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This research links residence with biological and nonbiological married and unmarried parents to the cognitive achievement and behavioral problems of children aged 3-12, controlling for factors that make such families different. The data were drawn from the 1997 Child Development Supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Achievement differences were not associated with father family structure per se, but with demographic and economic factors that differ across families. In contrast, behavioral problems were linked to family structure even after controls for measured and unmeasured factors were included. Children in all family types except the married-biological-parent family showed higher levels of behavioral problems. Paternal and maternal engagement time explained some of the differences in behavioral problems across families. Although children in blended families tended to achieve at lower levels than those not in blended families, stepchildren in blended families achieved at levels comparable to those of half-siblings. Finally, children in blended families tended to have fewer behavioral problems than those not in blended families.
Children who do not reside with their married biological father and mother are almost always worse off financially and have a higher risk of high school dropout and teen births than children who do (McLanahan and Sandefur 1994). Yet the family structures of the former are heterogeneous. Although the majority of children who do not live with both parents experienced parental divorce, almost one out of three children was born to an unmarried woman. Because rates of remarriage and repartnering are high (Fields 2001; Kreider and Fields 2002; Teachman, Tedrow, and Crowder 2000), children today are increasingly likely to live in two-parent families in which they are not the biological children of the mother's new partner (Coleman, Ganong, and Fine 2000; Hogan and Goldscheider 2001), and many of these parents will cohabit rather than marry. In 1996, about 69% of children were living with two married parents, and four out of five of these married couples were biological parents. In contrast, 28% of all children were living with an unmarried parent; only about half of these children were living with both biological parents (Fields 2001). The well-being of children who are not reared solely by biological parents increasingly depends upon the behavior of stepfathers, stepmothers, and father figures in their...