A prospective study of the effects of marital status and family relations on young children's adjustment among African American and European Americanfamilies

The present study investigated the effects of divorce and family relations on young children's development prospectively, using an ethnically diverse sample of approximately 300 low-income families. We also were able to exami ne the moderating effects of ethnicity on child adjustment in always two-pa rent, to-be-divorced, already-divorced, and always single-parent families. Results indicated that to-be-divorced European American and African America n families demonstrated higher rates of preschool-age behavior problems, an d already-divorced families showed similar trends. Parental conflict and be havior problems accounted for predivorce differences in child behavior prob lems, whereas rejecting parenting accounted for differences in problem beha vior between always single-parent and always two-parent families. The resul ts are discussed in terms of the importance of ethnicity in influencing you ng, low-income children's adjustment to different family structures.