Families." Presented: Miami, FL, Population Association of America Meetings, May 1994.