This article explores the menarche or first-period narratives of 155 young women, focusing on their relationships with their mothers at this time. It finds that maternal scripts are changing as young women of this cohort, most of whom started their periods around the new millennium, recalled supportive mothers who were emotionally engaged with…

Using a sample of resident fathers in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (9-month Father Study), this study examined how father involvement is associated with infant cognitive outcomes in two domains (babbling and exploring objects with a purpose). Results from a series of logistic regression models indicate that varied aspects of…

The authors examine the consequences of incarceration for nonresident White, Latino, and African American fathers' contact with children and their formal and informal child support agreements. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, they found that fathers' current incarceration presented serious obstacles to maintaining…

This study aims to broaden researchers' understanding of fatherhood by focusing on an understudied population of young, urban, minority, crime-involved fathers. Using 115 qualitative life history interviews, the authors examine fatherhood expectations, role participation, and ideals. Study fathers described very similar ideals for being fathers…

Recent studies linking marital status and health increasingly focus on marital trajectories to examine the relationship from a life course perspective. However, research has been slow to bridge the theoretical concept of a marital trajectory with its measurement. This study uses retrospective and prospective data to model the age-dependent effects…

Using data from a random sample of 580 midwestern women, the authors explore the association between lifetime infertility and life satisfaction. Past research shows lower life satisfaction among those seeking help for infertility. The authors find no direct effects of lifetime infertility, regardless of perception of a problem, on life…

This study investigates how family structure is associated with adolescent drug use and how parenting, peer use, religiosity, and neighborhood problems may mediate the relationship. The authors use structural equation modeling to examine the relationship between family structure and drug use across race, and examine potential mediators. Using data…

This study examined direct and indirect associations between overt and covert interparental conflict (IPC), parent-child conflict, and their links to youth problem behaviors. Data were collected from a sample of 641 school-age youth, ages 12 to 18 years, using a school-based survey. Analyses yielded direct positive linkages from overt IPC to…

Explored degree to which adolescent living arrangement, mother's educational level, religion, region of country, area of residency, birth cohort, and year of survey can account for racial difference in timing of initiation of sexual activity, first marriage, first birth, and divorce. Variables examined did not provide satisfactory explanation of…

Examined data from Public Use Sample of 1980 Census to identify salient sociodemographic correlates of women's likelihood of marrying outside normative age patterns. Found that black women were significantly more likely than white women to be in age-heterogamous marriages. Remarried subjects exhibited highest probability of entering such unions.…

The effect of educational attainment on age at first marriage is examined among Black and White women in the U.S. Degree attained was used rather than years of education as a variable. Results both support and modify previous findings about the effects of race and education on women's age at first marriage. (EMK)

This study examined European American, Latino, Asian American, and Native American parental involvement and their children's high school completion. An examination of how different family structures have an influence on a student's education was conducted. This study used the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) of 1988 and utilized a…

Understanding attitudes toward marriage at older ages is increasingly important as young adults delay marriage and large numbers of people return to the marriage market after divorce. This study examines age differences in the desire to marry among singles age 18 to 69 years, taking into account selection into marriage. Using data drawn from the…

This article examines the determinants of men's early parental roles, distinguishing factors that affect being a father versus being childless, and factors that affect being a resident versus a nonresident father, in the context of having a partner or not. We also consider whether these patterns have changed between 1985 and 2004. The data come…

Investigates relations between economic hardship, coping, and family relationships in African-American, Latino, and Euro-American families. Results indicate similarities in the families' experiences of economic distress, yet significant differences in the overall pattern of relations among the three ethnic groups. (Author/MKA)