UMD Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.

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    Children’s Adjustment to Parents’ Break Up: The Family System Mechanisms
    (2015) Karberg, Elizabeth; Cabrera, Natasha J; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Research has shown that many aspects of family functioning are directly and indirectly linked to children’s social development. One important aspect of how families function is family structure. In this regard, families have undergone tremendous change over the last decades resulting in increased cohabitation and divorce. These types of families are believed to be more unstable than married families. Instability creates more stress that can be difficult for children to cope with resulting in increased behavioral problems. Although past studies have shown an association between union instability and children’s externalizing problem behaviors (EPB), the mechanism by which this occurs is less understood. Using Family Systems Theory and data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study (n = 3,387), I examined whether family processes – father and mother involvement, co-parenting support, and maternal responsiveness – explained the association between union instability and children’s EPB at 9 years. I also examined whether marital status and children’s temperament moderated this association. Using measured variable path analysis, I found that only co-parenting support mediated the association between union instability and child EPB, and only for children whose mothers experienced a divorce (not a nonmarital separation), controlling for known covariates of children’s EPB. The association between union instability and children’s EPB through co-parenting and parenting was not moderated by child temperament. These findings suggest that co-parenting rather than parenting explains children’s social adjustment when families undergo a divorce.
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    Family Structure and Income Redistribution: Comparing Child Poverty Outcomes in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States
    (2007-06-14) Grutzmacher, Stephanie; Anderson, Elaine A.; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The United States has greater income inequality and higher child poverty than any other industrialized, wealthy nation, which greatly impacts opportunities for American children. Given that social and economic institutions are predicated on the breadwinner-homemaker family structure as the ideal family, family formation and living arrangements also appear to create disadvantages and high poverty risk for some children. Government income redistribution policies have varied success in reducing child poverty, especially among children living in vulnerable family structures. Cross-national comparisons may provide useful information for improving the effectiveness of antipoverty policies. This study used data from Wave V of the Luxembourg Income Study to comparatively analyze income redistribution and relative child poverty in various family structures in nationally representative samples from Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Single mother, single father, two-parent, single grandmother, single grandfather, and two-parent grandparent families with children under the age of 18 were analyzed. Structural functional theory is used as a guiding conceptual framework. Results indicate that income from government programs is differentially redistributed across various family structures in all three countries, often with smaller child poverty reductions among more vulnerable family structures. Single mother families have the highest child poverty rates at each phase of income redistribution, while two-parent families have the lowest rates. Children living in grandparent-headed families experience the largest reductions in poverty through income redistribution. Children living in households with young children have higher poverty rates at each phase of income redistribution than children living in households with no young children, yet they experience smaller reductions in poverty across all three countries. The United States has the highest child poverty rates in all examined structures at each phase of income redistribution, while the United Kingdom reduces child poverty by the largest proportion. While income is redistributed differentially by family structure, the utilization of structural characteristics for policy development is questioned. Policy implications for improving child poverty reduction efforts in the United States through labor market regulation, caregiving relief, and caregiving support are discussed.
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    Family Structure Differences In Maternal Time With Children: Disparate Social Structural Locations Or Different Propensities Towards Mothering?
    (2007-02-20) Kendig, Sarah M.; Bianchi, Suzanne M.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Utilizing the 2003 and 2004 American Time Use Survey (ATUS), this thesis examines the relationship between family structure and maternal time with children. The large sample, composed of 4,309 married mothers and 1,821 single mothers with children less than 13 years of age, allows for a detail-rich description of single mothers' time with their children that has not been possible before the ATUS. This thesis analyzes differences in maternal time with children by marital status, living arrangements, and other characteristics within the single mother population and in comparison to married mothers. Findings indicate that differences in maternal time with children largely disappear or that single mothers engage in more child care than married mothers after controls are introduced. Thus, differences in maternal time with children appear to be mainly attributable to the disadvantaged social structural location of single mothers rather than different proclivities towards mothering between married and single mothers.