The Increasing Diversity and Complexity of Family Structures for Adolescents

Download as .RIS

Citation

Hayward, George M. & Pearce, Lisa D. (2018). The Increasing Diversity and Complexity of Family Structures for Adolescents. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 28(3), 591-608. PMCID: PMC6124501

Abstract

The structure of adolescents’ families, and thus parental forms, in the United States, have become more heterogeneous and fluid over the past several decades. These changes are due to increases in never‐married, single parents, divorce, cohabitation, same‐sex parenting, multipartnered fertility, and co‐residence with grandparents. We document current diversity and complexity in adolescents’ families as important context for rethinking future parenting theory and research. We also discuss how understandings of adolescents’ families are somewhat limited by current methods used to measure characteristics of families. We recommend social network and profile‐based methods as alternatives to capturing key dimensions of family structure and processes. Understanding the diversity of households and families in which adolescents are raised can improve theory and research on parenting.

URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jora.12391

Reference Type

Journal Article

Year Published

2018

Journal Title

Journal of Research on Adolescence

Author(s)

Hayward, George M.
Pearce, Lisa D.

PMCID

PMC6124501

ORCiD

Pearce - 0000-0001-6210-863X
Hayward, G. - 0000-0001-7614-5044