Family Cohabitation and Children's Behavior in the Classroom

• In Event: 054 - Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 17. Single Parent and Cohabiting Families

Abstract

Using the Fragile Families dataset, the authors examines the effect of family cohabitation on classroom behaviors of children growing up in these households. Building on earlier work, the author tests whether cohabitation continues to have detrimental effects, in light of methodological improvements made possible by the design of Fragile Families. He finds no statistical evidence that cohabitation increases aggressive classroom behaviors and explores the role of resources, instability and selection bias in research on family organization.

Author

• Chad Gregory Evans, University of Pennsylvania