Measuring adolescent family environments and their impacts amidst increasing family complexity

Citation

Arroyo, Julia (2016). Measuring adolescent family environments and their impacts amidst increasing family complexity. 2016 Add Health Users Conference. Bethesda, MD.

Abstract

Increasing turbulence and complexity in American household membership has led to a growing proportion of children spending time living in households without one or both parents. As such, sociologists have called for study of "zero-parent" families, including those headed by grandparents, foster parents, or siblings. While some research compares young adult outcomes for youth in zero-parent families to those living with one or both parents, we are lacking designs which adequately conceptualize and compare adolescent family environments for youth in zero-parent families. With the present research, I fill this gap by describing variation in several measures of family environment in early and late adolescence, comparing these over time, across family type, by gender, and by race-ethnic background. Then, I conduct multi-group confirmatory factor analysis to assess the appropriateness of common conceptualizations of family environments for youth in zero-parent families. Finally, I conduct a series of regression analyses to assess the impact of zero-parent families on young adult outcomes, including educational attainment, family formation, and incarceration. These regressions represent more stringent tests of the impacts of family environment for youth in zero-parent families than are provided in extant literature, given that they include valid measures of family environment alongside family type, while also including a host of measures representative of both social selection and the youth's broader social ecology. Results indicate that researchers analyzing outcomes among youth in zero-parent families should use tailored measures of family environment and attend to variation by gender, while those collecting data should supplement traditional measures to better capture (and intervene on) the impacts of family and social ecology on adolescent and young adult outcomes.

URL

https://addhealth.cpc.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/docs/events/2016%20Add%20Health%20Users%20Conference%20Abstracts_2016_06_16.pdf

Reference Type

Conference proceeding

Book Title

2016 Add Health Users Conference

Author(s)

Arroyo, Julia

Year Published

2016

City of Publication

Bethesda, MD

Reference ID

6357