Household Complexity and Change among Children in the United States, 1984-2010

• In Event: 153 - Section on Children and Youth Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 02. Family Structure and Transitions

Abstract

An established literature estimates the effects of family complexity and instability on child outcomes. Most research on family instability uses measures limited to changes in coresident parental figures, but children also experience the comings and goings of other household members. Further, the likelihood of experiencing changes in household composition differs by race and ethnicity, family structure, and cohort. I explore these differences using the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and discrete-time hazard models. First, I find that the cumulative proportion of children exposed to gaining or losing a household member is much higher than the proportion of children whose father or mother leaves the household. Second, I show that the likelihood of experiencing a non-parent, non-sibling relative join or leave a child’s household is higher among black and Hispanic children than among white children and among children in single parent families than in two parent families. Overall, fewer children in the 1990s and 2000s were exposed to changes in household composition compared to children in the 1980s.

Author

• Kristin Perkins, Harvard University