@article{b5495a40ec534e4897da455a3ae88748,
title = "Re-thinking Stepfathers{\textquoteright} Contributions: Fathers, Stepfathers, and Child Wellbeing",
abstract = "Using data from a contemporary cohort of children, we revisit the question of whether children benefit from being close to and engaging in activities with a stepfather. We deploy the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a birth cohort study of nearly 5000 children born in US cities in 1998–2000, with a large oversample of nonmarital births. We explore the relationships between stepfathers{\textquoteright} closeness and active engagement and youth{\textquoteright}s internalizing and externalizing behaviors and school connectedness at ages 9 and 15 for between 550 and 740 children (depending on the wave) with stepfathers. We find that the emotional tenor of the relationship and level of active engagement between youth and their stepfathers are associated with reduced internalizing behaviors and higher school connectedness. Our findings suggest that stepfathers{\textquoteright} roles seem to have evolved in ways that are more beneficial to their adolescent stepchildren than was previously the case.",
keywords = "adolescence, families, fragile families and child wellbeing, stepfathers",
author = "Sarah Gold and Edin, {Kathryn J.}",
note = "Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Research reported in this publication was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) of the National Institutes of Health under award numbers P2CHD047879, R01HD36916, R01HD39135, and R01HD40421, as well as a consortium of private foundations. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Funding Information: We would like to thank Andrew Cherlin, Sarah James, Sara McLanahan, Jane Waldfogel, Brandon Wagner, and the Princeton Family Working Group for their invaluable feedback on early drafts of this work. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Research reported in this publication was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) of the National Institutes of Health under award numbers P2CHD047879, R01HD36916, R01HD39135, and R01HD40421, as well as a consortium of private foundations. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2021.",
year = "2023",
month = mar,
doi = "10.1177/0192513X211054471",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "44",
pages = "745--765",
journal = "Journal of Family Issues",
issn = "0192-513X",
publisher = "SAGE Publications Inc.",
number = "3",
}