Research Prospectus 

The Effects of Family Structure on Childhood Development

Laura Moore

Research in Allied Health

July 1, 2012

Abstract

            The paper provides an outlook on the different outcomes affecting children in various types of family structures.  There are many theories that diverse types of family structure affect childhood development.  These structures include heterosexual couples, same-sex marriages, single parents, low income families, and more.  This paper investigates the effects that family change and structure have on a child’s well being.  It is theorized that children in a married household are more enhanced educationally and behaviorally than children in an unmarried household. (Ryan)  Does same-sex marriage harm children?  This study will seek to answer this question.   By looking at family structures this paper will identify if household changes and different family types affect the development of children.    

Chapter 1

Introduction

Background

            The definition of marriage has changed tremendously across generations.  Marriage was once created as a system of rules to handle property rights, and the protection of bloodlines (Stritof, 2012).   Arranged marriages, where the father chose a marriage partner for his daughter, was the most common pattern in the past and are still practiced today in some cultures. These couples did not marry for love, but for economic or political reasons (Stritof).  Religion first became a legal part of marriage in 1563 when the Council of Trent required that Catholic marriages were to be celebrated at a Catholic church before a priest and two witnesses (Kirsch, 1912).  By the eighteenth century almost all Europeans celebrated marriage as a religious event (Kirsch, 1912).  Marriages based on love first became common during the Medieval Era in Europe.

Marriage in today’s society is not a key factor for many people.  Some will have children but do not see the need to get married.  Teen pregnancies are increasingly common in Western society.  Most of these pregnancies result in the mother raising her child as a single parent.  How do these circumstances affect the children in our society?  Ryan argues growing up without a father in their daily routine affects their educational, cognitive, and behavioral development. Most children living in unmarried homes are with their mother most of the time.  Their fathers are either not in the picture or are only in their lives a couple days out of the week.  Ryan suggests fathers that enhance their children’s development are with their child from birth to three years old.  

People living in the United States have recently been struck with higher rates of poverty than in the recent past.  This economic downturn has resulted in major changes for some families.  Many parents have good jobs and own homes, but recently there have been higher rates of layoffs at many major companies and in small businesses.  Families affected by layoffs can go from having what they need to living in hotels, which can be very stressful for parents as well as children.  Children that are preschool age can be the most affected by poverty.  These children show less completion rates than the children who are older (Brooks-Gunn, 2002).  Family income holds a relationship with a child’s emotional well being.  If a child participates in an extracurricular activity, he or she has increased social interactions.  This situation enhances the child’s well being and academic level (Fields, 1998).

Children in same-sex marriages face the most criticism than children from other backgrounds.  The reason for this is because some Americans oppose same-sex marriages.  Many believe children in same-sex marriages are in a harmful situation.  They do not have either a mother or a father in their life, although, children in these marriages do have two parents.  The argument is that the children need a parent of the opposite sex to enhance them cognitively, behaviorally, and educationally.  However, although this argument is true for children living in unmarried homes, for children living with two parents in a same-sex marriage this is not accurate.  Studies have shown that children of homosexual couples have well being at just about the same levels as a child of a heterosexual marriage.

Some Americans even believe that if same-sex couples marry their children will probably grow up being gay or lesbian like their parents.  This has been proven untrue, no matter what type of marriage the child will have the same chance of being gay or lesbian (Robinson, nov. 6, 2010).  Evan Wolfson summarizes the support for same-sex marriage and its effects on children by saying, “Marriage, of course, is not the only form of relationship or family deserving respect, and not every same-sex couple should or would choose to marry, just as not every heterosexual does. But lesbians and gay men willing to take on the commitment and responsibilities of civil marriage should not be denied the opportunity to build a life together and pursue happiness with the partner they love. Nor should their children and families suffer the economic hardships and disadvantages that come with exclusion from marriage.” (Wolfson, 2003)  Same-sex couples go through many challenges; their children should not have to go through the same challenges as their parents.  

If you want to include this: The American Anthropological Association has a statement on family types. “More than a century of anthropological research on households, kinship relationships, and families, across cultures and through time, provide no support for the view that either civilization or viable social orders depend upon marriage as an exclusively heterosexual institution. Rather, a vast array of family types can contribute to stable human societies.”

Purpose

            The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of children living in various family structures.  The effects that different family structures have on children could enhance or decrease their educational, cognitive, behavioral, and social interactions.

Significance

            Various types of structure can affect children.  Families that are affected by poverty can have children who are stressed and have a lower emotional well being.  Today’s children are faced with many different types of situations that could affect their well being.  It is more common for children to be born out of wedlock.  Most of these children are born with only one parent in their lives.  Some fathers of these children do not want to be in their child’s life.  This can affect the well being of this child.  Fathers should be in their child’s life from the time they are born until the child is three years old.  This helps stimulate and enhance the child educationally.

Research Questions

The main focus is to evaluate the affects family structure has on children.  Through this research these questions will be addressed:

1.      Are children in same-sex marriages being negatively affected?

2.      What are the effects on children from living in married homes vs. children living in unmarried homes?

3.      Do the effects of family structure change depending on the child’s age at the time of disruption?

Chapter 2

Literature Review

`           Stritof, 2012, provides an outlook at the history of marriage. Marriage was once created as a system of rules to handle property rights, and the protection of bloodlines.  Arranged marriages, where the father chose a marriage partner for his daughter was the most common pattern in the past and are still practiced today in some cultures. These couples did not marry for love, but for economic or political reasons.  Marriage is mostly monogamy now, but before marriage was polygamy or monogamy.  The background on marriage in this research paper is to show how marriage related to different people and times in the world.  Some people now do not think of marriage before they have kids; this could impact their kids without them even knowing it (Stritof, 2012).

Kirsch, 1912, provides an outlook on how marriage first started.  Religion first became a legal part of marriage in 1563 when the Council of Trent required that Catholic marriages were to be celebrated at a Catholic church before a priest and two witnesses.  By the eighteenth century almost all Europeans celebrated marriage as a religious event.  This article is to show the different types of marriages throughout different generations.  Religion was not always used in marriages until 1563.  Now, marriage religion is not required for people to get married.  There are different views on marriage, too (Kirsch, 1912).

Ryan (2012) argues growing up without a father in their daily routine affects their educational, cognitive, and behavioral development. Most children living in unmarried homes are with their mother most of the time.  Their fathers are either not in the picture or are only in their lives a couple days out of the week.  Ryan suggests fathers that enhance their children’s development are with their child from birth to three years old.  (Ryan 2012) She tries to figure out if family helps or harms children.  She does a study using the data from Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study.  The study tested the benefits of marital birth for child development.  She also stated that non-marital birth is increasing compared to marital birth.  She learned that marital birth did benefit the child.  The studies showed that if the child was around the father from birth to three years old then the child would have an increased learning ability.    This was a good article for my paper to show the effects of marriage on children (Ryan 2012).

Mackay (2005) looks at the impacts of family structure and family change on children. He focuses on parental separation.  He finds evidence that children raised in different families display different patterns of outcomes.  Children raised in single parent homes are less than average than children living in two parent homes.  He looks at why this could happen to single family homes.  He found some of the same information that Ryan found.  This is duplicate information it justified that this information must be correct. 

Brooks-Gunn (2002) says that most women are employed during the first year of their children’s life.  She studied to see if mothers working in the first year of their child’s life would affect them.  She found that it would affect the child’s cognitive ability.  In some subgroups it affected them more than others.  Most women go back to work two or three months after their child is born.  It would depend on the child’s home environment on how it affects the child.  In some families across the U.S. the mothers have to work to make ends meet (Brooks-Gunn, 2002).

Fields (1998) looks at how poverty affects children.  Family income holds a relationship with a child’s emotional well being.  He looks at the statistics to see what affects the children and what causes the affects.  The causes could be family stressors, family characteristics, and participation in enrichment activities. If a child participates in an extracurricular activity, he or she has increased social interactions.  This situation enhances the child’s well being and academic level.  Many People in the U.S. can be struck by debt.  Some do not even think about how it affects their children.  It may have more of an outcome on their children than it does on them.  Fields measures the affects it has on children (Fields, 1998).

Wolfson (2003) summarizes the support for same-sex marriage and its effects on children by saying, “Marriage, of course, is not the only form of relationship or family deserving respect, and not every same-sex couple should or would choose to marry, just as not every heterosexual does. But lesbians and gay men willing to take on the commitment and responsibilities of civil marriage should not be denied the opportunity to build a life together and pursue happiness with the partner they love. Nor should their children and families suffer the economic hardships and disadvantages that come with exclusion from marriage.” (Wolfson, 2003)  Same-sex couples go through many challenges; their children should not have to go through the same challenges as their parents.  This type of family faces the biggest criticism.  It doesn’t face as much criticism as it has before in the past as it does now.  It is still not ok in some people’s eyes. This article is to show that having a child in a same-sex marriage does not harm the child (Wolfson, 2003).

Meezan and Rauch (2005) looked at the concerns about children in same-sex marriages.  They wanted to know how it affected the child’s well-being.  They look at how same sex-parenting affects the child.  They found that the children who were being studied are doing about as well as normal children are.  They wanted to look at the bigger picture of the children who were studied.  They wanted to know their background and if they were already being raised by same-sex couples.  The authors note that the best way to ascertain the costs and benefits of the effects of same-sex marriage on children is to compare it with the alternatives. Massachusetts is marrying same-sex couples; Vermont and Connecticut are offering civil unions, and several states offer partner-benefit programs (Meezan, 2005).   They want to study the different types of unions and how it affects children.  They think by looking at the different unions then if could help the debate about children being in same-sex marriages.  This article helped me figure out that different unions could cause different affects on the children (Meezan, 2005).

Reinkober Drummet (2004) looks at the affects military has on children.  She says that children living with their family in the military can have positive and negative outcomes on children.  Many children can be affected by moving around so much.   Some research indicates that military children are less affected by relocation than nonmilitary children, perhaps because the military provides a structured environment that includes job security, standard school curriculum in base schools, and comparable base housing (Drummet, 2004).   Moving can have positive outcomes on children as well such as academic achievement.  Moving can produce negative effects on children such as stressing because they have to move to a new school, leave old friends, and make new friends.  Military families are almost overlooked as being a different type of family.  I didn’t really think children could be harmed by living in military families because there are many, many military families in the U.S.  Drummet provides an outlook on how children and adults can be affected living in the military (Drummet, 2004).

Aronson (2011) looks at the ways the military assists children.  There are many children living with their families on bases.  The children face many challenges when it comes to living in the military.  The military tries to accommodate children living in the military.  Most branches of the military have instituted programs within schools and communities to help military school-aged children make more seamless transitions from one school to another due to relocations.  They try to help alleviate the stressors on children due to moving to different locations (Aronson, 2011). 

Chapter 3:

Research Method

Research Design

The study is intended to gather information about the effects of children in various types of family structure.  Families will receive questionnaires through the mail.  Families would also be given surveys while the researcher is present. The questionnaires will ask how their families are perceived by others and how it affects their happiness.  The surveys would include happiness levels, arguments, quality family time, how many children they have, their drug and alcohol content.  The surveys will measure they child’s behavioral problems and how well they do in school.  The surveys and questionnaires are meant to measure the general well being of the families.  The families and children will be expected to answer each question truthfully and completely as possible.  The surveys will be anonymous so the participants will feel comfortable and be more likely to answer honestly.

Research Questions

            The first survey will consist of questions regarding the general well being of the family.  The questionnaires will have open-ended and close-ended questions.  Questions will be asked regarding the drug and alcohol consumption of family members, amount of arguments between family members, happiness level of the family, and how many children are in the family.  The survey will cover questions regarding income level, job stability, family stability, and housing changes.  

Participants

            Carter County Schools and Johnson City schools would be participating in the study.  The questionnaires could be mailed out to the Tri-Cities area.  These would be voluntary participants.  Surveys and interviews could be given to parents of the children who attend the Child Study Center.  Since lots of the children who are in the child study center have single moms these will be good participants for the study.  There would be no physical requirements for the participants since this study is meant to look at all family types. 

Data Collection Methods

            The questionnaire and survey will be collected once the families have completed them. The questionnaire consists of the well being of the family.  The questions are intended to understand the well being of the family and consist of questions regarding the drug and alcohol consumption of family members, amount of arguments between family members, happiness level of the family, and how many children are in the family.   The survey will cover questions regarding income level, job stability, family stability, and housing changes.  The survey is concerned with the changes in the child’s life such as moving or job stability.  Together, these studies will help identify areas that are affecting the children.  

Data Analysis

            After the surveys have been conducted and collected, the information will be analyzed and categorized. Statistical software will be used to help categorize the data. Information will also be analyzed from physiological reports on family structure and anthropological reports on family structure and well being.  The families’ answers will be primarily investigated on four different correlation patterns:

·                     Income level and job stability

·                     Housing changes and family stability

·                     Happiness level of the family

·                     Drug and alcohol consumption

Works Cited

Aronson, K. R., Caldwell, L. L., Perkins, D. F. and Pasch, K. W. (2011), Assisting children and families with military-related disruptions: The United States Marine Corps school liaison program. Psychol. Schs., 48: 998–1015. doi: 10.1002/pits.20608

Brooks–Gunn, J., Han, W. and Waldfogel, J. (2002), Maternal Employment and Child Cognitive Outcomes in the First Three Years of Life: The NICHD Study of Early Child Care. Child Development, 73: 1052–1072. doi: 10.1111/1467-8624.00457

Drummet, A. R., Coleman, M. and Cable, S. (2003), Military Families Under Stress: Implications for Family Life Education. Family Relations, 52: 279–287. doi: 10.1111/j.1741-3729.2003.00279.x

Fields, J. M. (1998). Poverty, Family Structure, and Child Well-Being: Indicators From the SIPP. Washington, D.C.: Population Division Working Paper No. 23.

Kirsch, J. P. (1912). Council of Trent. In New York (pp. Nov. 6, 2010). http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15030c.htm: Robert Appleton Company.

Mackay, R. (2005). The Impact of Family Structure and Family change on Child Outcomes: A Personal Reading of the Research Literature. Social Policy Journal - Issue 24 .

Rauch, W. M. (2005). The Future of Children. Vol. 15, No. 2, Marriage and Child Wellbeing , pp. 97-115.

Robinson, B. (nov. 6, 2010). Beliefs & Opposition by Religious Conservatives. Religious Tolarence , <http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_mar7.htm>.

Ryan, R. M. (2012), Marital Birth and Early Child Outcomes: The Moderating Influence of Marriage Propensity. Child Development, 83: 1085–1101. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01749.x

Stritof, S.  (2012). How Marriage Has Evolved. About.com Guide .

Wolfson, E. (2003). For Richer, For Poorer: Same-Sex Couples and the Freedom to Marry as a Civil Right. Drum Major Institute for Public Policy , <http://www.drummajorinstitute.org/library/article.php?ID=5518>.