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Journal of Family Issues
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Family Structure and Children's Psychosocial Outcomes

Zheng Wu

University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, zhengwu{at}uvic.ca

Feng Hou

Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Christoph M. Schimmele

University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

This article examines the influence of family structure on children's short-term psychosocial behavioral outcomes, including emotional disorder, conduct disorder, and prosocial behavior. The analysis uses five waves of data (1994-2003) from Canada's National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth to model how living in a cohabitational household (two biological parents) and how experiencing cohabitation dissolution influence children's behaviors, comparing these effects to outcomes observed in children from married biological-parent households. The findings indicate that growing up in a married biological-parent household does not offer a clear advantage. Most differences in behavioral problems across family structure associate with household demographics, low-income status, family dysfunction, and parental nurturance. As such, this study contributes two important findings. First, the results do not support the hypothesis that nonmarital cohabitation represents an undesirable child-rearing environment. Second, cohabitation dissolution has a nonsignificant effect on children's behaviors, which is surprising considering that divorce has a well-established harmful effect.

Key Words: family structure • cohabitation • children's behavior

This version was published on December 1, 2008

Journal of Family Issues, Vol. 29, No. 12, 1600-1624 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0192513X08322818
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