Prior research has noted that although cooperative coparenting between resident and nonresident parents is beneficial to children, this form of shared parenting is relatively uncommon. Relying on nationally representative data from two waves of the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 628), this study examines the importance of…

Examining how different phases of relationship separation effects the development of suicidal behaviors has been largely ignored in suicide studies. The few studies conducted suggest that individuals experiencing the acute phase of marital/de facto separation may be at greater risk of suicide compared with those experiencing long-term separation…

Despite growing numbers of singles, the idealization of marriage and child rearing remains strong, pervasive, and largely unquestioned. Guided by life course perspective, the purpose of this article was to examine familial and societal messages women receive when not married by their late 20s to mid-30s. Using descriptive phenomenological method,…

In the United States, multipartnered fertility (MPF) has become commonplace. This study provides the first nationally representative measures of women's MPF, across multiple years, using the U.S. Census Bureau's Surveys of Income and Program Participation. Because welfare rules contain strong incentives for MPF, and because MPF is especially…

Although maternal socioeconomic status and health predict in part children's future health and socioeconomic prospects, it is possible that the intergenerational association flows in the other direction such that child health affects maternal outcomes. Previous research demonstrates that poor child health increases the risk of adverse maternal…

Since military operations began in Afghanistan and Iraq, lengthy deployments have led to concerns about the vulnerability of military marriages. Yet evaluating military marriages requires some benchmark against which marital outcomes in the military may be compared. These analyses drew from personnel records from the entire male population of the…

The current study used an online survey to explore the anticipated impact of legalized marriage on partners in same-sex couples living in California. These data were gathered prior to the California Supreme Court decision in May 2008 legalizing same-sex marriage, which held sway for 5 months before California Proposition 8 eliminating same-sex…

There is a widespread agreement among gender and family violence investigators that gender and socioeconomic inequalities play key roles in domestic violence against women (DVAW). By integrating the concepts of gender traditionalism and decision-making power into a variety of resource-based theories, this study develops a gender perspective to…

This study examines time with children among women who remain childless in young to middle adulthood. The authors identify biologically childless women aged 25 to 44 years in the June 2004-2008 Current Population Survey, and use their subsequent time use diaries in the 2004-2009 American Time Use Survey to measure their time with children. The…

Much is known about how having a teenage mother influences children's outcomes, but the relationship between teenage fatherhood and children's health and development is less well documented. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, the authors investigated how teenage fathers matter for children. They expected teenage fathers'…

Although researchers argue that single parents perceive more work-family conflict than married parents, little research has examined nuances in such differences. Using data from the 2002 National Study of Changing Workforce (N = 1,430), this study examines differences in home-to-job conflict by marital status and gender among employed parents.…

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…

This study used data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) on two generations of African American women who gave birth from 1967 to 2005 to describe changing relationships between marital status and low birth weight (LBW) across the generations. An increasing protection of marriage on infant LBW across the two generations was found after…

The present study examined the associations between stable nonresidence among never married parents (compared with coresident parents) and outcomes for toddlers using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey-Birth Cohort. The authors found small to medium negative associations between stable nonresidence and toddlers' positive social behavior and…

Trends in divorce and nonmarital childbearing suggest that the marriage market is increasingly filled with people who have been married and/or have children. This study examines the effect of personal attitudes on entrance into a union with a partner who has been previously married or has children. Using data from two waves of the National Survey…