Biological Mother Engagement with Children Across Contemporary Family Structures

• In Event: Poster Session 14
  In Poster Session: PS 14 Topic - Family Context & Processes

Abstract

Despite evolving family forms, mothers remain the primary caregivers of young children. Indeed, prior research has found that mothers spend more time in caregiving than fathers, regardless of employment status (Raley, Bianchi, & Wang, 2012) or family type (Hook & Chalasani, 2008). Family structure at a given point in time is an important predictor of the total time that mothers spend caregiving for children (Kalil, Ryan, & Chor, 2014), and of mothers’ level of educational involvement with their children (Ressler, Smith, Cavanagh, & Crosnoe, 2017). Also, despite the rise in joint custody after divorce (Cancian, Meyer, Brown, & Cook, 2014), custodial parents today are still much more likely to be mothers (Grall, 2018). Yet, the ways in which mothers engage with their children might depend on family structure change, and therefore, the focus of this paper. First, we investigate how mother involvement (measured as frequency of engaging in various mother-child activities) changes across children’s years 1, 3, 5 and 9 as family structure may change (or remain stable). Second, we examine how mothers’ involvement changes in response to father’s residential status and level of involvement during early to middle childhood. Overall, this paper extends the literature on family structure changes – that we know have affected fathers’ roles – to provide new information about the implications for mothers’ roles with children.

We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (Fragile Families), which is a survey of children born in 20 large cities across the United States between 1998 and 2000. The study collected data on almost 5,000 families and oversampled for children born to non-married parents. Data were collected at birth, years 1, 3, 5, 9, and 15 from mothers, fathers, primary caregivers, child care providers, teachers, and children, as well as direct observational assessments.

Preliminary Results
Mother Involvement across Childhood and across Family Structure Changes
Several differences emerged in the level of maternal involvement based on family structure change (see Figure 1). Overall, mother involvement was slightly slower across time. At year 1, mothers in Always Two Biological Parent households displayed higher levels of involvement than mothers in Always Single households (p < .01). At year 3, there were no significant differences in mean levels of maternal involvement across family structure. At year 5, mothers in Two Biological to Single households displayed lower levels of maternal involvement compared to mothers in Unstable households (p < .01). At year 9, mothers in Always Two Biological Parent households displayed lower levels of involvement compared to mothers in Always Single households (p < .001) and compared to mothers in Unstable households (p < .001). Mothers in Unstable Households also demonstrated higher levels of involvement than mothers in Two Biological Parents to Single households (p < .05).

Mother Involvement by to Father Residential Status and Father Involvement
Next steps will include estimating an unconditional latent growth curve model, a conditional latent growth curve model, and a conditional latent growth curve model with time-varying indicators of father residential status and father involvement.

Authors

• Kierra Marie Pettit Sattler, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  Presenting Author

• Marcia J Carlson, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  Non-Presenting Author