Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study

This large-scale longitudinal study addresses three areas of great interest to policy makers and community leaders-non-marital childbearing, welfare reform, and the role of fathers-and brings them together in an innovative, integrated framework. In collaboration with sociologists, economists, and demographers at the Columbia School of Social Work and Princeton University, the Center is following 5,000 families, from the birth of their children through the preschool years, from cities with different welfare and child support policies and labor market strengths. The project is examining the relationships among child care, maternal employment, parenting practices, and economic factors.

A sub-sample of 75 couples participating in this study is also the subject of an additional longitudinal ethnographic study, which focuses on couple dynamics and father involvement, conducted by the Center with ethnographers and demographers from Northwestern University. This work provides policy makers, researchers, and program administrators with previously unavailable information on the impact of these policies on fragile families under different labor market conditions and across various racial and ethnic groups.

Funding Sources: NICHD; California HealthCare Foundation; Commonwealth Fund; Ford Foundation; Foundation for Child Development; Fund for New Jersey; William T. Grant Foundation; William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; Hogg Foundation for Mental Health; Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation; Leon Lowenstein Foundation; John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; A.L. Mailman Family Foundation; Charles Stewart Mott Foundation; David and Lucile Packard Foundation; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation and Administration for Children and Families)

Contact: Rachel Razza, Ph.D.
Principle Investigators:
Columbia University: Irwin Garfinkel, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn
Princeton University: Sara McLanahan, Christina Paxon
Project URL at Princeton: http://www.fragilefamilies.princeton.edu/about.asp

Other Current Families Projects:

- Child Care and Parental Employment in Fragile Families
- Time, Love, Cash, Care, and Children (TLC3)
- Early Head Start Father Studies
- Maternal Employment and Child Development

Completed Families Projects