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Changes in Household Composition and Children’s Educational Attainment

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  • Kristin L. Perkins

    (Harvard University)

Abstract

Changes in parental romantic relationships are an important component of family instability, but children are exposed to many other changes in the composition of their households that bear on child well-being. Prior research that focused on parental transitions has thus overlooked a substantial source of instability in children’s lives. I argue that the instability in children’s residential arrangements is characterized by household instability rather than family instability. To evaluate this thesis, I use the 1968–2015 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and time-varying methods for causal inference to test the independent effects of different types of changes in household composition on educational attainment. Experiencing changes involving nonparent, nonsibling household members has a significant negative effect on educational attainment that is similar in magnitude to that for children who experience changes involving residential parents. Measures of parental changes miss the nearly 20 % of children who experience changes involving household members other than parents or siblings. By showing that changes in nonparental household members are both common and consequential experiences for children, I demonstrate the value of conceptualizing the changes to which children are exposed as a product of household instability, rather than simply family instability.

Suggested Citation

  • Kristin L. Perkins, 2019. "Changes in Household Composition and Children’s Educational Attainment," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(2), pages 525-548, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:demogr:v:56:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s13524-018-0757-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s13524-018-0757-5
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Laletas, Stella & Khasin, Michelle, 2021. "Children of high conflict divorce: Exploring the experiences of primary school teachers," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    2. Wang, Jia, 2022. "Mothers’ Nonstandard Work Schedules and Children’s Behavior Problems: Divergent Patterns by Maternal Education," OSF Preprints a48rj, Center for Open Science.
    3. R. Kelly Raley & Inbar Weiss & Robert Reynolds & Shannon E. Cavanagh, 2019. "Estimating Children’s Household Instability Between Birth and Age 18 Using Longitudinal Household Roster Data," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(5), pages 1957-1973, October.
    4. Etienne Breton, 2021. "A Tale of Two Villages: Development and Household Change in India," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 47(2), pages 347-375, June.
    5. Mindy Steadman & Bethany G. Everett & Claudia Geist, 2024. "Coresidence with Grandparents and Children’s Socioemotional Health in Kindergarten," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 43(3), pages 1-35, June.
    6. Vass, Anat & Haj-Yahia, Muhammad M., 2020. "“Which home are we going back to?” Children's lived experiences after leaving shelters for battered women," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    7. Brigid Cakouros & Sarah Reynolds, 2022. "Household structure across childhood in four lower- and middle-income countries," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 47(6), pages 143-160.
    8. Jingying He & Jia Wang, 2021. "When Does It Matter? The Effect of Three-generational Household Arrangement on Children’s Well-Being across Developmental Stages," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 14(6), pages 2471-2493, December.
    9. Hope Harvey, 2020. "Cumulative Effects of Doubling Up in Childhood on Young Adult Outcomes," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(2), pages 501-528, April.

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