In an age of cohabitation and divorce, single parents concerned about the developmental health of their children should choose new partners slowly and deliberately, according to a Hopkins study
The more transitions children go through in their living situation, the more likely they are to act out, Johns Hopkins sociologists Paula Fomby and Andrew Cherlin reported in “Family Instability and Child Well-Being,” published in the April issue of the American Sociological Review.
Each breakup, divorce, remarriage or new cohabitation brings a period of adjustment as parents, partners, and children establish their places in the new family. Children who go through frequent transitions are more likely to have behavioral problems than children raised in stable two-parent families and perhaps even those in stable single-parent families.
“Children are affected by disruption and changes in family structure as well as by the type of family structures they experience,” Fomby said.
