Contributions of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to Child Development

We describe the promise of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) for developmental researchers. FFCWS is a birth cohort study of 4,898 children born in 1998–2000 in large US cities. This prospective national study collected data on children and parents at birth and during infancy (age 1), toddlerhood (age 3), early childhood (age 5), middle childhood (age 9), adolescence (age 15), and, in progress, young adulthood (age 22). Though FFCWS was created to understand the lives of unmarried parent families, its comprehensive data on parents, children, and contexts can be used to explore many other developmental questions. We identify six opportunities for developmentalists: ( a) analyzing developmental trajectories, ( b) identifying the importance of the timing of exposures for later development, ( c) documenting bidirectional influences on development, ( d) understanding development in context, ( e) identifying biological moderators and mechanisms, and ( f) using an urban-born cohort that is large, diverse, and prospective.

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Re-thinking Stepfathers’ Contributions: Fathers, Stepfathers, and Child Wellbeing

Journal of Family Issues ◽

10.1177/0192513x211054471 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 0192513X2110544

Author(s):

Sarah Gold ◽

Kathryn J. Edin

Keyword(s):

School Connectedness ◽

Fragile Families ◽

Birth Cohort Study ◽

Active Engagement ◽

Child Wellbeing ◽

Using Data ◽

Nonmarital Births ◽

The Relationship ◽

Us Cities ◽

Internalizing And Externalizing

Using data from a contemporary cohort of children, we revisit the question of whether children benefit from being close to and engaging in activities with a stepfather. We deploy the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a birth cohort study of nearly 5000 children born in US cities in 1998–2000, with a large oversample of nonmarital births. We explore the relationships between stepfathers’ closeness and active engagement and youth’s internalizing and externalizing behaviors and school connectedness at ages 9 and 15 for between 550 and 740 children (depending on the wave) with stepfathers. We find that the emotional tenor of the relationship and level of active engagement between youth and their stepfathers are associated with reduced internalizing behaviors and higher school connectedness. Our findings suggest that stepfathers’ roles seem to have evolved in ways that are more beneficial to their adolescent stepchildren than was previously the case.

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Substantiated Childhood Maltreatment and Intimate Partner Violence Victimization in Young Adulthood: A Birth Cohort Study

Journal of Youth and Adolescence ◽

10.1007/s10964-016-0558-3 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 46 (1) ◽

pp. 165-179 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Amanuel Alemu Abajobir ◽

Steve Kisely ◽

Gail Marilyn Williams ◽

Alexandra Marie Clavarino ◽

Jackob Moses Najman

Keyword(s):

Intimate Partner Violence ◽

Cohort Study ◽

Birth Cohort ◽

Young Adulthood ◽

Childhood Maltreatment ◽

Partner Violence ◽

Intimate Partner ◽

Birth Cohort Study ◽

Violence Victimization ◽

Intimate Partner Violence Victimization

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Childhood adversities as predictors of labour market participation in young adulthood. A prospective birth cohort study

European Journal of Public Health ◽

10.1093/eurpub/ckt123.134 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 23 (suppl_1) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

T Lund ◽

J Hviid Andersen ◽

CD Hansen ◽

T Nøhr Winding ◽

K Biering ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cohort Study ◽

Labour Market ◽

Birth Cohort ◽

Young Adulthood ◽

Birth Cohort Study ◽

Market Participation ◽

Childhood Adversities ◽

Labour Market Participation ◽

Prospective Birth Cohort ◽

Prospective Birth Cohort Study

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Coresidential Father Transitions and Biological Parents’ Coparenting Quality in Early and Middle Childhood

Journal of Family Issues ◽

10.1177/0192513x15616850 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 38 (5) ◽

pp. 677-699 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Anne Martin ◽

Rebecca M. Ryan ◽

Elizabeth M. Riina ◽

Jeanne Brooks-Gunn

Keyword(s):

Growth Curve ◽

Middle Childhood ◽

Fragile Families ◽

Child Wellbeing ◽

Growth Curve Models ◽

Biological Parents ◽

Social Fathers

This study examined how the entrances and exits of biological and social fathers into and out of children’s households were associated with biological parents’ coparenting quality. Piecewise growth curve models tested for variation in these associations between child ages 1 and 3, 3 and 5, and 5 and 9. Data came from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study ( n = 2,394). Results indicated that in all three age intervals, a biological father’s entrance was associated with a contemporaneous increase in coparenting quality, whereas his exit was associated with a contemporaneous decrease. A biological father’s exit between child ages 1 and 3, or 3 and 5, was associated with declining coparenting quality in subsequent intervals. A social father’s entrance was consistently associated with a contemporaneous decrease in the biological parents’ coparenting quality, whereas his exit was associated with a contemporaneous increase between ages 3 and 5, and 5 and 9.

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