Year: 2017
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Several scholars have investigated differences in adult offspring socioeconomic outcomes (i.e.education attainment, income, occupational prestige) by family structure.However, far fewer studies have examined the association between family instability (i.e.experienced union transitions) and adult offspring socioeconomic outcomes.This thesis adds to the limited existing research by using causal modeling on a large US sample with more than half of the sample over age 25. Results suggest that experiencing more family instability was associated with lower odds of both graduating from high school by age 19 and graduating with a bachelor's degree by age 25.Experiencing an additional maternal union transition after age 18 was significantly associated with a decrease in occupational prestige.Further, family instability moderated the association between offspring age and socioeconomic outcomes.Specifically, each maternal union transition experienced after age 18 decreased the positive association between socioeconomic outcomes and age resulting in lower predicted socioeconomic attainment over time.These findings suggested that family instability experienced by adult offspring may have negative consequences for offspring socioeconomic outcomes.Future scholars should seek to determine possible mechanisms to explain how experiencing family instability in adulthood may lead to worse socioeconomic outcomes.
Author: Kyle Bartholomew
Institution: The Ohio State University
Language: English
Subfield: Demography
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2728881276