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Parental divorce and outcomes for children: evidence and interpretation

Parental divorce and outcomes for children: evidence and interpretation
Parental divorce and outcomes for children: evidence and interpretation
Using longitudinal data from the UK National Child Development Study (NCDS) 1958 Birth Cohort), we examine the association, net of pre-disruption background factors, between the experience of family disruption between ages 7 and 16 and later experience of a range of outcomes usually considered adverse: early school leaving, leaving home early, teenage first partnership, early entry into parenthood, and extra-marital fertility. Logistic regression analyses indicate that some of these outcomes are more frequent among the children of disrupted families are not distinctive: except for leaving school at the minimum age, characteristic of a majority of all family types in this cohort, all of the outcomes examined here are experienced by a minority of children in all family groups. Furthermore, the associations observed may not be interpreted as indicating that family disruption causes a greater risk of the outcomes studies. The NCDs, though large and rich in detail compared with many other data sources, is nevertheless incomplete in crucial respects, and so many key alternative hypotheses cannot be tested. As a result, a selective origin to the findings cannot be ruled out. Causal inference needs to proceed with particular care in this area.
0266-7215
67-91
Ní Bhrolcháin, M.N.
c9648b58-880e-4296-a173-7241449e0078
Chappell, R.
0c8ed246-14e2-4e89-8354-9c2745c1e20c
Diamond, I.
21cc1457-695f-4063-9503-2e43d6bb8809
Jameson, Catherine
3b4bd586-fb5d-4b50-957c-61639e7604a1
Ní Bhrolcháin, M.N.
c9648b58-880e-4296-a173-7241449e0078
Chappell, R.
0c8ed246-14e2-4e89-8354-9c2745c1e20c
Diamond, I.
21cc1457-695f-4063-9503-2e43d6bb8809
Jameson, Catherine
3b4bd586-fb5d-4b50-957c-61639e7604a1

Ní Bhrolcháin, M.N., Chappell, R., Diamond, I. and Jameson, Catherine (2000) Parental divorce and outcomes for children: evidence and interpretation. European Sociological Review, 16 (1), 67-91. (doi:10.1093/esr/16.1.67).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Using longitudinal data from the UK National Child Development Study (NCDS) 1958 Birth Cohort), we examine the association, net of pre-disruption background factors, between the experience of family disruption between ages 7 and 16 and later experience of a range of outcomes usually considered adverse: early school leaving, leaving home early, teenage first partnership, early entry into parenthood, and extra-marital fertility. Logistic regression analyses indicate that some of these outcomes are more frequent among the children of disrupted families are not distinctive: except for leaving school at the minimum age, characteristic of a majority of all family types in this cohort, all of the outcomes examined here are experienced by a minority of children in all family groups. Furthermore, the associations observed may not be interpreted as indicating that family disruption causes a greater risk of the outcomes studies. The NCDs, though large and rich in detail compared with many other data sources, is nevertheless incomplete in crucial respects, and so many key alternative hypotheses cannot be tested. As a result, a selective origin to the findings cannot be ruled out. Causal inference needs to proceed with particular care in this area.

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Published date: March 2000

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 34336
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/34336
ISSN: 0266-7215
PURE UUID: 7c3057ab-cfed-4508-bde6-936e4f83e50d

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Date deposited: 26 Jul 2006
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 07:47

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Contributors

Author: M.N. Ní Bhrolcháin
Author: R. Chappell
Author: I. Diamond
Author: Catherine Jameson

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