Do Good Partners Make Good Parents?: Relationship Quality and Parenting in Married and Unmarried Families Marcy Carlson Columbia University Sara McLanahan Princeton University July 13, 2004 Fragile Families Summer Data Workshop

The Questions How does the quality of parental relationships affect the quality of parenting? –Are effects similar for positive and negative dimensions of relationship quality and parenting? –Are they similar for mothers and fathers? –Are they similar across different types of family structures? –Are they causal?

Why Do We Care? Good parenting is known to be strongly associated with positive child outcomes Parents’ relationship quality may be more important in predicting good parenting than family structure (# of parents; biological ties) Family structures are changing, and we need to know more about family process in non-traditional families New marriage initiatives are aimed at improving parental relationships

What Does Theory Tell Us? Family systems theory predicts a ‘spill- over’ effect: positive relationship  positive parenting Social support theory predicts that parental support will improve parenting by reducing stress Alternatively, adult relationships may compete with parent-child relationship

Causality Issues Multiple pathways may explain the association between relationship quality and parenting quality –Third factors ‘Easy child’ may affect parenting and relationship quality ‘Easy parent’ may affect parenting and relationships –Reverse causality Good parenting may improve relationship quality by making the partner happy Good parenting may undermine relationship quality by making the partner jealous (relevant to time investments)

What Does Empirical Evidence Tell Us? Parental relationship quality is positively correlated with good parenting Most studies focus on small samples of middle- class, married couples Most studies focus on negative measures of relationship quality (conflict) Few studies deal with causality (exception is Cowan experiments)

What Our Study Does Examines associations between relationship quality and parenting quality Uses positive as well as negative measures Compares results by gender and family type Deals with causality by: –Controlling for individual differences (‘easy parent’) –Controlling for other parents’ parenting (‘easy child’) –Controlling for mothers’ approval of fathers’ parenting (reverse causality)

Data and Sample Data from Fragile Families one-year follow-up survey Sample is restricted to parents in a romantic relationship Sample: –Mothers = 2,928 –Fathers = 2,522

Indicators of Parenting Quality Warmth (play game, toys, hug, sing songs): Range = never (1) to nearly every day (4) Cognitive stimulation (read, tell stories): Range = never (1) to nearly every day (5) Frequency of spanking: Range = never (1) to nearly every day (5)

Parenting Quality Stats

Indicators of Relationship Quality Supportiveness: Range = never (1) to often (3) –Fair –Affectionate –Critical –Encouraging –Listens –Understands Overall quality: Range = poor (1) to excellent (5) Conflict (frequency): Range = never (1) to always (5)

Relationship Quality Stats

Other Variables Stats

Other Variables Stats ( cont’d)

Effects of Relationship Quality on Parenting

Marital/Co-residence Interactions

The Effects of Other Variables on Parenting

Summary Parents’ relationship quality is positively associated with parenting quality The pattern is similar for positive and negative indicators The evidence suggests that causality runs from relationship quality to parenting The effects of relationship quality are more pronounced for fathers than for mothers The effects of relationship quality are similar across different types of families

Policy Implications Improving the quality of parental relationships is likely to improve the quality of parenting even if parents do not marry one another Programs could usefully focus on both mothers and fathers, but especially fathers