Latinx Families’ Extended Household Structures and Child Behavioral Problems across Mother’s Immigrant Status in Los Angeles

Jeehye Kang (), Philip N. Cohen and Feinian Chen
Additional contact information
Jeehye Kang: Old Dominion University
Philip N. Cohen: University of Maryland at College Park
Feinian Chen: University of Maryland at College Park

Child Indicators Research, 2021, vol. 14, issue 1, No 4, 95-116

Abstract: Abstract Using the panel samples from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A. FANS), this paper examined the associations of extended household structures—the entry, stay, and exit of grandparents (vertical kin) and other extended adults (horizontal kin)—with child behavioral problems across US-born, documented and undocumented Latinx families. Difference-score regression models showed differential associations of extended kin by different types of transitions. For children of US-born Latina mothers, gaining grandparents was associated with higher (worse) levels of internalizing (i.e. withdrawn) behaviors, whereas losing grandparents was associated with lower (better) levels of internalizing and externalizing (i.e. disobedient) behaviors. For children of documented Latina mothers, gaining grandparents had no effect, but losing grandparents and keeping horizontal kin were associated with lower levels of internalizing behaviors. For children of undocumented Latina mothers, gaining grandparents was associated with higher levels of externalizing behaviors, but keeping grandparents was associated with lower levels of internalizing behaviors, and keeping horizontal kin was associated with lower levels of both internalizing and externalizing behaviors. The association between the household transition of extended kin and children’s behavior reflects selection rather than causation in the context of family life course and US immigration policy.

Keywords: Child behavioral problems; Extended household structures; Undocumented (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12187-020-09749-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:chinre:v:14:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1007_s12187-020-09749-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... f-life/journal/12187

DOI: 10.1007/s12187-020-09749-1

Access Statistics for this article

Child Indicators Research is currently edited by Asher Ben-Arieh

More articles in Child Indicators Research from Springer, The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().