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Author: Jorgensen-Wells, McKell A.
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. James, Spencer
Nelson, David A.
Jorgensen-Wells, McKell A.
Calder, Danielle
Marital Quality over the Life Course and Child Well-being from Childhood to Early Adolescence
Development and Psychopathology published online (11 May 2021): DOI: 10.1017/S0954579421000122.
Also: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/development-and-psychopathology/article/abs/marital-quality-over-the-life-course-and-child-wellbeing-from-childhood-to-early-adolescence/20DE781350484F49D5EFA202F4C16D4B
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Keyword(s): Child Health; Children, Well-Being; Home Environment; Marital Satisfaction/Quality; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT)

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Research on marital quality and child well-being is currently limited by its common use of geographically constrained, homogenous, and often cross-sectional (or at least temporally limited) samples. We build upon previous work showing multiple trajectories of marital quality and data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-1979 (NLSY79) regarding mothers and their children (inclusive of ages 5-14). We examine how indicators of child well-being are linked to parental trajectories of marital quality (happiness, communication, and conflict). Results showed children whose parents had consistently poor marital quality over the life course exhibited more internalizing and externalizing problems, poorer health, lower quality home environments, and lower math and vocabulary scores than children of parents in consistently higher-quality marriages. Group differences remained stable over time for child health, home environment, and vocabulary scores. Group differences for internalizing problems declined over time, whereas group differences increased for externalizing problems and math scores. Initial advantages for females across nearly all indicators of child well-being tended to shrink over time, with boys often moving slightly ahead by mid adolescence. We discuss the implications of these findings in regard to children's development and well-being and suggest treating marriage as a monolithic construct betrays important variation within marriage itself.
Bibliography Citation
James, Spencer, David A. Nelson, McKell A. Jorgensen-Wells and Danielle Calder. "Marital Quality over the Life Course and Child Well-being from Childhood to Early Adolescence." Development and Psychopathology published online (11 May 2021): DOI: 10.1017/S0954579421000122.