Are Both Parents Always Better Than One? Parental Conflict and Young Adult Well-Being *

Using data from three waves of the National Survey of Families and Households (N=1,963), we examine associations between adolescent family experiences and young adult well-being across a range of indicators, including schooling, substance use, and family-related transitions. We compare children living with both biological parents, but whose parents differ in how often they argue, to children in stepfather and single-mother families, and we assess the extent to which differences can be understood in terms of family income and parenting practices. Findings suggest that parental conflict is associated with children’s poorer academic achievement, increased substance use, and early family formation and dissolution. (View Highlight) #✂️ #👻 ai highlighted

Children whose parents often argue score worse on measures of academic achievement, behavior problems, psychological well-being, and adult relationship quality; they are also more likely to form families early and outside of marriage (Amato & Sobolewski, 2001; Booth & Amato, 2001; Booth & Edwards, 1990; Davies & Cummings, 1994; Emery, 1982; Furstenberg & Teitler, 1994; Grych & Fincham, 1990; Hanson, 1999; Jekielek, 1998; Morrison & Coiro, 1999; Musick & Bumpass, 1999). Examining variation in conflict between married parents is important for social scientists because it expands our understanding of how families matter for children. (View Highlight) #✂️ #👻 ai highlighted

The NSFH is uniquely suited to our study, with rich, prospective data from multiple members of the same family over time, including both parents’ self-reports of marital conflict and children’s self-reports on a range of outcomes. We provide a broad descriptive portrait of family structure, parental conflict, and child well-being, bringing together literatures on family structure and marital conflict. (View Highlight) #✂️ #👻 ai highlighted

Although many parents divorced over the study period, the sample excludes those who were divorced or unmarried at the first wave. Our analysis relies on new data to provide a broader examination of family structure, parental conflict, and child well-being. We focus on the family environment during children’s adolescence, include a range of young adult outcomes, and investigate key explanations for links between the two. (View Highlight) #✂️ #👻 ai highlighted

There are also compelling theoretical reasons to expect family structure and conflict effects on children. Family income and parenting practices, in particular, are two causal pathways that have been discussed extensively in the family structure literature. While estimates vary on how much is due to selection and how much is due to family structure, single-parent families are at much higher risk of poverty than other family types (Duncan & Rodgers, 1991; Eggebeen & Lichter, 1991; McLanahan & Percheski, 2008; Thomas & Sawhill, 2005), which in turn is linked to child health and well-being. (View Highlight) #✂️ #👻 ai highlighted

In sum, we expect that parental conflict and family structure will be associated with young adult well-being, and that parenting and income will account for these associations to varying degrees. For example, in the case of academic achievement, associations may run indirectly through time with mothers; but in the case of union dissolution, associations may be more directly linked to parental conflict and family structure. (View Highlight) #✂️ #👻 ai highlighted

The present study extends the literature on family structure, which generally means how parents’ marital and cohabiting histories sort children into single, step, and two biological-parent families, by highlighting diversity in the family experiences of children living with continuously married parents. We build conflict into our analysis, adding another family type – high conflict continuously married-parent families – to traditional measures of family structure. Drawing attention to conflict as an important family factor in and of itself, we shift the emphasis of the demographic literature on parental conflict, which tends to focus on conflict as a selection or conditioning variable in the divorce process. We extend research both on family structure and conflict by examining the roles played by income and parenting in accounting for differences in the young adult well-being of children from single, step, and high conflict continuously married-parent families. (View Highlight) #✂️ #👻 ai highlighted

More generally, observing family experiences at a single point in time, as we do, may result in an underestimate of the association between parental conflict and child well-being, relative to other family types. That is, we will underestimate parental conflict to the extent that young adults in other family types experienced it at some point in time, but not when it was assessed in the NSFH. Unmeasured conflict will be captured in lower levels of child well-being, blurring distinctions between the high and low conflict married-parent family types and inflating associations between step and single-parent families, relative to our high conflict married-parent families.2 (View Highlight) #✂️ #👻 ai highlighted

We restrict our analyses to children who were living with their biological mother at NSFH1, thereby excluding single father and stepmother families, which are relatively rare and cannot be analyzed separately. We also exclude cases who experienced the death of a parent as there are too few deaths to analyze separately, and the processes of divorce and death affect children differently (Biblarz & Gottainer, 2000). Finally, we lose a small number of cases due to missing values on parental conflict and union transitions, child outcomes, and family background characteristics. (View Highlight) #✂️ #👻 ai highlighted

We measure conflict between continuously married parents on the basis of couples’ responses to six items concerning frequency of conflict. Main respondents and their spouses/partners were asked: “The following is a list of subjects on which couples often have disagreements. How often, if at all, in the last year have you had open disagreements about each of the following…” The subjects include household tasks, money, spending time together, sex, in-laws, and the children. We generate a conflict scale by averaging all valid responses from mothers and fathers to these six items, keeping observations on conflict when only one parent report is available.6 This measure has good scale reliability (Chronbach’s alpha = 0.81). (View Highlight) #✂️ #👻 ai highlighted

Table 1 shows means and standard deviations of our income and mothering variables for our full sample and by family type. Differences across family types suggest that these variables may indeed account for associations between family structure, conflict, and child outcomes. While family income varies somewhat by level of marital conflict, variation within continuously married-parent families is small relative to the very large gap between them and single mothers (e.g., nearly $58,000 for high conflict continuously married parents compared to $27,000 for single mothers). (View Highlight) #✂️ #👻 ai highlighted

Whether we focus on Model 1 or 2, differences are statistically significant in the case of early cohabitation, with the risk being about 30% lower for children from high conflict married-parent families, relative to those from either stepfather or single-mother families. But differences among these families are not statistically significant in the case of early sex, and the picture is mixed when we look at nonmarital childbearing (in Model 2, no significant differences) and union dissolution (in Model 2, higher risks among children from single-mother families, relative to both high conflict and stepfather families). (View Highlight) #✂️ #👻 ai highlighted

We set out to address how children who experience high levels of parental conflict fare compared to those in other family arrangements. Our results clearly illustrate that the advantages of living with two continuously married parents are not shared equally by all children. In models unadjusted for income and parenting, children from high conflict married-parent families (compared to low conflict married-parent families) had higher odds (ranging from about 50–75%) of dropping out of high school, reporting poor grades, smoking, and binge drinking; they were at greater risk (on the order of about 50%) of early sex, nonmarital childbearing, and union dissolution. (View Highlight) #✂️ #👻 ai highlighted

Astone NM, Upchurch DM. Socioeconomic and marital outcomes of adolescent marriage, adolescent childbirth, and their co-occurrence. Journal of Marriage and the Family. 1989;51:203–212. [Google Scholar] (View Highlight) #✂️ #👻 ai highlighted

Booth A, Amato PR. Parental predivorce relations and offspring postdivorce well-being. Journal of Marriage and Family. 2001;63:197–212. [Google Scholar] (View Highlight) #✂️ #👻 ai highlighted

Cherlin AJ, Kiernan K, Chase-Lansdale PL. Parental divorce in childhood and demographic outcomes in young adulthood. Demography. 1995;32:299–318. [PubMed] [Google Scholar] (View Highlight) #✂️ #👻 ai highlighted

Cox M. Marital conflict, parent-child relationships, gender, and outcomes for young adults in families. In: Booth A, Crouter AC, Shanahan M, editors. Transitions to adulthood in a changing economy: No work, no family, no future? Westport, CT: Praeger; 1999. pp. 103–108. [Google Scholar] (View Highlight) #✂️ #👻 ai highlighted

McLanahan SS, Booth K. Mother-only families: Problems, prospects, and politics. Journal of Marriage and the Family. 1989;51:557–580. [Google Scholar] (View Highlight) #✂️ #👻 ai highlighted

Morrison DR, Cherlin AJ. The divorce process and young children’s well-being: A prospective analysis. Journal of Marriage and the Family. 1995;57:800–812. [Google Scholar] (View Highlight) #✂️ #👻 ai highlighted

Teti DM, Lamb ME. Socioeconomic and marital outcomes of adolescent marriage, adolescent childbirth, and their co-occurrence. Journal of Marriage and the Family. 1989;51:203–212. [Google Scholar] (View Highlight) #✂️ #👻 ai highlighted

Thornton A, Camburn D. Religious participation and adolescent sexual behavior. Journal of Marriage and the Family. 1989;51:641–653. [Google Scholar] (View Highlight) #✂️ #👻 ai highlighted