This paper uses data from the first four waves of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine the following questions: (1) what are unmarried parents’ capabilities at the time of their child’s birth, and what is the nature of their relationship at birth and over time? (2) How...

Both in the UK and in the US, we observe puzzling gender asymmetries in the propensity to outmarry: Black men are substantially more likely to have white spouses than Black women, but the opposite is true for Chinese: Chinese men are half less likely to be married to a White person than Chinese...

Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study this paper examines associations between family structure and economic trajectories during the first five years after a child’s birth, paying special attention to non-traditional families. Among families with stable structures,...

We use data from the Fragile Families Study (N=1975) to examine the relationship between mothers’ partnership changes and parenting behavior during the first five years of their child’s life. We compare coresidential and dating transitions and recent and more distal transitions. We also...

As the developed world has experienced a shift away from the traditional two-biological parent family, scholars have sought to understand how children are faring in non-traditional homes. Debate has arisen over assertions that children from non-traditional families do less well in school....

There are two competing views regarding the presence of social fathers on childrens’ cognitive ability: either the social father provides more financial need to the children or the mother with new partners may shift the focus away from the children. Previous research focused more on such...

Labor market investigations attribute the weak labor force participation of German women to traditional role patterns. This article explores whether this interpretation can be confirmed by an alternate indicator--the proportion of female household-heads. Using PSID-GSOEP panel data, changes in...