Becoming a Single Parent

The Role of Father and Mother Characteristics

Bibliographic Data

ID2347383
AuthorsFrances Goldscheider (University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA), Mindy E Scott (Child Trends, Bethesda, MD, USA), Emily Lilja (Columbia University, New York, NY, USA), Jacinta Bronte‐tinkew (National Institutes of Health), Jacinta Bronte-Tinkew (Center for Scientific Review, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA)
Year2015
Volume36
Issue12
Pages1624-1650
Publication date2015-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Family Issues (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0192-513X • E-ISSN: 1552-5481
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0192513x13508405
OpenAlexW2169402462
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited45

Using a longitudinal sample of 4,010 mothers and fathers from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we examine factors that predict whether children are living with both parents, only their mother, or only their father when the child is 3 years old. We considered parental characteristics and resources and couple\family-level characteristics and found that although many factors increased the odds of parents living together-including the financial resources of each parent, having a supportive relationship, and having a disability-free child-even more factors disproportionately increased the likelihood of either single fatherhood or single motherhood, including parents' multiple-partner fertility and depression, mother's drug use, and mother's greater alcohol use. Our findings suggest that although most children living with a single parent live with their mothers, they are more likely to do so if their fathers exhibit problem behaviors, and more likely to live with their father if their mothers do so

Developmental psychology · Fertility · Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study · Logistic regression · Odds · Population · Single mothers · Single parent · Demography · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · Medicine · Psychology