Boosting Children’s Lifetime Chances in Times of Diverse Family Forms

Key Messages: 

• The impact of family dissolution on children varies considerably and lasting effects persist for only a minority.

• To prevent negative consequences of family dissolution on children’s development, policies should prevent economic downward mobility and provide support to children and parents to adapt to new family dynamics and forms.

• Life chances of children depend more strongly on the socio-economic background of their parents than on the family form they are living in.

• Mitigating the effect of parental socio-economic background on children is one of the major challenges for family policies.

References: 

• Bastaits, K. and D. Mortelmans (2013): Does the Parenting of Divorced Mothers and Fathers Affect Children’s Well-Being in the Same Way? Child Indicators Research 7: 351–367.

• Bernardi, F. and J. Radl (2014): The Long-Term Consequences of Parental Divorce for Children’s Educational Attainment. Demographic Research 30(61): 1653-1680.

• Carneiro, P. and J. Heckman (2003): Human Capital Policy. in: Heckman, J., Krueger, A. B. and B. M. Friedman (eds): Inequality in America: What Role for Human Capital Policies? Cambridge: MIT Press.

• Ermisch, J., Jäntti, M., Smeeding, T. and J. A. Wilson (2012): What Have We Learned? in: Ermisch, J., Jäntti, M. and T. Smeeding (eds): From Parents to Children: The intergenerational Transmission of Advantage. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 463-481.

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• Härkönen, J. (2014): Divorce: Trends, Patterns, Causes, Consequences. in: Treas, J. K., Scott, J. and M. Richards (eds): The Wiley- Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of Families. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 303-322.

• Van Gaalen, R. and F. van Poppel (2009): Long-Term Chances in the Living Arrangements of Children in the Netherlands. Journal of Family issues 30(5): 653-669.