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Changes in Family Structure and the Well-Being of British Children: Evidence from a Fifteen-Year Panel Study

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Abstract

In this paper, I use the Youth Panel data in the British Household Panel Survey to examine how changes in family structure influence the well-being of young people in the sample. Using 15 years of panel data, I use pooled cross-sectional and fixed effects models to estimate how the changes in family structure influence the well-being of children. In the pooled cross-sectional analysis, statistically significant differences are found between young people in living with two biological parents and all other groups. Fixed effects models demonstrate that transitioning out of a two-parent biological family is associated with less happiness, self esteem and household income. Movement into stepfamilies also decreases the happiness of young people, although the transition is also met by an increase in household income.

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Notes

  1. As well, various subsamples have been added over the course of the BHPS (e.g. the low income sample starting in 1994 and the Scotland and Wales extension sample in 2000).

  2. There were of course a small number of youths not living with either biological parent, but they are not included in these analyses.

  3. It should be noted that not all the changes are necessarily logical such as the nine cases who reported moving from married natural parents to cohabiting natural parents. In the analyses, these cases are simply collapses into ‘natural parents’ where appropriate. Other small categories that are likely misreports are not included in the analyses.

  4. Reasons for any such “incompleteness” here is mostly due to: 1) gaps of years in individuals’ participation in the study, 2) a person may have just entered the panel and only have information for one year, or 3) a person may have left the panel as she or he reached age 16.

  5. It should be noted that income differences were statistically significant, with cohabiting natural parents having significantly lower household incomes.

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  1. Department of Sociology, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario, M3J 1P3, Canada

    Karen Robson

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  1. Karen Robson
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Correspondence to Karen Robson.

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Robson, K. Changes in Family Structure and the Well-Being of British Children: Evidence from a Fifteen-Year Panel Study. Child Ind Res 3, 65–83 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-009-9057-3

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