Browsing by Subject "Family contexts"

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    The contexts of parental job loss and children's educational attainment
    (2014-12) Arbeit, Caren
    Prior research on the effects of parental job loss on children has paid little attention to the life course and contextual features of parental job loss. In my dissertation, I examine three such contexts: timing of job loss in the child's life, family socioeconomic status, the number of parental job losses and the duration of parental unemployment spells. The dissertation contains three related papers; I focus on a cohort of children in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, to examine the relationship between these contexts of parental job loss and educational attainment at age 25. In the first paper, I draw from interdisciplinary research on parental job loss, sibling differences and life course theories. I consider whether the timing of a parent's job loss moderates the impact of the event on children's educational attainment in adulthood. The results suggest that, contrary to theory, timing is not a significant moderator. In the second paper, I examine the educational attainment of children born into socioeconomically similar families, but whom have divergent experiences related to parental job loss. I find that family SES primarily moderates the probability of experiencing a parental job loss. Finally, I focus on the impact of the number of parental job losses, the duration of parental unemployment spells and the interaction between number of job losses and the length of unemployment spells. I find that any parental job loss harms educational attainment, with a non-linear relationship between exposure to parental job loss and educational attainment at age 15. This dissertation on the timing of parental job loss, family socioeconomic background and exposure to job loss/unemployment helps create a fuller picture of the potential consequences of parental job loss on children's educational attainment.
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    Understanding Adjustment of Adolescents Conceived Using Medically Assisted Reproduction within Family Contexts
    (2019-05) Chen, Muzi
    Adolescents conceived using medically assisted reproduction (MAR), as a continually growing population in the U.S., may be at risk for adjustment problems due to three challenging parenting tasks faced by their families. These challenges include a high likelihood of parental pregnancy loss, raising twins, and whether and when parents should tell children about being conceived using MAR. This dissertation investigated psychosocial adjustment of MAR-conceived adolescents in relation to these parenting challenges within family contexts in two studies. Study 1 tested a moderated mediation model that proposes a possible family process through which a pile-up stressors of pregnancy loss and twin status indirectly influence adolescent psychosocial adjustment in a sample of 278 adolescents from 193 families. Results suggest pregnancy loss has long-lasting, differential effects on parental emotions at middle childhood when parenting twins versus singletons, which relates to subsequent adolescent adjustment. Study 2 examined adolescent psychosocial adjustment following the MAR information sharing within family communication environments using multiple group analysis in a sample of 163 adolescents from 115 families. Results indicate a complex picture that family communication environments interplay with the timing of MAR information sharing to influence adolescent psychosocial adjustment. These studies suggest a critical role of family contextual factors in shaping MAR-conceived adolescents’ psychosocial adjustment.