Fragile Families Study Research Articles

Neighborhood disadvantage and adolescent behavior problems: how do inferences differ across definitions of disadvantage?

Various definitions of neighborhood disadvantage (ND) exist, yet evidence is lacking on how ND operationalization may impact scientific inference. We used data from wave 6 of the Fragile Families study, excluding those without census tract or behavior problem data (n = 2363). Outcomes included five scales from the caregiver-reported Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and a self-reported delinquency scale. ND was defined in four ways: (1) a modified Sampson definition which included four neighborhood poverty variables; (2) a poverty-only definition which only included percent households below poverty; (3) an overextended definition which added a mediator between the ND-behavior relationship, and (4) an expanded definition which added six additional ND variables to the modified Sampson definition. Using effect estimates from generalized linear models, differences were calculated using percent change-in-estimate, with the modified Sampson as the referent. Effect estimates were similar for the modified Sampson and expanded definitions (< 5% difference). The poverty-only definition differed from the modified Sampson unsystematically. Estimates for the overextended definition were consistently larger compared to modified Sampson (10-37% greater). The expanded and modified Sampson definitions produced similar results. Poverty-only and overextended ND definitions should be interpreted with caution.

Identifying the Mental Health Profiles of Black Adolescents Who Experience School Policing and School Discipline: A Person-Centered Approach.

Educational environments that are structured by race perpetuate poor mental health for Black adolescents. This empirical relationship is pronounced when it is examined through Racial Battle Fatigue theory, which provides a framework that links educational environments and poor psychological health of Black students. School police have a major effect on Black adolescents' educational and health experiences and trajectories. The purpose of this person-centered study was to assess the risk of Black students' depressive symptoms who were stopped by school police, saw other students stopped by school police, or experienced school discipline. Data on Black student youths from the Fragile Families Study Year 15 wave (N= 1,601) were used to conduct a latent class analysis to identify subgroups of school policing (ie, being stopped by school police, seeing other students stopped by school police) and school discipline on the distal outcome of depressive symptoms. Covariates included demographic and school attachment. We identified 4 distinct Black student subgroups: (1) unscathed [no school policing or discipline reported]; (2) school disciplined; (3) combined school policing; and (4) school policed [arrested by police]. Each subgroup had an incremental increase in mean depressive symptom scores. Compared to the unscathed subgroup, each subgroup also had lower school attachment. This study disrupts the notion that education environments are a social determinant of health and a great equalizer. This study critically exposes how educational institutions complicit with school policing are associated with racism-related mental health conditions of Black youths.

Testing the empirical integration of threat-deprivation and harshness-unpredictability dimensional models of adversity.

Recent dimensional models of adversity informed by a neurobiological deficit framework highlights threat and deprivation as core dimensions, whereas models informed by an evolutionary, adaptational and functional framework calls attention to harshness and unpredictability. This report seeks to evaluate an integrative model of threat, deprivation, and unpredictability, drawing on the Fragile Families Study. Confirmatory factor analysis of presumed multiple indicators of each construct reveals an adequate three-factor structure of adversity. Theory-based targeted predictions of the developmental sequelae of each dimension also received empirical support, with deprivation linked to health problems and cognitive ability; threat linked to aggression; and unpredictability to substance use and sexual risk-taking. These findings lend credibility to utility of the three-dimensional integrative framework of adversity. It could thus inform development of dimensional measures of risk assessment and exploration of multidimensional adversity profiles, sensitive to individual differences in lived experiences, supporting patient-centered, strength-based approaches to services.

To stay or go: Relationship dissolution and repartnering after paternal incarceration

AbstractObjectiveThis study investigated how relationship dissolution and repartnering shape women's relationship quality after their partner's incarceration and evaluates whether incarceration is a unique context for relationship transitions.BackgroundMillions of couples in the United States face incarceration each year, and many relationships do not survive the experience. Although these breakups are typically framed as negative events, it is unclear whether relationship dissolution harms or helps women navigating the incarceration of their partner or coparent.MethodUsing longitudinal data from the Fragile Families study, this article contrasts the experiences of women who stayed with their child's father through his incarceration, those who separated and remained single, and those who separated and repartnered. Three domains of relationship quality were considered: cooperativeness of parenting relationships, supportiveness of romantic relationships, and risk of domestic violence.ResultsData reveal that most relationships end, creating an opportunity for mothers to form stronger relationships with more advantaged new partners. Incarceration also provides a distinct context for repartnering, amplifying both the advantages and disadvantages of dissolution.ConclusionMost couples experiencing paternal incarceration will also navigate relationship dissolution, and many will integrate a new partner into the family. For many women, particularly those whose relationships have become violent, these transitions may be sources of resilience rather than hardship.ImplicationsRather than a proscriptive focus on preserving families, these findings highlight the need to support families simultaneously navigating incarceration and changing family roles.

Protective State Policies and the Employment of Fathers with Criminal Records

Abstract A criminal record can be a serious impediment to securing stable employment, with negative implications for the economic stability of individuals and their families. State policies intended to address this issue have had mixed results, however. Using panel data from the Fragile Families study merged with longitudinal data on state-level policies, this study investigates the association between criminal record based employment discrimination policies and the employment of men both with and without criminal records. These state policies broadly regulate what kinds of records can be legally used for hiring and licensing decisions, but have received little attention in prior research. Findings indicate that men with criminal records were less likely to be working if they lived in states with more policies in place to regulate the legal use of those records. Consistent with research linking policies regulating access to records to racial discrimination, black men living in protective states reported this employment penalty even if they did not have criminal records themselves. Thus, these policies, at best, may fail to disrupt entrenched employment disparities and, at worst, may exacerbate racial discrimination.

The Intersection Between Sex and Race in Understanding Substance Co-Use Patterns in Adolescents From the Fragile Families Study

The current study examined the prevalence of alcohol, cigarette, and cannabis co-use among a longitudinal cohort of youth predominately born to single-parent families. Data were drawn from wave six of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study ( N = 2976; M age = 15.6; 49% female; 53% non-Hispanic Black, 27% Hispanic, 20% White). Adolescents’ reports of their past 30-day use of alcohol, cigarettes, and cannabis were used to construct eight mutually exclusive use groups. Multinomial logistic regressions adjusting for sociodemographic factors revealed that Black adolescents were at lower relative risk of using Alcohol Only compared to White adolescents. Black males were at greater relative risk of using Cannabis Only than both White males and Black females. Finally, Hispanic males were at a marginally increased relative risk of co-using Alcohol and Cannabis compared to White males. Prevention efforts targeting Black and Hispanic males’ use of cannabis (both alone and in combination with alcohol) may be beneficial.

Deprivation and psychopathology in the Fragile Families Study: A 15-year longitudinal investigation.

Early adversity consistently predicts youth psychopathology. However, the pathways linking unique dimensions of early adversity, such as deprivation, to psychopathology are understudied. Here, we evaluate a theoretical model linking early deprivation exposure with psychopathology prospectively through language ability. Participants included 2,301 youth (47.5% female) enrolled in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. We include data from assessment points at ages 1, 3, 5, 9, and 15. Latent factors for deprivation and threat were modeled from multiple indicators at ages 1 and 3. Youth language ability was assessed at Age 5. Indicators of psychopathology were assessed at ages 5, 9, and 15. A structural equation model tested longitudinal paths to internalizing and externalizing psychopathology from experiences of deprivation and threat. Deprivation from birth to Age 3 was associated with an indirect effect on internalizing and externalizing symptoms in early childhood (Age 5), later childhood (Age 9), and adolescence (Age 15) via language ability in early childhood (Age 5). Early threat exposure was associated with increased internalizing and externalizing psychopathology across all ages. There was no significant indirect effect from threat to psychopathology via language ability. The effects of deprivation on psychopathology during early childhood, late childhood, and adolescence are explained, in part, through early childhood language ability. Results provide insight into language ability as a possible opportunity for intervention.

Examining the longitudinal effects of paternal incarceration and coparenting relationships on sons' educational outcomes: A mediation analysis

Over 50% of the 1.5 million people in federal and state correctional facilities have children under age 18. Many of these incarcerated parents are fathers of color. Infrequent physical contact and engagement of fathers triggered by incarceration may present a great degree of disadvantage among their children. Therefore this study examined the literacy trajectory of African American boys whose fathers experience incarceration and to what extent does co-parenting between fathers and mothers intervene or moderate the effects of incarceration. The study analyzed five waves of the Fragile Families study, which provided measures of paternal incarceration and vocabulary of focal children in the study. The findings provided that paternal incarceration consistently had a negative effect on focal sons' educational outcomes across four waves of data. There was general agreement across fathers' and mothers' reports assessing the co-parenting relationship, in which fathers tended to assess the co-parenting relationships slightly stronger than did mothers. The study findings suggest that mothers and fathers co-parenting relationship did not have a sizable or significant direct influence on sons' educational outcomes across waves. However, the co-parenting construct did decrease the effect of incarceration on sons' outcomes. The study informs intervention policy and practice, which should promote enhanced co-parenting strategies that will minimize parental conflict and build parenting consensus and agreement during early and primary education engagement.

Early childhood risk and later adaptation: A person-centered approach using latent profiles

Risk factors in early childhood tend to co-occur and accumulate over time in complex patterns. Person-centered methods enable nuanced understanding of developmental processes of risk and resilience. With longitudinal data on 3398 children from the Fragile Families study, we utilized latent class analysis to identify profiles of psychosocial risk in early childhood in relation to profiles of middle childhood functioning. Results revealed five classes of risk, including one class of low risk, two classes characterized by resource-related risks, one class characterized by family stress, and one class involving both resource and family risks. Patterns of later functioning involved five profiles. Two profiles demonstrated competence, two were characterized by lower functioning in certain domains, and one involved maladaptive functioning across domains. Risk profiles characterized by resource-related risks corresponded with outcome profiles with low academics. Profiles characterized by family stress were associated with below average academic, conduct, and emotional well-being profiles.

Punishment and Inequality at an Early Age: Exclusionary Discipline in Elementary School.

We advance current knowledge of school punishment by examining (1) the prevalence of exclusionary discipline in elementary school, (2) racial disparities in exclusionary discipline in elementary school, and (3) the association between exclusionary discipline and aggressive behavior in elementary school. Using child and parent reports from the Fragile Families Study, we estimate that more than 1 in 10 children born 1998-2000 in large US cities were suspended or expelled by age nine, when most were in third grade. We also find extreme racial disparity; about 40% of non-Hispanic black boys were suspended or expelled, compared to 8% of non-Hispanic white or other-race boys. Disparities are largely due to differences in children's school and home environments rather than to behavior problems. Next, consistent with social stress and strain theories, we find suspension or expulsion associated with increased aggressive behavior in elementary school. This association does not vary by race but is robust to a rich set of covariates, individual fixed-effects, and matching methods. In conjunction with what we find for racial disparities, our results imply that school discipline policies relying heavily on exclusionary punishment may be fostering childhood inequality.

Money, Time, or Something Else? Measuring Nonresident Fathers’ Informal and In-Kind Contributions

Despite efforts to improve the measurement of low-income, nonresident fathers’ economic contributions to children in large-scale surveys, limited research has examined how survey measures of informal and in-kind support relate to other standard indicators of fathering. Drawing on data from a large sample of separated parents ( N = 1,381) and matched nonresident father–child pairs ( n = 846) in the Fragile Families Study, our results show that in-kind and informal support represent the same construct, and that this construct differs from both formal child support and fathers’ time with children. In comparison with formal child support, informal and in-kind support measures converged more strongly with indicators of the quality and quantity of time spent with children, consistent with recent conceptualizations of involved fathering. Informal and in-kind support measures were also more predictive of closeness in the nonresident father–child relationship, supporting qualitative research about its emotional significance in low-income families.

Neighborhood Disadvantage and Telomere Length: Results from the Fragile Families Study.

Telomeres are repetitive nucleotide sequences located at the ends of chromosomes that protect genetic material. We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to analyze the relationship between exposure to spatially concentrated disadvantage and telomere length for white and black mothers. We find that neighborhood disadvantage is associated with shorter telomere length for mothers of both races. This finding highlights a potential mechanism through which the unique spatially concentrated disadvantage faced by African Americans contributes to racial health disparities. We conclude that equalizing the health and socioeconomic status of black and white Americans will be very difficult without reducing levels of residential segregation in the United States.

Resilience in the context of fragility: Development of a multidimensional measure of child wellbeing within the Fragile Families dataset

This study sought to empirically develop a theoretically grounded multidimensional measure of child wellbeing (CWB) for research with at-risk families. The World Health Organization and UNICEF call for a multidimensional construct of child wellbeing, incorporating factors known to impact wellbeing (e.g., access to healthcare, childhood maltreatment, the incarceration of one's primary caregiver). We analyzed data from the Fragile Families study in two separate steps: 1) confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted at each time point utilizing theoretically grounded multidimensional indicator of wellbeing available in the dataset, and 2) two-sample t-tests and one-way ANOVAs, by sex and race/ethnicity, were conducted at each time point examining potential variation in wellbeing. The current measure of CWB included the following domains: material wellbeing, relationships, health and behavioral wellbeing, and environmental enrichment. CFA results revealed acceptable to excellent fit based on multiple fit indices (e.g., CFI, RMSEA). Our CWB measure did not significantly vary by sex but did differ by race at each wave. Non-Hispanic white participants consistently demonstrated the highest CWB, while non-Hispanic black children consistently demonstrated the lowest CWB. This study resulted in the creation a new multidimensional measure of CWB not previously available in the Fragile Families data. The measure developed in this study will allow prevention scientists to further examine the myriad of factors related to child wellbeing in this robust national dataset.

Schools as Surveilling Institutions? Paternal Incarceration, System Avoidance, and Parental Involvement in Schooling.

Parents play important roles in their children's lives, and parental involvement in elementary schooling in particular is meaningful for a range of child outcomes. Given the increasing number of school-aged children with incarcerated parents, this study explores the ways paternal incarceration is associated with mothers' and fathers' reports of home- and school-based involvement in schooling. Using Fragile Families Study data, we find that a father's incarceration inhibits his school- and home-based involvement in schooling, but associations for maternal involvement are weaker. Results are robust to alternative specifications of incarceration that address concerns about selection and unobserved heterogeneity. Findings also hold across levels of father-child contact. We also conducted a test of the system avoidance mechanism and results suggest it partially explains reductions in school involvement for fathers following incarceration. Given the reoccurring interest in the interconnection between families and schools and how this translates into success, this study suggests that paternal incarceration is associated with lower parental involvement in schooling and highlights the role of system avoidance in this association. Attachment to social institutions like schools is quite consequential, and this work highlights another way mass incarceration influences social life in the United States.

Fathering Despite Perpetual Penalties: Examining Fathers’ Involvement Amidst the Collateral Consequences of Previous Criminal Justice Involvement

Background: The role that fathers play in the lives of their families, particularly, the lives of children, is vitally important. Research has found positive associations between father involvement and factors, such as infant cognitive outcomes, children’s school-readiness where levels of mothers’ supportiveness are low, better socioemotional, and academic functioning in children. Black males, many who are fathers, are disproportionately overrepresented within the criminal justice system. High incarceration rates have significant economic and social impacts on families and communities. Objective: This article examines differences in father involvement among Black fathers with criminal records and explores relationships between fathers’ involvement, the amount of time served in jail, fathers’ employment status, and fathers’ education levels. Method: Secondary analysis of the third wave of Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing (FFCW) public-use dataset was used for this article. The FFCW study follows a panel or cohort of 4,700 children born to unwed (3,600) and married (1,100) parents. The Fragile Families study employed a stratified random sample of 75 hospitals across 20 U.S. cities with populations over 200,000. Findings: The results of the analyses found (a) that the time served in jail had no effect on fathers’ involvement, (b) no statistically significant differences in fathers’ involvement based on fathers’ education level, and (c) fathers who were working were more engaged in the lives of their children, as compared to fathers who were not working and under correctional supervision. Conclusion: This article’s exploration of differences and relationships between father involvement and socioeconomic variables among Black fathers with criminal records further demystifies the complexities of fragile family compositions and circumstances while informing future policy, practices, and research.

Indebted Relationships: Child Support Arrears and Nonresident Fathers' Involvement With Children

AbstractLow‐income, nonresident fathers owe a disproportionate amount of child support arrears, creating potential challenges for these fathers and their family relationships. This article uses mediation analysis to provide new evidence about how and why child support debt is related to paternal involvement using information from 1,017 nonresident fathers in the Fragile Families Study. Results show that child support arrears are associated with nonresident fathers having significantly less contact with children, being less engaged with them in daily activities, and providing less frequent in‐kind support 9 years after the birth. This negative association between child support debt and father involvement is most strongly and consistently mediated by the quality of the relationship between the biological parents. Although child support policies are designed to facilitate fathers' economic and emotional support, these results suggest that the accruement of child support debt may serve as an important barrier to father involvement.

Beyond Boys' Bad Behavior: Paternal Incarceration and Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood.

A growing number of American school-aged children have incarcerated or formally incarcerated parents necessitating a more comprehensive understanding of the intergenerational effects of mass imprisonment. Using the Fragile Families Study, I assess whether having an incarcerated father impacts children's cognitive skill development into middle childhood. While previous studies have primarily found effects for boys' behavior problems, matching models and sensitivity analyses demonstrate that experiencing paternal incarceration by age 9 is associated with lower cognitive skills for both boys and girls and these negative effects hold net of a pre-paternal incarceration measure of child cognitive ability. Moreover, I estimate that paternal incarceration explains between 2 and 15 percent of the Black-White achievement gap at age 9. These findings represent new outcomes of importance and suggest that paternal incarceration may play an even larger role in the production of intergenerational inequalities for American children than previously documented.

Mothers' Partnership Instability and Coparenting among Fragile Families.

The rise in nonmarital childbearing has raised concerns about coparenting among unmarried parents with increasingly complicated relationship trajectories. We address this issue by examining associations between mothers' partnership transitions and coparenting and the moderating role of maternal race/ethnicity and child gender. Data from the Fragile Families Study and ordinary least squares regression techniques are used to examine whether mothers' partnership transitions are related to coparenting. Lagged and fixed effects models are employed to test the robustness of the findings to selection. Coresidential and nonresidential, dating transitions are negatively associated with coparenting, but the association is stronger for coresidential transitions than for dating transitions. Coresidential transitions are stronger predictors of coparenting for White parents than for Black parents and for parents of sons than for parents of daughters. Policies aimed at strengthening families should emphasize relationship stability, regardless of the type of union, to promote high quality coparenting among at-risk populations.

Unintended Consequences: Effects of Paternal Incarceration on Child School Readiness and Later Special Education Placement.

Though sociologists have examined how mass incarceration affects stratification, remarkably little is known about how it shapes educational disparities. Analyzing the Fragile Families Study and its rich paternal incarceration data, I ask whether black and white children with fathers who have been incarcerated are less prepared for school both cognitively and non-cognitively as a result, and whether racial and gendered disparities in incarceration help explain the persistence of similar gaps in educational outcomes and trajectories. Using a variety of estimation strategies, I show that experiencing paternal incarceration by age five is associated with lower non-cognitive school readiness. While the main effect of incarceration does not vary by race, boys with incarcerated fathers have substantially worse non-cognitive skills at school entry, impacting the likelihood of special education placement at age nine. Mass incarceration facilitates the intergenerational transmission of male behavioral disadvantage, and because of the higher exposure of black children to incarceration, it also plays a role in explaining the persistently low achievement of black boys.

Cooperation, Conflict, or Disengagement? Coparenting Styles and Father Involvement in Fragile Families

This paper draws on information from the Fragile Families Study (N=2,695) to examine how different coparenting styles emerge and are related to fathers' involvement with young children in a representative sample of unmarried parents. The results show that the quantity and quality of paternal involvement is significantly higher when unmarried parents establish a cooperative as opposed to a disengaged or conflicted coparenting style. Cooperative coparenting is less likely, however, when unmarried parents have separated after the birth or were never together as a couple, when fathers are unemployed or have other risk factors, when the child has a more difficult temperament, and when parents have fewer children together. This analysis also helps clarify previously equivocal findings concerning the relationship between coparenting conflict and paternal involvement. Regression results show that paternal involvement is not significantly different among parents with cooperative and mixed coparenting styles, indicating that when unmarried parents can work together and support each other's parenting efforts, even if they argue frequently while doing so, fathers remain more involved. At the same time, conflicted coparenting leads to a larger decrease in father involvement than disengaged coparenting. In the context of poorer-quality coparenting relationships, it was conflict that mattered for fathering, not just parents' inability to cooperate. Implications of these findings for parenting education programs are discussed.