Despite speculation about an 80% divorce rate among parents of children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), very little empirical and no epidemiological research has addressed the issue of separation and divorce among this population. Data for this study was taken from the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health, a population-based,…

With passage of the Welfare Reform Law of 1996, various national, state, and local programs were created to encourage marriage, particularly among low-income African American cohabiting couples with children. However, policy makers know little about the deterrents to marriage for members of this group. More specifically, there is a lack of data…

"Creating a Financial Stake in College" is a four-part series of reports that focuses on the relationship between children's savings and improving college success. This series examines: (1) why policymakers should care about savings, (2) the relationship between inequality and bank account ownership, (3) the connections between savings and college…

A considerable amount of research has examined factors associated with the etiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders in children. The familial nature of anxiety has been well-established, with genetic studies showing that approximately 30% of the variance is accounted for by genetic factors. Research into the family environment documents…

We use data from the Voting and Registration Supplement of the Current Population Survey to explore the effects of family structure on turnout in the 2000 presidential election. Our results indicate that family structure, defined as marital status and the presence of children, has substantial consequences for turnout. Married adults are more…

Promoting marriage, especially among low-income single mothers with children, is increasingly viewed as a promising public policy strategy for improving developmental outcomes for disadvantaged children. Previous research suggests, however, that children's academic achievement either does not improve or declines when single mothers marry. In this…

This article reports a study of the possible impact of immigration on interactional aspects of intimate partner violence (IPV) among help-seeking women. Are there differences concerning (a) IPV categories, (b) IPV severity, frequency, duration, regularity, and predictability, (c) guilt and shame, (d) partners' ethnicity, and (e) children being…

Jane Waldfogel, Terry-Ann Craigie, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn review recent studies that use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) to examine why children who grow up in single-mother and cohabiting families fare worse than children born into married-couple households. They also present findings from their own new research.…

This study investigated how marriage, cohabitation, single parenthood, and the presence of biological parents affected the incomes and material hardships of children. Data from the 1997 and 1999 National Survey of America's Families were used to examine recent changes in the marital status and household structure of families with children, how…

Explores the remarkable shift in marriage and divorce practices that has occurred in the last third of this century in the United States. Information is presented on trends in this country and other industrialized nations, and some reasons for these changes are explored. (SLD)

This study examines the effects of changes in family structure on children's economic well-being. An initial shift-share analysis indicates that, had the proportion of children living in female-headed families remained constant since 1970, the 1998 child poverty rate would have been 4.4 percentage points lower than its actual 1998 level of 18.3…

This study evaluated the frequency of coarrest in female victims who utilized 911 for intimate partner violence (IPV) and any patterns or circumstances that increased the likelihood of coarrest. All cases of police-documented IPV where a female IPV victim was arrested in conjunction with the perpetrator were included. Each incident report was…

The living arrangements of American children have been strongly affected by revolutionary social changes in the past 30 years, including a large decrease in first-marriage rates and an increase in divorce. Each year more than one million children are affected by divorce. Statistics on divorce and social trends are presented. (SLD)

Effects of divorce on children are reviewed, acknowledging two contradictory trends. On one hand, it is increasingly recognized that the intact biological parent family offers many advantages. On the other hand, there is increasing acceptance that divorce can be better than having parents stay together for their children's sake. (SLD)

This article describes stressful life events experienced by a multi-shelter sample of 162 homeless adults in the Central Florida area. Participants included homeless single men (n = 54), homeless single women (n = 54), and homeless women with children (n = 54). Subjects were interviewed with a modified version of the List of Threatening…