4. Research objectives
Although our ultimate aim is to reach a better understanding of the relationship between family history and child development, in the present paper our objective is to work on the first step of the process — exploring how different elements of parents' and children's family life courses interact in order to identify the aspects most relevant to child outcomes. Drawing on the innovative information provided by the NLSCY regarding the conjugal and parental history of both biological parents, the main thrust of this paper is to assess whether any link exists between the conjugal and parental life history of a child's parents (not only before his birth, but even before his parents got together) and the child's subsequent family life course. We wish to explore, in other words, whether it is possible to identify patterns of conjugal behaviour in the parents' generation that shape the family life course of children. More specifically, we will analyse the impact of the rank of the union in which children are born, and whether their parents had had children from an earlier partner, on the likelihood that parents separate.
Our second objective is an offshoot of this process. Based on the results of these analyses, we will define a series of variables that summarise the important elements of family histories; in the present paper, this will be restricted to aspects of parents' histories up to and including the moment of the target child's birth. Our aim is to extend this, at a later date, to variables summarising family life course events following the child's birth, such as parents' separation, or the arrival of stepparents and half-siblings. These could then be incorporated into analyses of child outcomes, replacing the simplistic variables so often used, and making it possible to evaluate more comprehensively the link between family experience and child development.
What's New
