The Effect of Family Structure and Instability on Mothering Practices

Cynthia A. Osborne, Princeton University

This paper uses data from the Fragile Families Study to explain the effect of family structure and instability on mothering behaviors in the child’s first year of life. Often family structure and change are confounded in cross sectional analysis. These data provide full life histories of a cohort of children. To understand the effect of family structure, I compare the mothering behaviors of mothers in stable married, cohabiting, and visiting relationships, as well as mothers with no relationship with the child's father. To understand the effect of instability, I compare the mothering behaviors of mothers that experience a change in relationship status. The results suggest that after controlling for the mother's characteristics, there are few differences in mothering behaviors across family structures, and instability has little effect on mothers' behaviors with infants.