Family Formation History and the Psychological Well-Being of Women from Diverse Racial-Ethnic Groups

Bibliographic Data

ID2316865
AuthorsR Crosnoe (0000-0001-5861-0555, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA, corresponding author), Cheryl A Johnston (0000-0001-8193-6641, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA), Carol A Johnston (0000-0002-9663-5048), Shannon Cavanagh (0000-0002-6735-5274, The University of Texas at Austin), Shannon E Cavanagh (University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA), Elizabeth Thompson Gershoff (0000-0002-0160-0062, The University of Texas at Austin), Elizabeth Gershoff (University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA)
Year2023
Volume64
Issue2
Pages261-279
Publication date2023-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Health and Social Behavior (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-1465 • E-ISSN: 2150-6000
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/00221465231159387
PMID36960880
OpenAlexW4360816880
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited54

Studying disparities in psychological well-being across diverse groups of women can illuminate the racialized health risks of gendered family life. Integrating life course and demand-reward perspectives, this study applied sequencing techniques to the National Longitudinal Study of Youth: 1979 to reveal seven trajectories of partnership and parenthood through women's 20s and 30s, including several in which parenthood followed partnership at different ages and with varying numbers of children and others characterized by nonmarital fertility or eschewing such roles altogether. These sequences differentiated positive and negative dimensions of women's well-being in their 50s. Women who inhabited any family role had greater life satisfaction and fewer depressive symptoms, although these general patterns differed by race-ethnicity. Family roles were more closely related to well-being than ill-being for White women, parenthood had more pronounced importance across outcomes for Black women, and the coupling of partnership and parenthood generally mattered more for Latinas

Developmental psychology · Ethnic group · Family life · Family planning · Fertility · General partnership · Life satisfaction · National Survey of Family Growth · Political science · Population · Race (biology) · Research methodology · Sociology · Demography · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Gender Studies · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · Medicine · Psychology · Social Psychology · Work-Family Balance Challenges · Gerontology