Extended household transitions, race/ethnicity, and early childhood cognitive outcomes

Abstract

Beyond mothers’ union status transitions, other adults’ transitions into and out of the household contribute to family instability, particularly in early childhood. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (N≅8,550), this study examines associations between extended household transitions and age 2 cognitive development. A substantial minority of toddlers experiences these transitions, and their consequences vary by household member type, entry versus exit, and race/ethnicity. Extended household transitions predict lower cognitive scores for white children, but the selection of low-socioeconomic status families into extended households explains these disparities. Grandparent transitions predict significantly higher cognitive scores for African American and Latino children than whites, and some “other adult” transitions predict higher scores for Latinos than African Americans and whites. Extended household transitions’ consequences are independent of co-occurring residential moves and partner transitions. Findings suggest that studying extended household transitions is useful for understanding children’s early development, and their consequences vary by race/ethnicity.

African American Grandparents Residing in a Nursing Facility: Perceptions of Influence With Their Grandchildren, Family, and Community

“…In a later study conducted by Mollborn (2012), an association was found between African American children living with a grandparent and higher cognitive scores, when compared to those living with only their parents. In this study Mollborn, Fomby, and Dennis explored the associations of age two cognitive development and transitions within extended households.…”

“…In this study Mollborn, Fomby, and Dennis explored the associations of age two cognitive development and transitions within extended households. The study found African American children residing in stable co-residence with a grandparent, experienced increased cognitive development during the time period (Mollborn et al, 2012). Unfortunately, there is limited research available that considers how the change in family structure effects the young children involved (Mollborn et al, 2012).…”

Household Complexity and Change among Children in the United States, 1984 to 2010

“…Research on child outcomes should account for the frequent transitions between two-and threegeneration households, integrating extended family instability into the literature on parental relationship changes. Mollborn et al (2012) looked at a single cohort of children born in 2001 and found that having grandparents or other adults join or leave a child's household is associated with child cognitive outcomes independent of parent relationship transitions. Effects differed by race, with nuclear households most advantageous for white children, who were negatively affected by any transition in extended family or other relatives.…”

“…Many studies investigating the consequences of family instability assess differences in effects by race and ethnicity, finding generally that family instability has negative effects on white children but not uniformly negative effects on black or Hispanic children (Fomby and Cherlin 2007;Mollborn et al 2012). Blacks and Hispanics are more likely than whites to live in multigenerational homes (Cohen and Casper 2002;Pilkauskas 2012), and some work (Fomby, Mollborn, and Sennot 2010;Mollborn et al 2012) has proposed mechanisms such as social protection and exposure to disadvantaged neighborhoods that might explain these differences.…”

“…Nonparental changes, such as the departure of grandparents, aunts, and cousins, are associated with early childhood cognitive scores in a nationally representative sample of children born in 2001 (Mollborn, Fomby, and Dennis 2012). Building on Mollborn et al's (2012) finding that extended household transitions were more common than parent and partner transitions among children younger than age 2, I show in this article that this pattern of greater exposure to changes involving nonparent household members holds among children up to age 15 across multiple cohorts from 1984 to 2010.…”