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...

In 1965, Daniel Patrick Moynihan warned that non-marital childbearing and marital dissolution were undermining the progress of African Americans. I argue that what Moynihan identified as a race-specific problem in the 1960s has now become a classbased phenomena as well. Using data from a new...

Research indicates that religious participation is correlated with marital satisfaction. Less is known about whether religion also benefits participants in nonmarital, intimate relationships, or whether religious effects on relationships vary by gender. Using data from the first three waves of...

Over the last several years, as new waves of immigrants have continued to enter the United States, the effects of immigration on the nation’s economy and society have been hotly debated. Largely ignored in the debate, however, has been the wellbeing of immigrant children. Little is known about...

Most analyses of time and resource allocation in couple households ignore what couples do with their money, assuming that money is “absolutely fungible, qualitatively neutral, infinitely divisible, [and] entirely homogeneous” (Zelizer 1994). If, instead, couples’ money management sets the...

This paper examines the extent to which the relationship between parents in cohabiting as opposed to married households affects the material hardship experienced by members of those households. My approach is to consider the adequacy of certain household public goods, such as housing, heat, and...

In this paper we employ data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study in order to estimate a model of underground labor supply developed by Lemieux et al. (1994). We focus specifically on the underground labor supply of unmarried fathers, a group that is likely to have significant...

Child support enforcement policies enjoy widespread support from legislators because most people believe that fathers should support their children, even when they live in separate households. Less often emphasized is the potentially far-reaching impact of these policies on increasing the...