1. Promoting Family Stability for Ohio’s Children
Anastasia R. Snyder
Associate Professor of HDFS
Extension Specialist
The Ohio State University

2. Outline and Goals Family Structure vs. Family Stability
How is family stability important for child well-being?
Role of extension programs
Goal: To understand what family stability is, why its important, and how extension programs can help

3. Recent Family Change
American families experienced significant family change in recent decades:
Divorce and remarriage, cohabitation, nonmarital childbearing
Focus has been on structure (single vs. two parents)
Shift to number of transitions, instability and change
Result in worse outcomes for children (lower income, less parenting time)

4. Theoretical Explanations
Stress
Family transitions require adjustments that can be stressful
Substantial cumulative effects
Family Systems Theory—boundary ambiguity
Socioeconomic stress hypothesis—poverty, unemployment, economic stress overwhelm the effects of instability; will explain racial/ethnic differences
Selection
Parental (maternal) characteristics related to both diminished parenting and relationship skills

5. Percent of women divorced within 10 years of first marriage: life table estimates by education
Since 1980, divorce among women with BA has declined by 20%, divorce among women with hs or some college has increased by 6%, and divorce among women with less than high school has increased by 10%

6. Racial Differences Non-Hispanic Black children
More extended kin involvement
More exposure to regular family and neighborhood stress
More exposure to socioeconomic stress
Makes them less susceptible than Non-Hispanic White children to effects of instability

7. Research Results
Both maternal characteristics and number of transitions (not type) influence child outcomes, only for NH Whites (Fomby & Cherlin, 2007).
Children born to unmarried mothers experience more transitions, and have mothers with less favorable characteristics, both contributes to their worse outcomes (Osborne & McLanahan, 2007).

8. Research Results (con’t)
Children who experience poor union quality of their mother and partner have worse outcomes, regardless of number of union transitions
Relationship quality matters (Fomby & Osborne, 2010)
Social protection (child’s relationship with people and institutions) attenuates the effect of instability on adolescent outcomes for all. Socioeconomic stress exacerbated the effect of instability on adolescent outcomes for NH Blacks (sexual initiation)
Economic disadvantage has more impact than instability on outcomes for NH Blacks (Fomby et al., 2010)

9. Extension’s Role
Family structure is important, but keep other factors in mind:
Instability
Family of origin for children
Parental characteristics
Children’s context, implications for racial/ethnic differences
Focus educational efforts in additional directions:
General parenting education (tough sell)
Relationship Education, partnering with youth programming
Programs that target ‘fragile’ families
Other ideas?