Family Trajectories and Well-being of Children Born to Lone Mothers in the UK

• DOI: 10.1007/s10680-017-9420-x
• Publication Date: 2017-03-23T23:40:21Z
• Authors: Elena Mariani; Berkay Özcan; Alice Goisis
• Keywords: Lone mothers; Family trajectories; 05 social sciences; UK; 0509 other social sciences; Child well-being; Article; Demography

We investigate how lone mothers' heterogeneity in partnership trajectories is associated with children's well-being. use data from the Millennium Cohort Study, which follows a large sample of children born UK 2000–2002. divide who were to mothers into four groups based on their between birth and age seven, cover more than 80% these family experiences. then analyse are markers health, cognitive socio-emotional outcomes measured at around seven. find that compared live continuously mothers, whose biological father stably joined household have better outcomes. In contrast, characterised by living stepfather or experienced joining followed parents' dissolution had similar mothers. The results underscore importance treating as heterogeneous category.