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Author: Mellott, Leanna Marie
Resulting in 4 citations.
1. Lichter, Daniel T.
Mellott, Leanna Marie
Transitions of Disadvantaged Cohabiting Mothers into Marriage
Presented: Boston, MA, Population Association of America Meetings, April 2004.
Also: http://paa2004.princeton.edu/download.asp?submissionId=40486
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Cohabitation; Event History; Fertility; Marital Status; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Welfare

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

Marriage is at the center of public policy debates over reauthorization of the 1996 welfare reform bill. In this paper, we examine patterns of union formation among disadvantaged cohabiting mothers. Specifically, we focus on transitions to marriage or singlehood among cohabiting women. Data come from the newly-released cohabitation histories in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979-2002). For the first time, the partners of the NLSY cohabiting women are matched over successive survey waves. This provides a new opportunity to evaluate the effects of women's economic circumstances and welfare receipt, as well as their marital and fertility histories (including serial partners and the biological relatedness of co-residential children), on union transitions. We fit discrete time multinominal event history models of union transitions, while controlling for individual fixed effects. Our primary goal is to identify barriers to marriage among cohabiting mothers.
Bibliography Citation
Lichter, Daniel T. and Leanna Marie Mellott. "Transitions of Disadvantaged Cohabiting Mothers into Marriage." Presented: Boston, MA, Population Association of America Meetings, April 2004.
2. Lichter, Daniel T.
Qian, Zhenchao
Mellott, Leanna Marie
Marriage or Dissolution? Union Transitions Among Poor Cohabiting Women
Demography 43,2 (May 2006): 223-40.
Also: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/demography/v043/43.2lichter.pdf
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Cohabitation; Income Level; Marriage; Poverty; Women

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

The objective of this paper is to identify the incentives and barriers to marriage among cohabiting women, especially disadvantaged mothers who are targets of welfare reform. We use the newly released cohabitation data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979–2000), which tracks the partners of cohabiting women across survey waves. Our results support several conclusions. First, cohabiting unions are short-lived -- about one-half end within one year, and over 90% end by the fifth year. Unlike most previous research, our results show that most cohabiting unions end by dissolution of the relationship rather than by marriage. Second, transitions to marriage are especially unlikely among poor women; less than one-third marry within five years. Cohabitation among poor women is more likely than that among nonpoor women to be a long-term alternative or substitute for traditional marriage. Third, our multinomial analysis of transitions from cohabitation into marriage or dissolution highlights the salience of economically disadvantaged family backgrounds, cohabitation and fertility histories, women's economic resources, and partner characteristics. These results are interpreted in a policy environment that increasingly views marriage as an economic panacea for low-income women and their children.
Bibliography Citation
Lichter, Daniel T., Zhenchao Qian and Leanna Marie Mellott. "Marriage or Dissolution? Union Transitions Among Poor Cohabiting Women." Demography 43,2 (May 2006): 223-40.
3. Mellott, Leanna Marie
Association Between Maternal Relationship Transitions and Child Behavioral Outcomes: An Examination of Selection Effects and the Mediating Impact of Parenting
Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Sociology, The Ohio State University, 2010.
Also: http://search.proquest.com.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/docview/816083360/12CE04D9C465E94B388/1?accountid=9783
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT)
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Children, Behavioral Development; Cohabitation; Divorce; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Marital Disruption; Marital Status; Parental Influences; Parental Marital Status; Parenting Skills/Styles

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

Families in the United States are becoming increasingly diverse and complex, with the potential to have significant impacts on children. One of the most notable changes in recent decades has been the dramatic increase in cohabitation rates. However, the existing research on the effects of transitions into and out of cohabitation on child outcomes is limited. Most of the existing research is cross-sectional (Nelson, Clark, and Acs 2001; Brown 2004), focuses on the number of maternal relationship transitions experienced by children, rather than the type (Hao and Xie 2007; Manning and Lamb 2003), or uses retrospective data on the amount of time children spend in various family structures (Dunifon and Kowaleski-Jones 2002; Fomby and Cherlin 2007; Hao and Xie 2002). The exception is Brown (2006), who compares the effects of various maternal relationship transition types. However, Brown's research is limited to adolescents and her data do not allow for race-specific analyses.

I extend this research using data from the 1986-2004 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and the Children of the NLSY79. I compare the effects of experiencing various maternal union entrances and exits and stable maternal unions on child behavior problems, as measured by the Behavior Problems Index. The data allow for an examination of the effects of transitions experienced by children between the ages of 4-5 and 6-7, 6-7 and 8-9, 8-9 and 10-11, and 10-11 and 12-13. In addition to age-specific analyses, I also include interactions by child sex and race/ethnicity and consider the role played by the relatedness of the mother's spouse or partner to the child. I consider the possibility that there is a spurious association between maternal relationships and child behavior, such that children with behavior problems may exhibit such problems before any maternal relationship transition occurs. Finally, I examine the mediating role played by parenting after the transition, as measured by the Home Observation Measurement of the Environment-Short Form (HOME-SF).

I find few significant effects associated with maternal relationship entrance. The most consistent effect for relationship exit is seen in the detrimental impact of divorce on child behavior problems relative to remaining in a stable married mother family. For younger children, much of this effect operates through behavior problems that existed prior to the divorce. Divorce is particularly harmful for pre-adolescents aged 10-11 and has a significant impact even when controlling for background characteristics and post-divorce parenting. The most consistent effects are seen in the effects of stable maternal union types. Remaining in a stable single mother or cohabiting mother family compared to remaining in a stable married mother family is associated with a higher level of behavior problems, though there is no significant difference in the effect of remaining in a stable single mother family relative to remaining in a cohabiting mother family. I find few significant effects by child sex or race/ethnicity, though there is some evidence that non-traditional family types are more detrimental for non-Black, non-Hispanic children than for their Black or Hispanic counterparts.

Bibliography Citation
Mellott, Leanna Marie. Association Between Maternal Relationship Transitions and Child Behavioral Outcomes: An Examination of Selection Effects and the Mediating Impact of Parenting. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Sociology, The Ohio State University, 2010..
4. Mellott, Leanna Marie
Qian, Zhenchao
Lichter, Daniel T.
Like Mother, Like Daughter? The Intergenerational Transmission of Union Formation Patterns
Presented: Philadelphia, PA, American Sociological Association Meetings, August 2005
Cohort(s): NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Cohabitation; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Mothers and Daughters

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

Research showed that young adult women whose mothers reported cohabitation were 57 percent more likely than other women to report cohabitation themselves. In addition, daughters of cohabiting mothers tended to cohabit at earlier ages than others.

Data for the study came from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a nationally representative survey of people nationwide conducted by Ohio State's Center for Human Resource Research. Men and women aged 14 to 22 in 1979 were interviewed annually from 1979 to 1994, and once every two years from 1996 forward. The NLSY also interviewed these participants' children.

This study included data on women in the NLSY who had children who were at least 18 years old by 2000. There were 2,426 of these young adults in this study.

Bibliography Citation
Mellott, Leanna Marie, Zhenchao Qian and Daniel T. Lichter. "Like Mother, Like Daughter? The Intergenerational Transmission of Union Formation Patterns." Presented: Philadelphia, PA, American Sociological Association Meetings, August 2005.