Social Class Divergence in Family Transitions: The Importance of Cohabitation
| Author | Heather M. Rackin,Christina M. Gibson‐Davis |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12522 |
| Published date | 01 October 2018 |
| Date | 01 October 2018 |
H M. R Louisiana State University
C M. G-D Duke University∗
Social Class Divergence in Family Transitions: The
Importance of Cohabitation
Objective: This study examined trendsin familial
transitions by maternal education and whether
transitions rose because of changes in preva-
lence (the share of children exposed to a rela-
tionship state, either marriage or cohabitation)
or churning (the number of entrances and exits
conditional on being exposed to a relationship
state).
Background: Children’s experiences of transi-
tions, an important predictor of well-being, have
leveled off in recent decades. Plateauing in tran-
sitions may reect heterogeneity by socioeco-
nomic status.
Method: Data came from the National Survey
of Family Growthon rstborn children observed
from ages 0 to 5 among mothers aged 15 to 34
at the time of the child’s birth (N=7,265). Kita-
gawa methods decomposed changes in transi-
tions into those attributable to changes in preva-
lence and churning. Analyses were conducted
separately by maternal education.
Results: Children born to lower and moderately
educated women experienced an increase in
transitions because cohabitation increased in
prevalence rather than a change in the number
of exits and entrances from cohabiting unions.
Department of Sociology, Louisiana State University, 126
Stubbs Hall, Baton Rouge, LA 70803 (hrackin@lsu.edu).
∗Sanford School of Public Policy, DukeUniversity, PO Box
90312, Durham, NC 27708.
Key Words: children, cohabitation, marriage, relationship
dissolution, social class, transitions.
Among this disadvantaged group, children
exposed to cohabitation experienced much more
churning than children exposed to marriage.
Children born to mothers with a 4-year degree
did not experience an increase in transitions
and predominantly experienced stable parental
marriages.
Conclusion: Transitionsonly plateaued for chil-
dren born to highly educated mothers, whereas
transitions rose for less-advantaged children.
Transitions appear to be another aspect of early
family life experiences that contributes to diverg-
ing destinies.
Since the mid-1990s, cohabitation, which is
less stable than marriage, went from rare to
commonplace, suggesting greater increases in
family disruption (Manning, Brown, & Stykes,
2015; Rackin & Gibson-Davis, 2012). Despite
the increase in cohabitation, however,transitions
appeared to have plateaued in the early 21st cen-
tury (Brown, Stykes, & Manning, 2016). One
explanation for the leveling off in transitions is
that cohabitation has become more stable and
has evolved to become similar to marriage in
durability (Brown et al., 2016).
As we set forth, however, the evidence for a
reversal in trends in familial transitions is likely
divided by socioeconomic status (SES; mea-
sured here by maternal education). As informed
by the diverging destinies perspective (McLana-
han, 2004), which highlights the importance
of SES in determining children’s trajectories,
trends in mothers’ unions by SES likely signal
Journal of Marriage and Family 80 (October 2018): 1271–1286 1271
DOI:10.1111/jomf.12522
1272 Journal of Marriage and Family
growing class divides in family transitions.
Mothers without a 4-year college degree, as
opposed to their more-educated peers, are
increasingly choosing cohabitation over mar-
riage as a childbearing context (Gibson-Davis &
Rackin, 2014). In contrast, mothers with at least
a bachelor’s degree generally choose marriage
as a birth context, with only a slight increase in
those who have a cohabiting birth. Moreover,
marriages among highly educated parents have
become more stable (Isen & Stevenson, 2011).
Thus, the plateauing in the level of family
transitions could have arisen because children
from lower SES groups are facing an increase in
transitions that is being offset by a decrease in
transitions for those of higher SES.
A contribution of our study is to investigate
how variation in transitions by maternal SES
is the product of two potentially offsetting
factors: prevalence and churning. Prevalence
is the proportion of children exposed to a
maternal relationship state (e.g., marriage or
cohabitation), and churning is the number of
entrances and exits children in that relation-
ship state experienced. These two factors can
move independently of each other, resulting
in an increasing, decreasing, or a null change
in transitions. Transitions could increase if
churning within cohabitation remains the same,
but cohabitation’s prevalence has risen (result-
ing in a larger pool of children experiencing
cohabitation and its associated churning). Tran-
sitions could be at if a greater share of children
experienced parental cohabitation, but those
who experienced it were less likely to see it
dissolve. Finally, transitions could decrease
if the prevalence of cohabitation remains the
same, but churning within cohabitation has
lessened.
Socioeconomic variation in family transitions
likely reects differential changes over time in
the prevalence and churning of cohabitation and
marriage. Among children born to less and mod-
erately educated mothers, transitions will likely
have increased because of the rapid increase
in the prevalence of cohabitation among these
groups (Manning et al., 2015). Cohabitation and
marital churning may have also changed, but not
enough to offset the large increases driven by
changes in prevalence. Children born to better
educated mothers, in contrast, are likely to have
seen little change over time in transitions. For
these children, cohabitation likely remains a rare
union state, and any increase in cohabitation will
likely be offset by decreased marital churning
(Gibson-Davis & Rackin, 2014; Martin, 2006).
To address these issues, we use data from
the National Survey of Family Growth, includ-
ing the most recently available data extend-
ing from 2013 to 2015, and follow cohorts
of rstborn children born between 1985 and
2010 until their fth birthday. We chose the
rst 5 years of life as it represents a critical
developmental window (Elder, 1998; Phillips
& Shonkoff, 2000). We provide the rst anal-
ysis of the following questions: What are the
trends in family transitions within children’s
socioeconomic groups? Do these trends reect
increasingly diverging experiences by socioeco-
nomic background? Within each socioeconomic
group, what amount of changes in transitions is
accounted for by changes in prevalence versus
changes in churning? By answering these ques-
tions, we provide the rst evidence of howtrends
in transitions are moderated by maternal edu-
cation. Our results suggest that socioeconomic
divergencein transitions is another dimension by
which children experience diverging destinies.
B
Family transitions (e.g., parental entrances and
exits from a coresidential union) are impor-
tant because they may have deleterious effects
on child–parent routines, family dynamics, and
parent–child conicts (Beck, Cooper, McLana-
han, & Brooks-Gunn, 2010; Coleman, Ganong,
& Fine, 2000). Transitions also have been nega-
tively correlated with child well-being, although
the association may be stronger for behavioral,
rather than cognitive, outcomes (Fomby & Cher-
lin, 2007; Magnuson & Berger, 2009).
Child age and the number of transitions expe-
rienced are important moderators of the effects
of transitions. Children who are preschool
age, relative to those who are older, may be
at increased risk when families change com-
position (Cavanagh & Huston, 2008; Ryan
& Claessens, 2013). The rst 5 years of life
are a critical developmental period for phys-
ical and socioemotional development (Elder,
1998), and young children may be particularly
vulnerable to changes in family composition,
resources, and dynamics. Multiple transitions,
not surprisingly, may present particular risks
for children; it is unclear if this effect is linear
(e.g., if four transitions are worse than three),
but research has found that children with two or
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