Family structure and child health in the UK: pathways to health

A large body of literature has shown marked differences in the average level of resources and the average level of child well-being across different family structures. Although studies examining cognitive, educational and behavioural outcomes are more numerous, there is some evidence of differentials in physical health. Most research on family structure and child outcomes has concentrated on describing differentials, or testing whether the association between family structure and child well being is "real". Less emphasis has been placed on understanding the underlying proximate processes that explain the link between family structure to child health. However, testing hypotheses about the specific pathways is a way to address selection bias, and, more importantly, knowledge about the factors and processes that underlie the relationship between family structure and child outcomes is policy relevant to the extent that they are likely to be amenable to intervention.

This presentation will show results from the British Millennium Cohort Study which investigates the relationship between the household’s socio-economic background, family structure and changes in family structure over the first five years of life, and various markers of child health. Here, as well as describing the stark socio-economic differences across family structures in the UK and exploring the role of poverty in the relationship between family structure and child health, we focus on explicitly mapping the possible proximate processes that link family structure to children’s physical health. Especially, the role of family stress will be explored. These analyses employ graphical chain models, a statistical technique that lends itself well to longitudinal data, to test these relationships.