Effects of Divorce and Cohabitation Dissolution on Preschoolers Literacy

Transcription

1 Effects of Divorce and Cohabitation Dissolution on Preschoolers Literacy, PhD Temple University NCFR November 19, 2011

2 Purpose of the study Examine the effects of cohabitation dissolution and divorce (compared with marriage) on preschool-age children s emerging literacy skills

3 Background This study builds on the work of stress theorists (e.g., Abidin, 1992) who suggest that the parent-child system can be affected by multiple stresses associated with the child, parent, and family demographic situation.

4 Background In the present study, I suggest that divorce will have a greater negative effect on children s literacy than will cohabitation dissolution (compared with parents who are married) because divorce is more stressful than the break-up of cohabiting relationships.

5 Background Divorce may be more stressful than cohabitation dissolution: Married individuals have stronger ties with extended family (Eggebeen, 2005) Reconciling shared economic entities (e.g., bank account, home) that are more common among married couples (Wilk et al., 2009) Married parents may feel a greater sense of personal failure when they cannot make the marriage work (Nock, 1995) Cohabitors have more liberal attitudes about relationship dissolution (Axinn & Thornton, 1995)

6 Background Research literature tends to group all children of divorced mothers together Present study examines the effects on children of divorced and previously cohabiting mothers who: Remained single Started to cohabit with a new partner ACM2 Married a new partner Cohabitation itself may have a negative effect on children, even when the relationship is stable (Dunifon & Kowaleski-Jones, 2002).

7 Slide 6 ACM2 I think this should be deleted, right? Amy McKlindon, 10/27/2011

8 Hypotheses 1. Compared with children in stable marriage, children of divorced mothers who remain single will have lower emerging literacy scores than children of previously cohabiting mothers who remain single.

9 Hypotheses Children of divorced and cohabiting parents who re-married or started new cohabiting relationships will have lower literacy scores than the children of continuously married parents and the children of divorce and formerly cohabiting relationships who remained single.

10 Mediators Hypothesized that the following variables mediated the relationships between divorce and cohabitation dissolution and child literacy: Decline in mothers well-being/increase in mothers depressive symptoms Decline in mothers socio-economic status Decline in mothers cognitive stimulation Pregnancy intentions

11 Data Source: ECLS-B Nationally representative sample N=10,700 Cohort followed at approximately 9 months, 24 months, 48 months, and kindergarten entry Data sources: Primary caregivers (mostly mothers) Direct observation and testing of the child

12 Analytic sample Biological mothers who completed the primary caregiver interviews at 24 and 48 months and were married or cohabiting with the biological father at 24 months. Final sample: 6,450 5,700 married couples (at 24 months) 750 cohabiting couples (at 24 months)

13 Participant characteristics

14 Child characteristics Average age: 4.4 years (at 48 month interview) 51.3% male

15 Mothers Race Other, 23.2% Hispanic, 19.3% Non-Hispanic White, 49.2% Non-Hispanic Black, 8.2%

16 Marital status at 48 months Stable cohabiting relationship, 8.9% Divorced, 5.4% Exited a cohabiting relationship, 2.9% Stable marital relationship, 82.7%

17 Measures

18 Literacy 37-item assessment of emerging literacy at 48 months: Letter recognition (8 items) Letter sounds (6 items) Early reading recognition of simple words (4 items) Phonological awareness (10 items) Knowledge of print conventions (8 items) Matching word (1 items) Reliability (α): 0.81

19 Marital status Constructed based on responses at 24 and 48 months: Stable marriage: at 24 and 48 months, (reference group; n = 5,300) Stable cohabitation: at 24 and 48 months, (n = 600) Divorced noncohabitation: (n = 250)

20 Marital status (continued) Divorced cohabitation: (n = 100) Cohabitation noncohabitation: (n = 150) Cohabitation new cohabitation: (n = 50)

21 Measures of mediators (at 24 and 48 months) Depressive symptoms: Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale-Short Form (CESD-SF) SES: constructed based on mother s and father s education, mother s and father s occupation, and household income Cognitive stimulation: constructed based on mothers responses to how often they engaged in the following activities with the child in the past month: Read books Told stories Sang songs

22 Measures of mediators (continued) Pregnancy timing: based on mother report at 9 months on whether she became pregnant earlier than she wanted

23 Measures of controls Child cognitive ability at 24 months: Bayley Short Form-Research Mental Scale Child gender Child age at assessment Mother s race/ethnicity

24 Results

25 Hypothesis 1: Children of divorced mothers will have significantly lower literacy scores than children of formerly cohabiting mothers who also remain singly, compared to children of married mothers. Not supported Divorce noncohabitation and cohabitation noncohabitation were not related to child literacy.

26 Hypothesis 2: Children of divorced and cohabiting parents who started new cohabiting relationships will have lower literacy scores than the children of continuously married parents and the children of divorced and formerly cohabiting relationships who remained single. Supported for divorced new cohabitation (β = -.04 *** - small effect size) Not supported for cohabitation new cohabitation

27 Additional findings Children of mothers in stable cohabiting relationships scored significantly lower on emerging literacy than children of married mothers at 48 months (β = -.05***).

28 Mediators SES had significant mediating effect on the association between stable cohabitation and child literacy Sobel test = -3.31, p <.001

29 Discussion of findings

30 Divorce cohabitation Small effect size on child literacy Larger effects than the effects of child gender and being a Hispanic child compared with a White, non-hispanic child These children scored.36 standard deviations lower than children whose mothers were continuously married

31 Cohabitation new-cohabitation The unstandardized coefficient was substantial and probably would have been significant if there had been more mothers in this group.

32 Effect size comparison: Abecedarian Project Abecedarian Project high quality early childhood intervention program Five-year-olds participating in the program scored.75 standard deviations higher on IQ tests than children not participating in the program Average effect of Abecedarian Project slightly more than 2 times larger than the effect of divorce cohabitation on children s literacy scores

33 Divorce, Cohabitation, and Literacy Not divorce per se that negatively affects preschoolers literacy Instead the findings suggest that it is the mother s pursuit of a new cohabiting relationship shortly following a divorce or cohabitation dissolution. May be attributed to child s exposure to high level of instability

34 Stable cohabitation Mothers in stable cohabiting relationships are more likely than mothers in stable marriages to have children with low literacy scores. Cohabitation has often been thought to lift children out of poverty (Manning & Brown, 2006). My findings, which are based on longitudinal data, reveal that over time mothers in stable cohabiting relationships with the biological father have declines in SES compared with stable married persons, and it is this decline in SES that partially explains why children of stable cohabiting parents are doing more poorly on literacy tests.

35 Conclusions The findings add to the growing body of research suggesting that several partnerships over a short period of time are disruptive to child development outcomes. Present study adds to the increasing body of literature showing that cohabitation, even when stable over a two-year period of time, has negative effects on children.

36 Conclusions There is currently a need for studies to provide a better understanding about the reasons for these negative effects, as there are significant implications for the growing number of parents who have chosen to raise their children in the context of cohabitation rather than marriage.

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