Family Instability in Four Low-and Middle-Income Countries: Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam.

• In Event: Family Context and Child Development in the Global South

Abstract

The instability hypothesis suggests that stress associated with family structure transitions (i.e. changes in household composition through the entrance of exit of romantic partners) leads to negative child outcomes (Fomby & Cherlin, 2007). However, family structure transitions are not always associated with stress or negative developmental outcomes (Hadfield, Amos, Ungar, Gosselin, & Ganong, 2018). This suggests that there are specific conditions under which transitions are more or less stressful.
One possibility is that transitions may be less stressful when household size is large, because children have access to support from multiple family members. Similarly, living in multigenerational households or with extended kin could alleviate stress of transitions through providing instrumental and social support (Mehio-Sibai, Beydoun, & Tohme, 2009). Alternatively, transitions may also be more stressful when household size is large, because there are more dyads being impacted, and therefore greater potential for disrupted family function (Brown, 1999).
To our knowledge, the instability hypothesis has not been tested outside of high-income contexts. Using five rounds of data from the Young Lives study (N=8,062, Boyden, 2018) which follows nationally representative samples of children from age 1 through 15 in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam, we set out to test two aims:
1. Test the instability hypothesis in these four countries.
2. Examine the conditions under which family structure transitions lead to stress and worsened child health.
The outcome variable of interest is physical health. We used the parent-rated variables “Compared to other children of this age would you say [child’s] health is the same, better or worse?” and “In general, would you say [child’s] health is very poor, poor, average, good, or very good?”. The mediator was financial stress - which is commonly used in understanding the instability hypothesis (Hadfield et al., 2018) - assessed with a “wealth index” which measured three markers of wealth: housing quality, access to services, and consumer durables. The moderator variables were household size, multigenerational household (i.e. does a grandparent live in the household), and extended kin household (i.e. does an aunt/uncle live in the household).
To test the instability hypothesis, we used multilevel mediation analysis to assess whether financial stress mediated the link between family structure transitions and child physical health. Stress did not mediate the link between family structure transitions and child physical health in any of the Young Lives countries. We then ran models with household size, multigenerational household, and extended kin household as moderators of the family transitions – stress relationship. In Peru and Vietnam, family structure transitions were less stressful when household sizes were smaller (Figure 1). In Peru, family structure transitions were less stressful when children lived in a multigenerational household (Figure 2).
This study is the first to test the instability hypothesis outside of high-income contexts, and we have highlighted some of the mechanisms behind the mixed instability hypothesis literature. Our findings demonstrate that family structure transitions can lead to stress, but only in specific circumstances relating to the number and types of family members in the household.

Authors

• Rebecca Oldroyd, Queen Mary University of London
  Presenting Author

• Shazia Rahman, Queen Mary University of London
  Non-Presenting Author

• Laurie DeRose, Catholic University of America
  Non-Presenting Author

• Michael Pluess, Queen Mary University of London
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kristin Hadfield, Trinity College Dublin
  Non-Presenting Author