Chelsea Smith

Changes in Young Children’s Family Structures and Child Care Arrangements

Family structure change can disrupt the settings of children’s daily lives. Most scholarship focuses on disruption in the home environment. Moving beyond the home, this study explores the association between changes in family structure and changes in several dimensions of early child care. With longitudinal data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (n = 1,298), first-difference models reveal that family structure transitions are associated with changes in the type and quantity of early care as well as the number of care arrangements used, especially during the latter part of infancy. Given prior evidence linking these child care dimensions to behavioral and cognitive outcomes, these results suggest a policy-relevant mechanism by which family change may create inequalities among children.

Family Background, School-Age Trajectories of Activity Participation, and Academic Achievement at the Start of High School

Applying latent class and regression techniques to data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (n = 997), this study explored the potential academic advantages of time spent in out-of-school activities. Of particular interest was how these potential advantages played out in relation to the timing and duration of activity participation and the family contexts in which it occurred. Participation closer to the start of high school—including consistent participants and latecomers—was associated with higher grades at the transition into high school, especially for youth from low-income families. Sensitivity analyses indicated that this link between school-age activity participation and adolescent academic progress was unlikely to be solely a function of selection. It also tended to be more pronounced among youth from lower-income families, although without varying by other aspects of family status or process.

Family background and contemporary changes in young adults’ school-work transitions and family formation in the United States

The oft-discussed lengthening of the transition into adulthood is unlikely uniform across diverse segments of the population. This study followed youth in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and 1997 cohorts (n = 12,686 and 8,984, respectively) from 16 to 32 years old to investigate this trend in the United States, examining cross-cohort changes in transitions with a focus on differences by family background. Logistic regressions revealed that young adults in the most recent cohort were less likely to have completed schooling, fully entered the labor force, married, or become parents by their 30s than those in the older cohort. The cross-cohort drop in young adults completing schooling was more pronounced among youth from more disadvantaged family backgrounds, the drop in entering the labor force and having children was more pronounced among those from more advantaged backgrounds, and the drop in marriage did not differ by family background.

Family-related Disparities in College Enrollment across the Great Recession

The economic crisis of the Great Recession in the late 2000s had implications for the intergenerational transmission of inequality within families. Studying patterns of college enrollment across the Great Recession among U.S. youth from diverse family contexts provides insight into how economic volatility can either compound or undercut the advantages that some parents can give their children. Although college enrollment among 18- to 21-year-olds did not decline during or after the Great Recession, analyses of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979–Young Adult cohort revealed that this general trend subsumed variability by family history, local economic conditions, and age. Histories of family stability and sufficiency were associated with higher odds of college enrollment over time and across age, but this advantage was largest during the Recession in high-unemployment communities. These results illuminate how life course consequences of early family life can fluctuate with volatility and opportunity in the broader economy.

Timing of poverty in childhood and adolescent health: Evidence from the US and UK

Childhood poverty is associated with poorer adolescent health and health behaviours, but the importance of the timing of poverty remains unclear. There may be critical or sensitive periods in early life or early adolescence, or poverty may have cumulative effects throughout childhood. Understanding when poverty is most important can support efficient timing of interventions to raise family income or buffer against the effects of low income, but answers may vary across social contexts. The US and the UK are a useful comparison with similar liberal approaches to cash transfers, but very different approaches to healthcare provision. Utilising data from large population studies in the US (n = 9408; born 1979–1996) and UK (n = 1204; born 1991–1997), this study employs a structured life course approach to compare competing hypotheses about the importance of the timing or pattern of childhood exposure to poverty in predicting adolescent health limitations, symptoms of psychiatric distress, and smoking at age 16 (age 15/16 in US). Household income histories identified experience of poverty (measured as <60% of the national median equivalised income for a given year) in early life (ages 0–5), mid-childhood (ages 6–10) and early adolescence (ages 11–15). The Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) compared fit across models with variables representing different life course patterns of exposure to poverty. Adolescent distress was not associated with poverty in either country. In both countries, however, variables representing cumulative or persistent experiences of poverty exhibited optimal fit of all poverty exposure variables in predicting adolescent smoking and health limitations. There was also evidence of an early life sensitive period for smoking in the US. Poverty was more persistent in the US, but associations between poverty and outcomes were consistent across countries. Although poverty can have cumulative effects on health and behaviour, early interventions may offer the best long-term protection.

Family Instability and Exposure to Violence in the Early Life Course

Family instability has been linked with a host of outcomes across the early life course. This study extends this literature by connecting instability with violence in the community by examining the associations among family structure, family structure change, and secondary exposure to violence during adolescence across diverse segments of the population. Using longitudinal data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods study, we found that living with a single parent and experiencing family structure changes were associated with secondary exposure to violence. Multiple group models suggest that partner change translated into more exposure for boys than girls. Findings also suggest that family instability may lead to more secondary exposure to violence for African American youth.

Family Histories and Teen Pregnancy in the United States and Canada: Teen Pregnancy in the United States and Canada

Objective This study took a long view of childhood experiences that can contribute to the risk of teen pregnancy in the U.S. and Canada, two countries with different norms and policies surrounding family life and inequality. Background Teenage pregnancy is a major life experience arising from life course trajectories unfolding over a young womans childhood. Cross-national comparisons can elucidate family-based pathways while embedding youth within broader national contexts of the U.S. and Canada, which are similar in some respects yet different in others. Method Longitudinal data from the U.S. NLSY79 Young Adult Survey (n = 3,122) and the Canadian NLSCY (n = 2,517) connected childhood histories to teenage pregnancy. Competing risk models estimated the risk of teenage pregnancy with family structure changes and episodes in poverty during childhood. Results Teenage pregnancy, family change, and poverty were more common in the U.S. In the U.S., only multiple experiences of instability and poverty were associated with greater risk of teenage pregnancy, but, in Canada, any experience of childhood disadvantage was associated with elevated risk. Conclusion The risk of teen pregnancy was higher among both U.S. and Canadian adolescents from more unstable and economically insecure families, and that link between cumulative experiences of childhood disadvantage and adolescent pregnancy was stronger in Canada. Implications Policies and interventions to reduce teen pregnancy must address childhood socioeconomic disadvantage.

Family, Academic, and Peer Group Predictors of Adolescent Pregnancy Expectations and Young Adult Childbearing

Compared with previous generations, today’s young people increasingly delay parenthood. Having children in the late teens and early 20s is thus a rarer experience rooted in and potentially leading to the stratification of American families. Understanding why some adolescents expect to do so can illuminate how stratification unfolds. Informed by theories of the life course, social control, and reasoned action, this study used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort (n = 4,556) to explore outcomes and antecedents of adolescent pregnancy expectations with logistic regressions. Results indicated that those expectations—including neither low nor high (i.e., split) expectations—predicted subsequent childbearing. These apparently consequential expectations were, in turn, most closely associated with youth’s academics and peer groups. These findings illustrate how different domains can intersect in the early life course to shape future prospects, and they emphasize split pregnancy expectations reported in a nationally representative sample of young women and men.

Change over time in attitudes about abortion laws relative to recent restrictions in Texas

OBJECTIVE Over the past 5 years, Texas has become a hotbed of debate on abortion rights and restrictions. Legislation in 2011 and 2013 made it more difficult for women to obtain abortions and for clinics to provide the procedure, laws which have resulted in practical obstacles and the closure of clinics. Less is known about whether that political activity has extended to public opinion on abortion in Texas, especially in the national context of increasing partisanship. STUDY DESIGN Data from the cross-sectional Houston Area Survey (HAS; n=4856) were used to compare attitudes about abortion at three time points: in 2010 before the major waves of legislation, in 2012 after the 2011 legislation, and in 2014 after the 2013 legislation. Logistic regressions estimated support for legal abortion over time, after adjusting for personal characteristics, views on other social issues, religiosity, political party identification and political ideology. RESULTS At all three time points studied, slightly more than half of Houstonians supported legal abortion for any reason a woman wanted to obtain one. Compared to 2010, support was significantly higher in 2012 and 2014, whereas the decline in support between 2012 and 2014 was not statistically significant after adjusting for religiosity and politics. CONCLUSIONS This study identified increased public support for legal abortion following the Texas state legislatures restrictive laws in 2011 and 2013. IMPLICATIONS As the Texas legislature increasingly restricts access to abortion, residents of the states largest and most diverse city do not hold attitudes in line with those restrictions. Clinicians may thus have more public support for their services than the divided political climate would suggest.