Partnership Instability, School Readiness, and Gender Disparities

Abstract

Trends in family formation during the past several decades have increased children’s exposure to mothers’ partnership instability, defined as an entrance into or exit from a coresidential union or a dating partnership. Instability, in turn, is associated with negative outcomes for children and adolescents. This study uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine associations between mothers’ partnership instability and children’s school readiness, differences between coresidential and dating transitions, and the moderating role of child gender. Mothers’ partnership transitions are negatively associated with children’s verbal ability and positively associated with boys’ behavioral problems at age five. In general, coresidential and dating transitions have similar effects on school readiness. The findings have important implications for our understanding of the growing gender gap in educational attainment.

Are boys more sensitive to sensitivity? Parenting and executive function in preschoolers

“…During early childhood, boys perform less well than girls on multiple cognitive dimensions, including attention and executive functions such as working memory and inhibitory control (Berlin & Bohlin, 2002;Carlson & Moses, 2001;Vuontela et al, 2003). Boys are also more vulnerable to-that is, they exhibit more behavioral problems in response to-the effects of the early social environment (Kraemer, 2000), including family effects such as divorce, marital discord, and maternal depression (Cooper, Osborne, Beck, & McLanahan, 2011;Rutter, 1971;Turney, 2011). Finally, boys are more vulnerable to parenting typified by coercion, lack of affection, and lack of monitoring in relation to later aggression, substance abuse, and delinquency (Griffin, Botvin, Scheier, Diaz, & Miller, 2000;McFadyen-Ketchum, Bates, Dodge, & Pettit, 1996), outcomes associated with childhood deficits in inhibitory control (Ivanov, Schulz, London, & Newcorn, 2008;Kerr, Tremblay, Pagani, & Vitaro, 1997).…”

Revisiting the Age-Old Question: What Are the Effects of Relative Age and Gender on Young Children in School Settings?

“…Girls also demonstrated higher behavioural regulation scores (Denham, Warren-Khot, Bassett, Wyatt, & Perna, 2012;Vallotton & Ayoub, 2011). Further, according to Cooper, Osborne, Beck, & McLanahan (2011), male students are more likely to experience verbal and behavioural problems in kindergarten. These results suggest that girls may possess higher school engagement and more advanced behavioural skills, and such results could explain why girls appear to be more successful in early schooling than boys.…”

“…These results suggest that girls may possess higher school engagement and more advanced behavioural skills, and such results could explain why girls appear to be more successful in early schooling than boys. Additionally, it is possible that greater problems with verbal communication in male students may lead to more problem behaviours due to the frustration of miscommunication (Cooper et al, 2011).…”

Unequal Family Lives

“…US evidence indicates that boys' outcomes deteriorate further with the reduction in parenting resources of single-mother households (Bertrand and Pan 2013;Cooper et al 2011). Not only is there just one parent, but single US mothers engage less with boys than girls from a very young age, although parental time investment increases with mothers' education (Bertrand and Pan 2013).…”