The Cohabitation Go Round:Effects of (single, cohabiting, or married) parents on Child Stability

Came across this very interesting research.

Executive Summary
In recent decades, much of the globe has witnessed a retreat from marriage. This means more children are being born outside of marriage, either to single parents or cohabiting couples, in countries around the world.

This social change raises two questions:

  1. Are such children less likely to enjoy stable family lives?
  2. Is the growth of nonmarital childbearing, including the growth of childbearing within a cohabiting union, associated with more family instability for children at the national level?

In Europe and the United States, this study finds that children born to cohabiting and especially single parents experience higher levels of family instability in the first 12 years of their lives, relying on data from the Harmonized Histories database. Using data from 100 countries around the globe, this study also finds that family instability is higher in countries where more children are born to single mothers and cohabiting couples. Finally, national-level data from 68 countries shows that the growth of cohabitation is associated with increases in family instability in countries around the world. In other words, marriage seems to be associated with more family stability for children across much of the globe, whereas cohabitation is typically associated with more instability

Intro

Scholars disagree about the importance of marriage when it comes to the welfare of children. Some argue that marriage per se does not play an important role in the welfare of children, at least in some countries, whereas others contend that marriage continues to play a central role in the welfare of children.

1 However, there is a growing consensus that the number of parental union transitions matters for children above and beyond family structure, with children being more likely to thrive in stable families and more likely to flounder in unstable ones.

2 As sociologist Andrew Cherlin noted in The Marriage-Go-Round, family instability is cause for concern “because it may increase children’s behavioral and emotional problems. Simply put, some children seem to have difficulty adjusting to a series of parents and parents’ partners moving in and out of their home.”

3 But if the institution of marriage—and the norms, customs, and laws associated with it—confers stability on family life, then marriage may matter, at least indirectly, when it comes to providing a stable family context for the rearing of children. On the other hand, if cohabitation is as stable as marriage in some countries, then the marital context of childrearing may not matter, at least in those countries.

Accordingly, this essay takes up two central sets of questions:

  1. Do individual children born outside of marriage experience more family instability , regardless of parents’ educational attainment? Do children born to cohabiting parents experience more family instability than their peers born to married parents ?

  2. Are the societal levels of lone childbearing, as well as levels of childbearing in cohabiting unions, associated with more family instability for children in countries across the globe? And are increases in societal levels of childbearing outside of marriage, including childbearing among cohabiting couples, associated with increases in family instability in countries around the world?

HAVING CHILDREN BEFORE MARRIAGE(WHILE COHABITING) IS BAD FOR CHILD STABILITY EVEN IF YOU END UP MARRYING THEIR BIOLOGICAL FATHER AFTER THE CHILD IS BORN AS ARE REMARRIAGE AFTER DIVORCE, BLENDED FAMILIES AND COHABITATION

It is easy to think of lone parenthood as disadvantageous for children because lone parents frequently have less income than coupled parents, and they always have less time. Nonetheless, part of the disadvantage associated with being born to a single mother may be the heighted risk of subsequent union transitions faced by children of single mothers.8 That’s because union transitions appear to present children with more challenges than merely being reared by a lone parent. For instance, daughters of stably single mothers are less likely to have premarital births than children of divorced mothers, L. L. Wu (1996), and more union transitions generally mean more behavior problems, regardless of parents’ current union status.

9 Research from the United States shows that most children born to single parents are drawn into cohabiting or marital relationships while they are growing up, and relationships formed after the birth of a child are less stable—even if the biological parents partner.10 This is in part because couples who commit to one another before having a biological child usually have a deeper commitment than those who partner in the wake of getting pregnant.11 As Daniel Lichter and his colleagues put it, “moving in together following a pregnancy—especially an unintended one—is unlikely to lead to marital success or union stability .

Research from the United States further shows that children born to cohabiting parents also face an elevated risk of family instability relative to children born to married parents because cohabitation is less stable than marriage,13 even when children are present .

Children who start out living with both their biological parents might still have more stable family lives than children born to single mothers because initial transitions among lone parents might be motivated by a desire to be in union. Nevertheless, children born to cohabiting unions in the United States used to experience even more transitions than children born to single mothers .

Excellent Research Check it out via this lik

https://worldfamilymap.ifstudies.org/2017/files/WFM-2017-FullReport.pdf

ndio hao wanakam, wacha watoke lunch.

Blocking be da name of the game. Wacome kucuom!!!

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