Work

The Increasing Diversity and Complexity of Family Structures for Adolescents

Year: 2018

Type: review

Abstract: The structure of adolescents' families, and thus parental forms, in the United States, have become more heterogeneous and fluid over the past several decades. These changes are due to increases in never-married, single parents, divorce, cohabitation, same-sex parenting, multi-partnered fertility, and co-residence with grandparents. We document current diversity and complexity in adolescents' families as important context for rethinking future parenting theory and research. We also discuss how understandings of adolescents' families are somewhat limited by current methods used to measure characteristics of families. We recommend social network and profile-based methods as alternatives to capturing key dimensions of family structure and processes. Understanding the diversity of households and families in which adolescents are raised can improve theory and research on parenting.

Source: Journal of Research on Adolescence

DOI: 10.1111/jora.12391

Authors: Lisa D. Pearce, George M. Hayward, Laurie Chassin, Patrick J. Curran

Institutions: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Arizona State University

Language: English

Topic: Family Dynamics and Relationships

Subfield: Demography

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Institutes of Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Awards: Carolina Population Center, G1789099407, Carolina Population Center, Population Research Training