Family Law, Family Structure, and Health and Well-Being

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

United States family law governs a range of issues surrounding marriage, divorce, child custody, and child support.  As these laws are longstanding and widespread, there is a continual need to understand their effects on the health of well-being of affected individuals. However, understanding the broader implications of US family law requires an understanding of the underlying relationships between family structure and health and well-being. This panel features four papers that investigate the relationship between family structure, health, and well-being.

In the first paper, Maya Roy studies the effect of health shocks on incidence of divorce. She finds that the diagnosis of a serious medical condition increases incidence of divorce. The separation hazard is larger for women who face health shocks, and the effects cannot be explained by income or health expenses. Her results suggest that behavioral effects and social stigma drive the relationship between health shocks and divorce.

In the second paper, Owen Fleming studies the effect of parental divorce on investment in children’s preventive care. He finds that while children of divorce fall behind on preventive care in the pre-divorce period, preventive care increases markedly after divorce, driven by child support establishment, low pre-divorce investments, and shifting post-divorce parental preferences.

In the third paper, Anna Sanz-de-Galdeano, Javier Adrián López Artero, and Daniela Vuri document the relationship between health shocks and couple dissolution among older adults.  They find that health shocks increase the likelihood of couple dissolution. The effects gradually intensify over time, and are driven by mental health, cognitive decline, and financial strain.

In the fourth paper, Quinn Kinzer evaluates the effect of a medically determined, severe, and random health shock on the likelihood of establishing paternity or obtaining a child support order. Her findings show that an early economic shock is associated with a child support order being put in place, but the association dissipates over time.

These papers study the relationship between family structure and health in a wide range of contexts and using a diverse set of methods and data sources. Insofar as these papers build on our understanding of the relationship between family structure and health, the results delineate several important policy implications as it pertains to the implications of family law for health and well-being.

Policy Area

• Family and Child Policy

Chair

• Maria Cancian, Georgetown University McCourt School

Discussants

• Melanie Guldi, University of Central Florida

• Huong Nguyen, Wayne State University

Organizer

• Owen Michael Fleming, Wayne State University

Individual Presentations

• In Sickness and in Health? Evidence on Health Shocks and Marital Instability - Presenting Author: Maya Leung Roy, Harvard University

• When the Going Gets Tough: the Impact of Health shocks on Divorce - Non-Presenting Co-Author: Anna Sanz-de-Galdeano, University of Alicante; Presenting Author: Javier Adrian Lopez Artero, University of Alicante

• And what about the kids? Divorce, child support, and childhood health investment - Presenting Author: Owen Michael Fleming, Wayne State University

• Parental Job Loss and Young Children’s Socioemotional Development during COVID-19 - Presenting Author: Eunho Cha, University of California, Irvine