Minority Health and Health Equity Archive

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/21769

Welcome to the Minority Health and Health Equity Archive (MHHEA), an electronic archive for digital resource materials in the fields of minority health and health disparities research and policy. It is offered as a no-charge resource to the public, academic scholars and health science researchers interested in the elimination of racial and ethnic health disparities.

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Author: search.filters.author.du Toit, NolaSubject: search.filters.subject.methodologies

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    Coming and Going: The Effect of Household Composition on the Economic Well-being of Families with Children
    (2011) du Toit, Nola; Bachtell, Kate; Haggerty, Catherine
    As a result of the deinstitutionalization of marriage, high levels of divorce, and an increased acceptance of cohabitation and single parenthood, there is an ever changing array of families in American households (Stacey 1996, Thistle 2006). Current literature examines how different types of households impact the wellbeing of families and children. Whether adults are married, cohabiting, or single has been shown to impact their life chances and those of any children living in their household. Studies have examined changes in composition or household instability to negative outcomes, especially among children. Unfortunately, studies that examine differences in type of family and household composition are often limited to comparisons of unions - married, single, or cohabiting, focusing on the parents. Similarly, the literature on the impact of change in household composition has focused primarily on changes in relationships, such as marriage or divorce. Comparatively less research has been done on the influence of (1) extended family members and non-relatives (roommates, boarders) in the household, and (2) changes in household composition that are not related to union formation among parents. Using data from two waves of the Making Connections Survey, a study of ten disadvantaged urban communities, we examine different types of family and non-family households, the extent of change in household composition when other household members are considered, and differences in the effect of these types of household structures on a variety of economic measures of child wellbeing. We observe differences in household composition beyond the traditional nuclear family and find that there are many types of households not accounted for in conventional family studies. In fact, 45% of households with children in our sample include some adult who is not the parent of the focal child. In addition, we find that these non-traditional households differ along several measures of economic wellbeing. Finally, the results show that changes in the composition of these different households impact their economic stability and, therefore, child wellbeing over time. This research suggests the need for more recognition of these other people in children’s lives and the complex households in which children live.
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    Instability Overlooked: Evidence for the Importance of Household Roster Data Collection and Matching Over Time
    (2011) du Toit, Nola; Haggerty, Catherine
    Many studies on instability examine changes in relationships and household composition by using measures such as “are you married?” or “how many children in this household?” and then comparing the answers across time. Instability is determined from changes noted in respondents‟ answers and conclusions are made based on the impact of instability, or the lack thereof. However, these measures are one-dimensional; they do not capture the types of changes that may have occurred between waves. For example, respondents may be married at both waves, but to different people. This misconception calls for a more nuanced examination of households and relationships of members at each point in time. Data from the Making Connections Survey are used to compare different methods of measuring instability in relationships, number of adults, and number of children across waves. The data include a household roster that collects demographic information about each member of the household, as well as their relationship to the respondent. Moreover, household members on the roster are matched across waves and each person is given a unique identifier. This makes it is possible to tell changes in household composition and relationships on an individual basis, instead of relying on singular measures. Findings show that when longitudinal studies closely examine household rosters and link household members over time to measure instability, instead of using only single measures - a significantly greater proportion of change is captured. This study is important because it illustrates the importance of more detailed data collection on household members, and considering the fluid nature of especially poor families, the extent to which instability is overlooked by the usual measures. Finally this study provides evidence suggesting that conventional methods of capturing instability related to people in a household should be revisited.