Non-marital childbearing in the US has reached historic levels. Because of the instability of nonmarital partnerships, multipartnered fertility, whereby a woman has children with different men, has also increased. High father involvement and supportive coparenting may serve as barriers to...

This paper assesses the consequences of residential instability during the first five years of a child’s life for a host of school readiness outcomes. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we examine the relationship between multiple moves and children’s cognitive...

This paper investigates to what extent stable and unstable three-generation family households (grandparent, parent and child) are associated with child socioemotional, cognitive and health outcomes over the first three years of a child’s life. Using longitudinal data from the Fragile Families...

This working paper assesses the representativeness of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study sample. It compares the demographic, socioeconomic, and health characteristics of children and families participating in the Fragile Families Study to those of the children and families...

Theoretical perspectives suggest a strong link between maternal mental health and parenting, which may facilitate the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage from depressed mothers to their children. In this paper, I extend prior research by using data from the Fragile Families and Child...

While an extensive literature has shown that family structure is linked with child wellbeing, less well understood is how the dynamics within similar types of families affect children. Family systems theory posits that parents’ couple relationship is important for promoting children’s...

When parents engage in childbearing with more than one partner or multi-partnered fertility, this gives rise to a complex family system with strong implications for transfers to children. This study therefore seeks to measure the effect of multi-partnered fertility on formal and informal child...

This paper uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine the association between multi-partnered fertility (MPF) when parents have children with more than one partner and parents‘ mental health, including Major Depressive Disorder, heavy episodic drinking, and...

Although research consistently demonstrates a link between neighborhood conditions and physical activity for adults and adolescents, less is known about residential context and young children’s physical activity. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N=2,210), we...

This paper assesses the consequences of residential instability during the first five years of a child’s life for a host of school readiness outcomes. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we examine the relationship between multiple moves and children’s cognitive...