Alan Booth Cassandra Dorius Pennsylvania State University, University Park,
It is widely accepted among family scholars that relationship instability is a stressful experience in the lives of most mothers, fathers, and children. In general, when people experience a disruption, such as a divorce, they score lower then continuously married individuals (or children of these individuals) on a variety of wellbeing indicators. And oftentimes these negative consequences can extend several years beyond the disruption event. Largely missing from the extant literature, however, is scholarship on specific patterns of instability that may be influencing the long term wellbeing of mothers and children above and beyond an individual disruption, or even a measure of aggregate disruptions. In particular, little research has been done on the influence of "multipartnered fertility" (or MPF) which occurs when adults have children with more than one person. Inherent in MPF instability are at least two relationship formations, one dissolution, and time in a single parent home, as well as a complex amalgam of legal and social relationships between mothers, children, and biological nonresident and step-fathers, and family units comprised of step- and half-siblings. The aim of this research is to be the first empirical study of the long-term consequences of multipartnered fertility on the lives of mothers and their adolescent children. This will be accomplished by using a multigenerational, longitudinal, and nationally representative sample of a birth cohort of women who were followed from adolescence to the end of their childbearing years and linking their MPF histories to self-reported measures of mother and child wellbeing across a variety of domains. This project will evaluate (1) the characteristics of women who engage in MPF (assessed prior to their first relationship dissolution), (2) the long term consequences of MPF on women?s self-reported depression, alcohol abuse, and physical health, and (3) the affect of maternal MPF on adolescent wellbeing in terms of timing of first sexual experience, internalizing and externalizing problems, and the likelihood of a teen birth. For all indicators, analyses will parse out the specific influence of patterned instability (MPF) compared with measures of global instability to untangle the unique effects of multipartnered fertility. And, drawing on work by previous scholars and utilizing a life course perspective, we will examine several mechanisms for linking this particular pattern of instability to selected mother and child outcomes, including: fertility staging, strain theory, family instability effects, and selection effects.
Broader Impact. Given the dramatic changes in family life over the past half century, there are many questions among scholars, policy makers, and intervention specialists about the long term influence of family instability on the lives of mothers and children. Furthermore, little is known about the mechanisms that may exacerbate (or attenuate) the problems associated with MPF instability. This project has important implications for influencing the way scholars and policy makers address these significant questions. A better understanding of the consequences of MPF instability, as well as the social mechanisms that might underlie adjustment to this instability, may point to more effective intervention programs and family policy, as well as broaden the research agenda of contemporary family scholars to include new approaches to studying these pressing questions.
