Abstract
We build on Fingerman and colleagues’ emphasis on the multifaceted and variable nature of family relationships while demonstrating the long reach of earlier family context (family structure, relationships, and resources) on young adult well-being. Using three waves of data from the National Survey of Families and Households, we examine links between adolescent family context, young adult schooling and relationships, and young adult psychological well-being. Information from parents and children at various points in the life course provides leverage on temporal order and allows for some progress in sorting out the processes linking parent–child relationships and child well-being. We elaborate on family context by considering family structure and parental conflict in adolescence, specific dimensions of parent–child relationships over time, and constellations of family relationships, i.e., a child’s closeness with both, one, or neither parent. Our findings point to strong and persistent links between family relationships and young adult well-being.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Our sample was limited to focal children living with their mothers at the first wave, whose parents reported on family structure and relationships at NSFH1 or NSFH2, and who themselves reported on young adult transitions, relationships, and well-being at NSHF2 or NSFH3. We pieced together information from all three waves of the NSFH but relied on just two waves to construct measures for any given child, corresponding to their adolescent and young adult years. Our baseline sample included 1,963 cases. Samples varied somewhat by outcome due to item nonresponse (see Musick & Meier, 2010, for additional details on the sample and measures).
References
Amato, P. R., & Sobolewski, J. M. (2001). The effects of divorce and marital discord on adult children’s psychological well–being. American Sociological Review, 66, 900–921.
Astone, N. M., & McLanahan, S. S. (1991). Family structure, parental practices and high school completion. American Sociological Review, 56, 309–320.
Booth, A., & Amato, P. R. (2001). Parental predivorce relations and offspring postdivorce well-being. Journal of Marriage and Family, 63, 197–212.
Call, K. T., & Mortimer, J. T. (2001). Arenas of comfort in adolescence: a study of adjustment in context. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Coleman, J. S. (1988). Social capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of Sociology, 94, S95–S120.
Erel, O., & Burman, B. (1995). Interrelatedness of marital relations and parent-child relations: a meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 118, 108–132.
Fauber, R., Forehand, R., McCombsThomas, A., & Wierson, M. (1990). A mediational model of the impact of marital conflict on adolescent adjustment in intact and divorced families: the role of disrupted parenting. Child Development, 61, 1112–1123.
Grych, J. H., & Fincham, F. D. (1990). Marital conflict and children’s adjustment: a cognitive–contextual framework. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 267–290.
Hogan, D. P., & Astone, N. M. (1986). The transition to adulthood. Annual Review of Sociology, 12, 109–130.
Kohn, M. L. (1969). Class and conformity: a study in values. Homewood, IL: Dorsey.
Lareau, A. (2003). Unequal childhoods: class, race, and family life. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.
Musick, K., & Bumpass, L. (1999). How do prior experiences in the family affect transitions to adulthood? In A. Booth, A. C. Crouter, & M. Shanahan (Eds.), Transitions to adulthood in a changing economy: no work, no family, no future? (pp. 69–102). Westport, CT: Praeger.
Musick, K., & Meier, A. (2010). Are both parents always better than one? Parental conflict and young adult well-being. Social Science Research, 29(5), 814–830.
Rindfuss, R. R. (1991). The young adult years: diversity, structural change, and fertility. Demography, 28, 493–512.
Shanahan, M. J. (2000). Pathways to adulthood in changing societies: variability and mechanisms in life course perspective. Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 667–692.
Sobolewski, J. M., & Amato, P. R. (2007). Parents’ discord and divorce, parent-child relationships and subjective well-being in early adulthood: is feeling close to two parents always better than feeling close to one? Social Forces, 85, 1105–1124.
Thomson, E., Hanson, T. L., & McLanahan, S. S. (1994). Family structure and child well-being: economic resources vs. parental behaviors. Social Forces, 73, 221–242.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Appendix A Key Measures
Appendix A Key Measures
Adolescent Family Context
Mother–child closeness is based on a single question about how the mother would describe her relationship with the focal child, with response choices ranging from 1 = very poor to 7 = excellent at NSFH1 and 0 = really bad to 10 = absolutely perfect at NSFH2. We rescaled items to range from 1 to 7 for comparability across waves.
Mother’s time with children (all children in the household, including the focal child) is an average of four items about how often she spends time with children in leisure activities away from home, at home working on a project or playing together, having private talks, or helping with reading or homework, with responses ranging from 1 = never or rarely to 6 = almost every day.
Mother’s harsh parenting is constructed from questions about how often she yells at or spanks or slaps her children. The wording of questions and the referent differ across waves, but are comparable. At NSFH1, mothers are asked two questions about yelling and spanking/slapping her children. Response alternatives range from 1 = never to 4 = very often and are averaged across items. At NSFH2, questions refer specifically to the focal child. Mothers are asked two questions about how often they yell at the child and spank/slap the child when the focal child does something especially bad. They are asked a third question about how they try to influence the focal child’s behavior, including how often they yell or shout. Responses to the three items range from 1 = never to 5 = always and are averaged. We rescaled items to range from 1 to 4 for comparability across waves.
Family structure and conflict combines measures of parental conflict and marital histories. For conflict, we use couples’ responses to six items concerning frequency of disagreements about: household tasks, money, spending time together, sex, in-laws, and the children. We average all valid responses from mothers and fathers to these six items. We categorize continuously married-parent families by grouping the distribution of average conflict scores into thirds, corresponding to low, medium, and high average conflict. We then distinguish five family types: low-, medium-, and high-conflict continuously married-parent families, stepfather families, and single-mother families.
Mother’s education is coded as highest level of education prior to the focal child’s birth and categorized as less than high school, high school graduate, some college, and college or more.
Family income includes all sources of income to family members in the past year. It is adjusted to constant 1992 dollars and modeled as the natural log.
Young Adult Parent–Child Relationships and Young Adult Education
Mother–child closeness is based on a single question asked of young adult children: “Taking things all together, on a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is really bad and 10 is absolutely perfect, how would you describe your relationship with your mother?”
Mother–child time together is based on a single question asked of young adult children: “Over the last 3 months, about how often have you spent time with your mother in leisure activities, working on something together, or just having private talks? Would you say: not at all, less than once a month, 1–3 times a month, about once a week, or more than once a week?” The metric ranges from 1 to 5.
Mother–child disagreements are captured using a single question asked of young adult children: “During the last 3 months, how often did you argue or fight or have a lot of difficulty with your mother? Was it: not at all, less than once a month, 1–3 times a month, about once a week, or more than once a week?” The metric ranges from 1 to 5.
Young adult educational attainment is coded as less than high school, high school graduate, some college, and college graduate or more.
Constellations of parental relationship quality are measured by considering children’s relationships with mothers and fathers. Children are asked the same question regarding their closeness with each parent (see question for mother–child closeness described above). Relationships scoring an eight or higher are coded as “close.” We then cross-tabulate mother and father closeness for a four-type classification of close relationships with: both parents, mother only, father only, or neither parent.
Well-Being in Young Adulthood
Subjective well-being is measured with a single question asked of young adult respondents: “Taking all things together, on a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 means really bad and 10 means absolutely perfect, how would you say things are for you these days?”
Life satisfaction is measured with eight items asked of young adult respondents: “Tell me how satisfied you are with each of the following things. Give me a number from 0 to 10, where 0 means extremely dissatisfied and 10 means extremely satisfied.” The domains covered are: school, career, financial situation, leisure time, friendships, health, love life, and physical appearance. We average responses for a range of 0–10.
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Musick, K., Meier, A. (2012). Child Well-Being and the Long Reach of Family Relationships. In: Booth, A., Brown, S., Landale, N., Manning, W., McHale, S. (eds) Early Adulthood in a Family Context. National Symposium on Family Issues, vol 2. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1436-0_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1436-0_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-1435-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-1436-0
eBook Packages: Behavioral ScienceBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)