Family dynamics through childhood: A sibling model of behavior problems

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Abstract

This article draws upon theories of the life course and child development to examine how structural changes in the family and parenting practices affect child behavior problems in middle childhood. Our analysis improves upon prior research by simultaneously examining the effects of poverty, single-motherhood, welfare, and kin co-residence, distinguishing between early and current exposure to changes of these family conditions, and controlling for unobserved, preexisting family differences. We estimate fixed-effects sibling models using the matched mother–child data of NLSY79. We find two robust relationships: child behavior problems are shaped by early childhood poverty, which is not mediated by current parenting nor contaminated by family selection, and mothers’ use of physical punishment, which is not contaminated by family selection. The findings support the early childhood exposure hypothesis applied to poverty, a parenting hypothesis applied to mother’s physical punishment, and a family selection hypothesis applied to positive parenting, father’s time, and cultural activities.

Introduction

Sociologists have become increasingly concerned with the ways in which families shape children’s development and overall well-being. This growth of interest has been fueled by rapid transformations in family structure, deepening poverty among children, and the deteriorating well-being of disadvantaged children. Children’s behavior problems in middle childhood may be implicated in later adult outcomes. For example, life course research finds that child temper tantrums are associated with problems in adulthood, such as downward occupational mobility, erratic work lives, and divorce and separation (Caspi et al., 1987).

An important theme in life course and child development research focuses on the timing of changes in the family through the lives of children. This literature has examined how the effects of structural changes in the family, such as divorce or descent into poverty, depend on the developmental stage of the child. For example, some studies find that children’s well-being is reduced by early childhood poverty, but not early childhood divorce (McLeod and Shanahan, 1993, Wu and Martinson, 1993). Others caution that the negative effects of family change could be due to preexisting factors that select for family change (e.g., Cherlin et al., 1998, McLanahan and Bumpass, 1988).

This paper draws on life course and child development literatures to examine child behavior problems in middle childhood. First, we examine the hypothesis of family selection in which observed associations between family change and child outcomes are spurious due to unobserved pre-existing conditions in the family. We use fixed-effects sibling models to control for family selection. Second, we model the dynamics of structural changes in the family and test three hypotheses: Are child behavior problems determined by early childhood exposure to family change, current exposure, or family instability? Unlike most previous research, which typically examines only a single dimension of the family conditions, we examine four dimensions, including single-motherhood, grandparent co-residence, welfare dependency, and poverty. Third, we examine the effects of current parenting practices on child behavior problems and test the extent to which parenting mediates the effects of changes in family structure.

Section snippets

Family selection

The effects of the timing and changes in family structure on child outcomes can be due to family selectivity—that is, preexisting differences between families that experience the structural change and those that do not (McLanahan and Bumpass, 1988). Our family selection hypothesis specifies that the association between family structure and child outcomes is spurious due to stable preexisting differences between families that affect child outcomes and are correlated with family structure. These

Family dynamics

Life course perspectives emphasize that lives are interdependent and linked through time, and focus attention on the timing and sequencing of events such as divorce, moving in with grandparents, welfare, and poverty (Elder, 1985). Recent research has examined how child outcomes are affected by such events considered separately. Research on poverty distinguishes permanent, chronic, persistent, recurrent, occasional, and transient forms of poverty (Ashworth et al., 1994), finding that early

Parenting practices

A long history of research has emphasized the importance of parenting for child development. Research has identified two important dimensions of parenting: (1) positive parenting, including warmth, affection, and praise; and (2) parental control, including rule formation, discipline, and punishment (e.g., Amato and Booth, 1997, Baumrind, 1978). We hypothesize that positive parenting—praising a child, showing physical affection, and saying positive things—will reduce problem behaviors by

The national longitudinal survey of youth

We use data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79). NLSY79 is based on a national probability sample of 12,686 American youths who were aged 14–21 in January 1979, and who have been re-interviewed annually through 1994 and biennially afterward. In 1996, 80% of the female respondents interviewed were mothers of at least one child. From 1986, the NLSY79 has assessed child development of children born to these female respondents. By 1996, six waves of assessments had been

Model specification

Our modeling strategy proceeds in two steps. First, we examine the effects of family background and childhood experience of structural changes in the family on child behavior problems, testing our early childhood, social control, and family instability hypotheses. Second, we examine the effects of parenting on child behavior problems, controlling for family background and childhood experience of structural changes in the family, testing our parenting hypotheses. To determine whether these

Results

Table 2 describes the unweighted distributions of our analysis variables for the complete sample, which includes 3259 families with a total of 5808 children, and the sibling sample, which includes 1805 families of two or more siblings with a total of 4354 children. The two measures of behavior problems are very similar between the two samples. Most of the explanatory variables also have similar distributions across the two samples. As expected, the one variable that differs across samples is

Conclusions

This article has examined the effects of structural changes in the family and parenting practice on child behavior problems during middle childhood. Our models draw upon theories of the life course and child development and improve on prior research by examining multiple structural changes in families simultaneously. In particular they distinguish among early and current childhood exposure and family instability, controlling for family selection by controlling for unobserved, preexisting family

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    This research was supported by a grant to the first author from the National Institute of Child and Human Development (R01HD34293), and a grant to the second author from the National Science Foundation (SES-9311014). The opinions and conclusions stated in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent any of the funding agencies. We thank Andy Cherlin, Daphne Kuo, and anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on an earlier draft.

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