Racial Family Configurations and Inequalities in Private School Enrollment Among Adopted Children.

This study uses data from the American Community Survey to examine the relationship between race, family configurations, and inequalities in private school enrollment among adoptees. We find that private school enrollment is higher in transracial than in same-race families. This disparity is driven by the outcomes of adoptees in transracial families with zero rather than one same-race parent. Among adoptees themselves, there are diverging patterns of racial stratification in same-race and transracial families. White adoptees in same-race families are more likely to be enrolled in private school than Black, Asian, or Hispanic adoptees in such families. However, among adoptees in transracial families, the highest odds of private school enrollment are found among Asians. Finally, we argue that our findings have important implications for understanding how kinship cues, compensation, and social disadvantage shape parental investment in adopted children.

Adoption Status and Parental Investments: A Within-sibling Approach.

Recent studies have found that adoptive parents invest in their children equally or more than biological parents do. Most of these studies observed relationships across families, comparing families with adopted children to those without. In this study, alternatively, we focused on within-family comparisons to more fully isolate the relationship between biological ties and parental investments. Using American Time Use Survey (2007-2018; n = 1,152 children) and American Community Survey (2014-2018; n = 34,673 children) data, we employed within-family fixed effects regression models and focused on both parental time and financial investments, using private school enrollment as a proxy for the latter. Our findings show that parents spent less one-on-one, quality, and total time daily with adopted children compared to biological children. In terms of financial investments, 90% of children in the sample received equal investments, meaning that either all or no siblings within the same family were enrolled in private school. However, among families with enrollment differences between siblings, adopted children were significantly less likely than their non-adopted siblings to be enrolled in private school. These findings show that adopted children within mixed-adoption families may receive equal or fewer investments than their non-adopted siblings. The findings highlight the possibility of selection as an interpretation of the adoptive-child advantage, illustrate the importance of within-family studies on this topic, and point to the complexity of parental investments in adopted children.

Non-Parental Family Members as Brokers of Family Social Capital: Compensatory Time Use in India.

Non-parental family members are understudied but important brokers of family social capital, especially in contexts without a nuclear-family norm. We used rich time diary data from a sample of 1568 South Indian adolescents to examine the relationships between any time spent with parents, parents' residency status, and the time spent with non-parental family members. We found that adolescents with at least one non-resident parent spent significantly more time with siblings, on average, when compared to adolescents with resident parents. We further found that adolescents spent more time with siblings in educational activities, such as studying, when they had at least one non-resident parent. These findings point to the importance of considering non-parental family members in studies of family social capital, especially in low- and middle-income contexts. Our findings challenge resource dilution theories by demonstrating that siblings themselves act as resources, rather than simply competitors for parental resources.

Adoption status and disparities in the familial configurations of children.

Few studies have examined the familial configurations of adopted children and how these configurations differ from those of non-adoptees. As a result, this study examines the relationship between adoption status and inequalities in the family structure of children. Our results indicate that adopted children are more likely to live in nuclear families compared to non- adopted children. Part of this is driven by the comparatively limited presence of adoptees in single-mother, single-father, and other types of non-nuclear families. Foreign-born adoptees are more likely to live in nuclear families compared to U.S.-born adoptees, but adoptees from racial and ethnic minority groups are less likely to live in such families compared to their white counterparts. These race-ethnic inequalities in family structure are however moderated by foreign-born status. Accordingly, our results indicate that foreign-born black and Hispanic children have the highest odds of residing in nuclear families among the U.S. population of adopted children.

Exploring Multiple Dimensions of Young Women's Fertility Preferences in Malawi.

INTRODUCTION: Standard survey measures of fertility preferences, such as the desire for and preferred timing of future births, do not capture the complexity of individuals' preferences. New research focuses on additional dimensions of emotions and expectations surrounding childbearing. Few quantitative studies, however, consider the influence of all three dimensions of fertility preferences concurrently. METHODS: Using longitudinal survey data from the Tsogolo la Thanzi project (2009-2012) in Malawi, this study employed logistic regression analysis to investigate the influence of young women's emotions, expectations, and a standard measure of fertility preferences on pregnancy and modern contraceptive use. RESULTS: Young women experienced high unmet need; across survey waves, over three-quarters of women who desired a child in more than 2 years were not currently using modern contraceptives and over three-quarters of women who thought a pregnancy in the next month would be bad news (garnered from a measure of emotions surrounding pregnancy) were not currently using modern contraceptives. In regression models including all three measures of fertility preferences, each was significantly associated with the likelihood of a future pregnancy. The standard measure and emotions measure were significantly associated with modern contraceptive use. DISCUSSION: Emotions and expectations surrounding pregnancy and childbirth appear to be distinct and salient aspects of fertility preferences in addition to the standard measure. A better understanding of the multidimensional nature of fertility preferences will help individuals define and achieve their reproductive goals and obtain appropriate services. Furthermore, future research should incorporate new measures of fertility preferences into surveys internationally.

Adoption: A Strategy to Fulfill Sex Preferences of U.S. Parents.

OBJECTIVE: This article examines adoption as a strategy used by parents to fulfill their preference for a specific sex composition among their children in the United States. BACKGROUND: Evidence from the United States suggests that parents with children of the same sex are more likely to continue childbearing, as parents generally desire at least one girl and one boy. What is unknown, however, is whether parents use adoption to fulfill this same preference. METHOD: Using data from the 2016 American Community Survey (n=1,107,800 children), the authors test the relationships among the sex composition of preceding siblings, child sex, and adoption status. RESULTS: Children who had same-sex preceding siblings were more likely to be adopted, as opposed to biologically related to their parents, than children who had mixed-sex preceding siblings. Further, adopted children were more likely to be of the missing sex (i.e., adopted girls were more likely than were adopted boys to have only preceding brothers). CONCLUSION: These findings suggest a need to consider parental sex preferences and child sex in studies on adoption decisions. Further, adoption provides one mechanism parents can use to achieve a balanced sex composition among their children.

Caregiver Decision-Making: Household Response to Child Illness in sub-Saharan Africa.

We draw upon a framework outlining household recognition and response to child illness proposed by Colvin and colleagues (2013) to examine factors predictive of treatment sought for a recent child illness. In particular, we model whether no treatment, middle layer treatment (traditional healer, pharmacy, community health worker, etc.), or biomedical treatment was sought for recent episodes of diarrhea, fever, or cough. Based on multinomial, multilevel analyses of Demographic and Health Surveys from 19 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, we determine that if women have no say in their own healthcare, they are unlikely to seek treatment in response to child illness. We find that women in sub-Saharan Africa need healthcare knowledge, the ability to make healthcare decisions, as well as resources to negotiate cost and travel, in order to access biomedical treatment. Past experience with medical services such as prenatal care and a skilled birth attendant also increase the odds that biomedical treatment for child illness is sought. We conclude that caregiver decision-making in response to child illness within households is critical to reducing child morbidity and mortality in sub-Saharan Africa.