Family boundary ambiguity and the measurement of family structure: the significance of cohabitation
Open Access
- 1 February 2009
- journal article
- Published by Duke University Press in Demography
- Vol. 46 (1), 85-101
- https://doi.org/10.1353/dem.0.0043
Abstract
We used data from the first wave of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to examine family boundary ambiguity in adolescent and mother reports of family structure and found that the greater the family complexity, the more likely adolescent and mother reports of family structure were discrepant. This boundary ambiguity in reporting was most pronounced for cohabiting stepfamilies. Among mothers who reported living with a cohabiting partner, only one-third of their teenage children also reported residing in a cohabiting stepfamily. Conversely, for those adolescents who reported their family structure as a cohabiting stepfamily, just two-thirds of their mothers agreed. Levels of agreement between adolescents and mothers about residing in a two-biological-parent family, single-mother family, or married stepfamily were considerably higher. Estimates of the distribution of adolescents across family structures vary according to whether adolescent, mother, or combined reports are used. Moreover, the relationship between family structure and family processes differed depending on whose reports of family structure were used, and boundary ambiguity was associated with several key family processes. Family boundary ambiguity presents an important measurement challenge for family scholars.Keywords
This publication has 30 references indexed in Scilit:
- Marital Transitions, Parenting, and Schooling: Exploring the Link Between Family-Structure History and Adolescents' Academic StatusSociology of Education, 2006
- Boundary Ambiguity in StepfamiliesJournal of Family Issues, 2005
- Cohabitation and Children's Family InstabilityJournal of Marriage and Family, 2004
- The Well‐Being of Adolescents in Households With No Biological ParentsJournal of Marriage and Family, 2003
- Adolescent Well‐Being in Cohabiting, Married, and Single‐Parent FamiliesJournal of Marriage and Family, 2003
- Adolescents' Transition to First Intercourse, Religiosity, and Attitudes about SexSocial Forces, 2003
- Evaluating the Role of "Nothing to Lose" Attitudes on Risky Behavior in AdolescenceSocial Forces, 2002
- Boundary Ambiguity and Coparental Conflict After Divorce: An Empirical Test of a Family Systems Model of the Divorce ProcessJournal of Marriage and Family, 1999
- Normative Family Stress: Family Boundary Changes across the Life-SpanFamily Relations, 1980
- Remarriage as an Incomplete InstitutionAmerican Journal of Sociology, 1978