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Marital Birth and Early Child Outcomes: The Moderating Influence of Marriage Propensity
Author(s) -
Ryan Rebecca M.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01749.x
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , child development , fragile families and child wellbeing study , marital status , demography , population , sociology
Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Well‐Being Study, the present study tested whether the benefits of a marital birth for early child development diminish as parents’ risk of having a nonmarital birth increases ( N = 2,285). It was hypothesized that a child’s likelihood of being born to unmarried parents is partly a function of father characteristics that predict his capacity to promote child development. Results partially supported hypothesis. A positive association emerged between parental marriage and cognitive outcomes at age 3 only for children whose parents were likely to be married at the child’s birth, suggesting average differences between children in married and unmarried families may overestimate the benefit of marriage in subpopulations most impacted by nonmarital birth.