Abstract
Large numbers of infants and toddlers have parents who live apart due to separation, divorce, or nonmarital/noncohabiting childbearing, yet this important topic, especially the controversial issue of frequent overnights with nonresidential parents, is understudied. The authors analyzed data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a longitudinal investigation of children born to primarily low-income, racial/ethnic minority parents that is representative of 20 U.S. cities with populations over 200,000. Among young children whose parents lived apart, 6.9% of infants (birth to age 1) and 5.3% of toddlers (ages 1 to 3) spent an average of at least 1 overnight per week with their nonresident parent. An additional 6.8% of toddlers spent 35%-70% of overnights with nonresident parents. Frequent overnights were significantly associated with attachment insecurity among infants, but the relationship was less clear for toddlers. Attachment insecurity predicted adjustment problems at ages 3 and 5, but frequent overnights were not directly linked with adjustment problems at older ages.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 871-885 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Journal of Marriage and Family |
Volume | 75 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Aug 2013 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Anthropology
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
- Social Sciences (miscellaneous)