Search Results

Title: The Intergenerational Costs of Parental Social Stressors: Academic & Social Difficulties in Early Adolescence for Children of Young Mothers
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Menaghan, Elizabeth G.
Kowaleski-Jones, Lori
Mott, Frank L.
The Intergenerational Costs of Parental Social Stressors: Academic & Social Difficulties in Early Adolescence for Children of Young Mothers
Journal of Health and Social Behavior 38,1 (March 1997): 72-86.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2955362
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Children, Academic Development; Cognitive Development; Family Environment; Family Influences; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Marital Status; Maternal Employment; Mothers, Adolescent; Occupational Prestige; Parental Influences; Social Environment; Social Roles

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

Social stressors embedded in parents' occupational and family roles have been shown to have effects on family interaction and the cognitive and emotional development of young children. Here we consider whether these patterns also hold for children in early adolescence. We study 1158 10-14-year-old children born to the early childbearers among the female respondents of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth cohort. We find that both poor quality of parental employment and low quality of mothers' relationships with their partners have adverse effects on the cognitive stimulation and maternal warmth children receive; living in informal unions is also associated with poorer parent-child interaction. These family interaction patterns in turn both buffer the effects of stressful family conditions and shape academic and behavior outcomes directly. Some work and family conditions interact in their effects: in particular, single mothering has less adverse effects on cognitive stimulation and behavior problems when mothers are employed in occupations providing higher complexity.The effects of current conditions are diminished but seldom eliminated when we control for possible selection effects by utilizing data from earlier waves to control for earlier levels of child problems. These findings suggest that current parental social stressors continue to have consequences for both academic and behavioral outcomes during early adolescence.
Bibliography Citation
Menaghan, Elizabeth G., Lori Kowaleski-Jones and Frank L. Mott. "The Intergenerational Costs of Parental Social Stressors: Academic & Social Difficulties in Early Adolescence for Children of Young Mothers." Journal of Health and Social Behavior 38,1 (March 1997): 72-86.