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Marcy Carlson Columbia University Sara McLanahan Princeton University

Do Good Partners Make Good Parents?: Relationship Quality and Parenting in Married and Unmarried Families. Marcy Carlson Columbia University Sara McLanahan Princeton University. July 13, 2004 Fragile Families Summer Data Workshop. The Questions.

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Marcy Carlson Columbia University Sara McLanahan Princeton University

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  1. Do Good Partners Make Good Parents?: Relationship Quality and Parenting in Married and Unmarried Families Marcy Carlson Columbia University Sara McLanahan Princeton University July 13, 2004 Fragile Families Summer Data Workshop

  2. The Questions • How does the quality of parental relationships affect the quality of parenting? • Are effects similar for positive and negative dimensions of relationship quality and parenting? • Are they similar for mothers and fathers? • Are they similar across different types of family structures? • Are they causal?

  3. Why Do We Care? • Good parenting is known to be strongly associated with positive child outcomes • Parents’ relationship quality may be more important in predicting good parenting than family structure (# of parents; biological ties) • Family structures are changing, and we need to know more about family process in non-traditional families • New marriage initiatives are aimed at improving parental relationships

  4. What Does Theory Tell Us? • Family systems theory predicts a ‘spill-over’ effect: positive relationship  positive parenting • Social support theory predicts that parental support will improve parenting by reducing stress • Alternatively, adult relationships may compete with parent-child relationship

  5. Causality Issues Multiple pathways may explain the association between relationship quality and parenting quality • Third factors • ‘Easy child’ may affect parenting and relationship quality • ‘Easy parent’ may affect parenting and relationships • Reverse causality • Good parenting may improve relationship quality by making the partner happy • Good parenting may undermine relationship quality by making the partner jealous (relevant to time investments)

  6. What Does Empirical Evidence Tell Us? • Parental relationship quality is positively correlated with good parenting • Most studies focus on small samples of middle-class, married couples • Most studies focus on negative measures of relationship quality (conflict) • Few studies deal with causality (exception is Cowan experiments)

  7. What Our Study Does • Examines associations between relationship quality and parenting quality • Uses positive as well as negative measures • Compares results by gender and family type • Deals with causality by: • Controlling for individual differences (‘easy parent’) • Controlling for other parents’ parenting (‘easy child’) • Controlling for mothers’ approval of fathers’ parenting (reverse causality)

  8. Data and Sample Data from Fragile Families one-year follow-up survey Sample is restricted to parents in a romantic relationship Sample: Mothers = 2,928 Fathers = 2,522

  9. Indicators of Parenting Quality • Warmth (play game, toys, hug, sing songs): Range = never (1) to nearly every day (4) • Cognitive stimulation (read, tell stories): Range = never (1) to nearly every day (5) • Frequency of spanking: Range = never (1) to nearly every day (5)

  10. Parenting Quality Stats

  11. Indicators of Relationship Quality • Supportiveness: Range = never (1) to often (3) • Fair • Affectionate • Critical • Encouraging • Listens • Understands • Overall quality: Range = poor (1) to excellent (5) • Conflict (frequency): Range = never (1) to always (5)

  12. Relationship Quality Stats

  13. Other Variables Stats

  14. Other Variables Stats (cont’d)

  15. Effects of Relationship Quality on Parenting

  16. Marital/Co-residence Interactions

  17. The Effects of Other Variableson Parenting

  18. Summary • Parents’ relationship quality is positively associated with parenting quality • The pattern is similar for positive and negative indicators • The evidence suggests that causality runs from relationship quality to parenting • The effects of relationship quality are more pronounced for fathers than for mothers • The effects of relationship quality are similar across different types of families

  19. Policy Implications • Improving the quality of parental relationships is likely to improve the quality of parenting even if parents do not marry one another • Programs could usefully focus on both mothers and fathers, but especially fathers

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