Family structure and child well-being: examining the role of parental social connections

This paper examines the role of parental social connections in accounting for subgroup differences in the influence of family structure on children. Our previous work found that white, but not black, children were negatively influenced by living in a singleparent family (Dunifon and Kowaleski-Jones, 2002). This paper examines whether parental social connections account for such differences in the influence of family structure on child well-being. Using data from the 1988 to 2000 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we estimate fixed effect models that suggest a key role for living with a grandparent in accounting for the race difference in the influence of single-parenthood on children. In contrast, visiting friends and relatives did not explain differences in the relationship between single-parenthood and child delinquency within sub-groups.