J A Seltzer
Biographic Data
| ID | 23170 |
|---|---|
| NAME | J A Seltzer |
| GIVEN NAMES | J A |
| FAMILY NAME | Seltzer |
| SIGNATURE | SELTZER J A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Los Angeles |
| ORCID | 0009-0005-4452-8231 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 44 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1129 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 44 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1984 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 18 |
Adult children's responsiveness to parental needs during the pandemic
ObjectivesGuided by the life-course principles of linked lives embedded in historical time and place, we investigated whether nonresident adult children provided financial and time assistance to parents in response to their needs during the COVID-19 pandemic.BackgroundAdult children are an important source of support for older adults during crises, yet their ability to help parents may have been constrained during the pandemic.MethodData were ext…
Talk of Family: How Institutional Overlap Shapes Family-Related Discourse Across Social Class
We develop a novel application of machine learning and apply it to the interview transcripts from the American Voices Project (N = 1,396), using discourse atom topic modeling to explore social class variation in the centrality of family in adults' lives. We take a two-phase approach, first analyzing transcripts at the person level and then at the line level. Our findings suggest that family, as represented by talk, is more central in the lives of…
Racial–Ethnic Gaps in Pandemic-Related Economic Hardship: Age Differences Among Older Adults
Results point to structural factors generating new racial-ethnic gaps in pandemic-related economic hardship among those approaching retirement (ages 55-74) that did not affect the oldest adults (ages 75+)
Stepfamily variation in parent–child relationship quality in later life
This study underscores the importance of considering mothers' and fathers' different points of view in the same family and examining both positive and negative parent-child interactions as negative relationships are not merely the reverse of positive relationships
The Strength of Parent–Adult Child Ties in Biological Families and Stepfamilies: Evidence From Time Diaries From Older Adults
We examine older partnered parents' time spent with adult children in biological and step families, treating time together as an indication of relationship strength. Using a unique national sample of U.S. time diaries from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we investigate time with all adult children combined and with each adult child. We find that time together depends on family structure and parent–adult child dyadic relationship type embedded…
Care Received and Unmet Care Needs Among Older Parents in Biological and Step Families
Results illustrate that concerns about the implications of the rising prevalence of step families for care parents receive from their children may be warranted. However, there is a lack of evidence of greater unmet need for care for older parents in step families, as risks of unmet needs are high for older parents regardless of family type
Disparities in vulnerability to complications from Covid-19 arising from disparities in preexisting conditions in the United States
Spatial Distance Between Parents and Adult Children in the United States
ObjectiveThis brief report presents contemporary national estimates of the spatial distance between residences of parents and adult children in the United States, including distance to one's nearest parent or adult child and whether one lives near all of their parents and adult children.BackgroundThe most recent national estimates of parent-child spatial proximity come from data for the early 1990s. Moreover, research has rarely assessed the spat…
Family Change and Changing Family Demography
Increases in life expectancy, high rates of movement into and out of couple relationships, and increasing exposure to stepfamilies raise new questions about who is in a family, the distinction between who lives together and who is a family member, and the extent to which family members are expected to meet the long-term obligations that define kinship. These questions are important because families have traditionally served as a vital private saf…
Stepfamily Structure and Transfers Between Generations in U.S. Families
Unstable couple relationships and high rates of repartnering have increased the share of U.S. families with stepkin. Yet data on stepfamily structure are from earlier periods, include only coresident stepkin, or cover only older adults. In this study, we use new data on family structure and transfers in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to describe the prevalence and numbers of stepparents and stepchildren for adults of all ages and to ch…
The Family Safety Net of Black and White Multigenerational Families
Step-grandparenthood in the United States
This study provides new information about the demography of step-grandparenthood in the United States. Specifically, we examine the prevalence of step-grandparenthood across birth cohorts and for socioeconomic and racial/ethnic groups. We also examine lifetime exposure to the step-grandparent role. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the Health and Retirement Study, we use percentages to provide first estimates of step-grandpar…
Parent-Child Relationships at the Transition to Adulthood: A Comparison of Black, Hispanic, and White Immigrant and Native-Born Youth
Parents play a key role in launching their children into adulthood. Differences in the resources they provide their children have implications for perpetuating patterns of family inequality. Using data on 6,962 young adults included in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, we examine differences in the support parents provide to young adult children by immigrant status and race/ethnicity and whether and how those differences are explain…
The Effects of Vignette Placement on Attitudes Toward Supporting Family Members
Vignettes are useful for measuring norms and beliefs, but little is known about how vignette placement affects responses to subsequent attitude questions. We investigate how the placement of a vignette about parents and adult children living together affects answers to subsequent questions about family obligations in a survey of the U.S. population. We randomly assigned the order of the vignette and three single-statement attitude questions. For …
Risky sexual behavior of foreign and native-born women in emerging adulthood: The long reach of mother-daughter relationships in adolescence
Why do intimate partners live apart? Evidence on LAT relationships across Europe
BACKGROUND: Most research asks whether or not cohabitation has come to rival marriage. Little is known about the meaning of living apart together (LAT) relationships, and whether LAT is an alternative to marriage and cohabitation or a dating relationship. OBJECTIVE: We examine across Europe: (1) the prevalence of LAT, (2) the reasons for LAT, and (3) the correlates of (a) LAT relationships vis-à-vis being single, married, or cohabiting, and (b) d…
Family Complexity, the Family Safety Net, and Public Policy
safety-net; family complexity; marriage; cohabitation; stepfamilies
Widowed Mothers' Coresidence With Adult Children
The discussion considers coresidence as an intergenerational transfer and its importance for the contemporary aging society. Data are needed on characteristics of all offspring to test theories about parent-child relationships
Demographic Change and Parent-Child Relationships in Adulthood
Demographic changes in who becomes a parent, how many children parents have, and the marital statuses of parents and children affect the extent to which parents and adult children provide for each other later in life. We describe these demographic changes and their implications for the help parents and children give each other throughout their adult years. The changing demography of US families has increased both generations' need for family assi…
Coresidence and Geographic Proximity of Mothers and Adult Children in Stepfamilies
Children who live with or near a parent provide more care and receive more help from parents than geographically distant children. Stepfamily ties may be weaker than ties between biological kin, but little is known about the geographic proximity of step- versus biological kin. The authors used data from the Health and Retirement Study (N = 13,239 mothers and 45,675 biological and stepchildren) to show that stepchildren and stepmothers are less li…
Doubling up when times are tough: A study of obligations to share a home in response to economic hardship
Living Apart Together' relationships in the United States
We use two surveys to describe the demographic and attitudinal correlates of being in "Living Apart Together" (LAT), cohabiting, and marital relationships for heterosexuals, lesbians, and gay men. About one third of U.S. adults not married or cohabiting are in LAT relationships - these individuals would be classified as "single" in conventional studies that focus on co-residential unions. Gay men are somewhat more likely than heterosexual men to …
Neighborhood norms and substance use among teens
Intimate Union Formation and Dissolution
Ten years ago studies of couple relationships emphasized marriage formation and dissolution (both separation and divorce). Marriage is still the dominant heterosexual couple relationship, but increases in rates of nonmarital cohabitation, the growing recognition of couple relationships between individuals who do not live together, sometimes called LAT (Living Apart Together) couples, and same‐sex unions have broadened the area of inquiry to inclu…
Parents' Expectations About Childrearing After Divorce: Does Anticipating Difficulty Deter Divorce
Divorce is costly for parents because of the challenges of meeting children's economic and socioemotional needs after separation. Using the National Survey of Families and Households (N= 1,935), we investigate whether expected economic and parenting costs deter divorce. Mothers expect higher economic costs than fathers, whereas fathers expect more parenting difficulties. Most parents, however, expect high economic and parenting costs. In a large …
Relationships between Fathers and Children Who Live Apart: The Father's Role after Separation
ponents of nonresident fathers' involvement with children: social contact, economic involvement, and participation in childrearing decisions. The analysis shows that fathers' involvement with children varies depending on the circumstances of the children's birth and their current living arrangements. Nevertheless, the data suggest stability in the definition of the father role after separation, when family characteristics are controlled. Just as …
Families Formed Outside of Marriage
Cohabitation and childbearing outside of marriage are increasingly common family arrangements in the United States. Cohabitation is becoming more like formal marriage in that both are childrearing institutions. Attempts to study the meaning of families formed outside of marriage face the challenge of studying a moving target because the rapid rise in nonmarital families contributes to new meanings and institutional supports. Among these instituti…
Consequences of Marital Dissolution for Children
This paper examines changes in marriage as an institution for rearing children in the United States. It reviews the effects of marital instability and living arrangements on children's welfare, and focuses on how children's economic, emotional, and social needs are met when parents separate. The review shows that changes in marriage and childrearing have different consequences for women and men. For women, marriage and parenthood are distinct ins…
Demographic Change and Parent-Child Relationships in Adulthood
Demographic changes in who becomes a parent, how many children parents have, and the marital statuses of parents and children affect the extent to which parents and adult children provide for each other later in life. We describe these demographic changes and their implications for the help parents and children give each other throughout their adult years. The changing demography of US families has increased both generations' need for family assi…
Children's Contact with Absent Parents
This paper reports preliminary results from an investigation of childrens living arrangements and contact with biological parents living elsewhere. Using data from a recent national survey the authors describe race and ethnic variation in US childrens family structure and contact with parents in other households. The analysis treats frequency of contact with absent parent(s) as a function of socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of the ch…
Living Apart Together' relationships in the United States
We use two surveys to describe the demographic and attitudinal correlates of being in "Living Apart Together" (LAT), cohabiting, and marital relationships for heterosexuals, lesbians, and gay men. About one third of U.S. adults not married or cohabiting are in LAT relationships - these individuals would be classified as "single" in conventional studies that focus on co-residential unions. Gay men are somewhat more likely than heterosexual men to …
Cohabitation in the United States and Britain: Demography, kinship, and the future
Cohabitation is a rapidly changing aspect of family life in the United States and Britain. This article describes the demography of cohabitation, considers the place of cohabitation in the kinship system, and speculates on the future of cohabitation. I argue that three processes-cohort replacement, socialization that occurs when children live with cohabiting parents, and social diffusion-will foster continued increases in rates of cohabitation. T…
Family Ties after Divorce: The Relationship between Visiting and Paying Child Support
Family Change and Changing Family Demography
Increases in life expectancy, high rates of movement into and out of couple relationships, and increasing exposure to stepfamilies raise new questions about who is in a family, the distinction between who lives together and who is a family member, and the extent to which family members are expected to meet the long-term obligations that define kinship. These questions are important because families have traditionally served as a vital private saf…
What Fathers Say About Involvement With Children After Separation
This article examines the potential impact of nonresponse on information about paternal involvement after separation by comparing the sample of mothers whose children have a nonresident father to the sample of nonresident fathers in the National Survey of Families and Households. We show that when the samples are restricted to parents of children who were born in a first marriage, resident mothers and nonresident fathers are similar on a variety …
Why do intimate partners live apart? Evidence on LAT relationships across Europe
BACKGROUND: Most research asks whether or not cohabitation has come to rival marriage. Little is known about the meaning of living apart together (LAT) relationships, and whether LAT is an alternative to marriage and cohabitation or a dating relationship. OBJECTIVE: We examine across Europe: (1) the prevalence of LAT, (2) the reasons for LAT, and (3) the correlates of (a) LAT relationships vis-à-vis being single, married, or cohabiting, and (b) d…
Doubling up when times are tough: A study of obligations to share a home in response to economic hardship
Father by law: Effects of joint legal custody on nonresident fathers’ involvement with children
Family membership and household composition do not always coincide. Joint legal custody after divorce formalizes the relationship between fathers and children who live apart. I use prospective data from the National Survey of Families and Households to examine the association between joint legal custody and two aspects of nonresident fathers’ contributions to their children—the frequency of visits between fathers and children and child-support pa…
Family Complexity, the Family Safety Net, and Public Policy
safety-net; family complexity; marriage; cohabitation; stepfamilies
Stepfamily Structure and Transfers Between Generations in U.S. Families
Unstable couple relationships and high rates of repartnering have increased the share of U.S. families with stepkin. Yet data on stepfamily structure are from earlier periods, include only coresident stepkin, or cover only older adults. In this study, we use new data on family structure and transfers in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to describe the prevalence and numbers of stepparents and stepchildren for adults of all ages and to ch…
The Family Safety Net of Black and White Multigenerational Families
Spatial Distance Between Parents and Adult Children in the United States
ObjectiveThis brief report presents contemporary national estimates of the spatial distance between residences of parents and adult children in the United States, including distance to one's nearest parent or adult child and whether one lives near all of their parents and adult children.BackgroundThe most recent national estimates of parent-child spatial proximity come from data for the early 1990s. Moreover, research has rarely assessed the spat…
Explaining Family Change and Variation: Challenges for Family Demographers
Twenty years ago, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) issued a request for proposals that resulted in the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), a unique survey valuable to a wide range of family scholars. This paper describes the efforts of an interdisciplinary group of family demographers to build on the progress enabled by the NSFH and many other theoretical and methodological innovations. Our work,…
Estimating Nonresponse and Response Bias: Resident and Nonresident Parents' Reports about Child Support
Although researchers are aware that nonresponse and response bias may compromise the accuracy of estimates from survey data, it is difficult to obtain estimates of these biases. In this article, we estimate nonresponse and response bias for a particular case—child support awards and payments. The sample of divorced resident and nonresident parents was drawn from Wisconsin court records and subsequently interviewed by telephone in 1987. The court …
Neighborhood norms and substance use among teens
Care Received and Unmet Care Needs Among Older Parents in Biological and Step Families
Results illustrate that concerns about the implications of the rising prevalence of step families for care parents receive from their children may be warranted. However, there is a lack of evidence of greater unmet need for care for older parents in step families, as risks of unmet needs are high for older parents regardless of family type
Coresidence and Geographic Proximity of Mothers and Adult Children in Stepfamilies
Children who live with or near a parent provide more care and receive more help from parents than geographically distant children. Stepfamily ties may be weaker than ties between biological kin, but little is known about the geographic proximity of step- versus biological kin. The authors used data from the Health and Retirement Study (N = 13,239 mothers and 45,675 biological and stepchildren) to show that stepchildren and stepmothers are less li…
Legal Custody Arrangements and Children's Economic Welfare
This article investigates the effects of legal custody arrangements on the amount of child support fathers pay after divorce, contrasting the experiences of families in which parents share authority over children through jont legal custody and those in which mothers have sole legal custody. It argues that join legal custody encourages similarities between the way divorced fathers and fathers in two-parent households invest in their children. The …
Step-grandparenthood in the United States
This study provides new information about the demography of step-grandparenthood in the United States. Specifically, we examine the prevalence of step-grandparenthood across birth cohorts and for socioeconomic and racial/ethnic groups. We also examine lifetime exposure to the step-grandparent role. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the Health and Retirement Study, we use percentages to provide first estimates of step-grandpar…
Divorced Parents' Qualitative and Quantitative Reports of Children's Living Arrangements
We use data from a sample of divorced parents in Wisconsin (N = 1,392) to examine how parents describe their children's living arrangements. When the children spend substantial time in both parents' homes, both parents are less likely to use the phrase live with to describe living arrangements. When children spend most nights with their mother, mothers are more likely than fathers to state that the children live with their mother. Together, these…
The Multiple Crises of Marital Separation and Divorce
Continuity of Marital Behavior in Remarriage: The Case of Spouse Abuse
This paper explores the variation between 1st marriages and remarriages in the incidence of spouse abuse an important aspect of marital relationships. 2 explanations are proposed for the higher rates of spouse abuse in remarried families. The 1st relies on characteristics individual spouses acquire prior to their remarriage; the 2nd focuses on remarried family characteristics in particular the complexity of family structure. Using data from the N…
Children's Contact with Absent Parents
This paper reports preliminary results from an investigation of childrens living arrangements and contact with biological parents living elsewhere. Using data from a recent national survey the authors describe race and ethnic variation in US childrens family structure and contact with parents in other households. The analysis treats frequency of contact with absent parent(s) as a function of socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of the ch…
Socialization and Stress Explanations for Spouse Abuse
Family Ties after Divorce: The Relationship between Visiting and Paying Child Support
A Framework for Studying Family Socialization Over the Life Cycle: The Case of Family Violence
Theoretical and empirical work on family socialization focuses on the process by which parents transmit values to their children. This work tends to rely on the unstated assumption that individuals live in only two families during their lives: the family of origin and the family of procreation. Behavior is learned in the childhood family and transmitted to the marital/childbearing family unit formed later in life. This limiting assumption discour…
Inequality in divorce settlements: An investigation of property settlements and child support awards
Estimating Nonresponse and Response Bias: Resident and Nonresident Parents' Reports about Child Support
Although researchers are aware that nonresponse and response bias may compromise the accuracy of estimates from survey data, it is difficult to obtain estimates of these biases. In this article, we estimate nonresponse and response bias for a particular case—child support awards and payments. The sample of divorced resident and nonresident parents was drawn from Wisconsin court records and subsequently interviewed by telephone in 1987. The court …
Relationships between Fathers and Children Who Live Apart: The Father's Role after Separation
ponents of nonresident fathers' involvement with children: social contact, economic involvement, and participation in childrearing decisions. The analysis shows that fathers' involvement with children varies depending on the circumstances of the children's birth and their current living arrangements. Nevertheless, the data suggest stability in the definition of the father role after separation, when family characteristics are controlled. Just as …
Legal Custody Arrangements and Children's Economic Welfare
This article investigates the effects of legal custody arrangements on the amount of child support fathers pay after divorce, contrasting the experiences of families in which parents share authority over children through jont legal custody and those in which mothers have sole legal custody. It argues that join legal custody encourages similarities between the way divorced fathers and fathers in two-parent households invest in their children. The …
What Fathers Say About Involvement With Children After Separation
This article examines the potential impact of nonresponse on information about paternal involvement after separation by comparing the sample of mothers whose children have a nonresident father to the sample of nonresident fathers in the National Survey of Families and Households. We show that when the samples are restricted to parents of children who were born in a first marriage, resident mothers and nonresident fathers are similar on a variety …
Consequences of Marital Dissolution for Children
This paper examines changes in marriage as an institution for rearing children in the United States. It reviews the effects of marital instability and living arrangements on children's welfare, and focuses on how children's economic, emotional, and social needs are met when parents separate. The review shows that changes in marriage and childrearing have different consequences for women and men. For women, marriage and parenthood are distinct ins…
Father by law: Effects of joint legal custody on nonresident fathers’ involvement with children
Family membership and household composition do not always coincide. Joint legal custody after divorce formalizes the relationship between fathers and children who live apart. I use prospective data from the National Survey of Families and Households to examine the association between joint legal custody and two aspects of nonresident fathers’ contributions to their children—the frequency of visits between fathers and children and child-support pa…
Fathers under Fire: The Revolution in Child Support Enforcement
Fathers under Fire: The Revolution in Child Support Enforcement
Families Formed Outside of Marriage
Cohabitation and childbearing outside of marriage are increasingly common family arrangements in the United States. Cohabitation is becoming more like formal marriage in that both are childrearing institutions. Attempts to study the meaning of families formed outside of marriage face the challenge of studying a moving target because the rapid rise in nonmarital families contributes to new meanings and institutional supports. Among these instituti…
Divorced Parents' Qualitative and Quantitative Reports of Children's Living Arrangements
We use data from a sample of divorced parents in Wisconsin (N = 1,392) to examine how parents describe their children's living arrangements. When the children spend substantial time in both parents' homes, both parents are less likely to use the phrase live with to describe living arrangements. When children spend most nights with their mother, mothers are more likely than fathers to state that the children live with their mother. Together, these…
Cohabitation in the United States and Britain: Demography, kinship, and the future
Cohabitation is a rapidly changing aspect of family life in the United States and Britain. This article describes the demography of cohabitation, considers the place of cohabitation in the kinship system, and speculates on the future of cohabitation. I argue that three processes-cohort replacement, socialization that occurs when children live with cohabiting parents, and social diffusion-will foster continued increases in rates of cohabitation. T…
Explaining Family Change and Variation: Challenges for Family Demographers
Twenty years ago, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) issued a request for proposals that resulted in the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), a unique survey valuable to a wide range of family scholars. This paper describes the efforts of an interdisciplinary group of family demographers to build on the progress enabled by the NSFH and many other theoretical and methodological innovations. Our work,…
Intimate Union Formation and Dissolution
Ten years ago studies of couple relationships emphasized marriage formation and dissolution (both separation and divorce). Marriage is still the dominant heterosexual couple relationship, but increases in rates of nonmarital cohabitation, the growing recognition of couple relationships between individuals who do not live together, sometimes called LAT (Living Apart Together) couples, and same‐sex unions have broadened the area of inquiry to inclu…
Parents' Expectations About Childrearing After Divorce: Does Anticipating Difficulty Deter Divorce
Divorce is costly for parents because of the challenges of meeting children's economic and socioemotional needs after separation. Using the National Survey of Families and Households (N= 1,935), we investigate whether expected economic and parenting costs deter divorce. Mothers expect higher economic costs than fathers, whereas fathers expect more parenting difficulties. Most parents, however, expect high economic and parenting costs. In a large …
Neighborhood norms and substance use among teens
Living Apart Together' relationships in the United States
We use two surveys to describe the demographic and attitudinal correlates of being in "Living Apart Together" (LAT), cohabiting, and marital relationships for heterosexuals, lesbians, and gay men. About one third of U.S. adults not married or cohabiting are in LAT relationships - these individuals would be classified as "single" in conventional studies that focus on co-residential unions. Gay men are somewhat more likely than heterosexual men to …
Doubling up when times are tough: A study of obligations to share a home in response to economic hardship
Widowed Mothers' Coresidence With Adult Children
The discussion considers coresidence as an intergenerational transfer and its importance for the contemporary aging society. Data are needed on characteristics of all offspring to test theories about parent-child relationships
Psychology (38 works) · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving (35 works) · Family Dynamics and Relationships (34 works) · Sociology (27 works) · Developmental psychology (22 works) · Political science (18 works) · Social Psychology (17 works) · Demographic economics (15 works) · Demography (15 works) · Demography (13 works)