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The rise in incarceration in the late twentieth century, coupled with high rates of fatherhood among incarcerated men, has made the role of incarceration in families a pressing concern. A growing literature has identified paternal incarceration as a driver of several family stressors, and several studies show associations between paternal incarceration and children's adverse behavioral outcomes. In this paper we use diathesis stress models to examine heterogeneity in estimated effects of paternal incarceration on child behavior. Diasthesis-stress models of gene-environment interactions stipulate that some individuals are more susceptible to the negative consequences of adverse experiences than others. In this paper we test whether estimated effects of paternal incarceration are modified by children's genetic sensitivity to environmental stressors, using the genetic supplement to the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS). The FFCWS is a population-based birth cohort study of nearly 5,000 families children born in large U.S. cities between 1998 and 2000, and includes five waves of survey data from both parents, and genetic data (collected through non-invasive saliva samples) on more than 2000 mothers and their "focal" children. We combine rich measures of children's social environments (including their father's incarceration histories) with their indicators of genetic sensitivity to environmental stressors. Preliminary results do not indicate any genetic moderation of incarceration's effects on child outcomes; this may be due to a miscoding of children's dopaminergic genotype. In future analyses, we will examine alternate coding and modeling strategies to more fully explore gene-environment interactions in the effects of paternal incarceration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-income mothers and families rely on a number of support systems, both public and private, to survive. Private support through doubling up (also known as extended or shared households) is relatively common but little longitudinal research has studied doubling up and even less has looked at families with young children. Using longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study we examine the prevalence, composition, and patterns of transition of doubling up among families with young children over time, the economic value of doubling up, and the association between the Great Recession and doubling up. We find that doubling up is a very important form of private support; Nearly 1 out of 2 mothers has doubled up by the time her child is 9 years old and the estimated value of doubling is up is $4550 per year. There are large differences in terms of doubling up by mother's relationship status; married mothers are far less likely to double up than mothers with other relationship statuses. With relation to the Great Recession, we also find that the unemployment, foreclosure and mortgage delinquency rates are associated with increased odds of doubling up but there are few differences in the association by mother's relationship status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although social scientific research has long documented the socioeconomic consequences of economic crises, few studies assess how the 2007-2009 recession, labeled the Great Recession, affects family wellbeing. In this study, we use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) to examine the effect of the recession on maternal harsh parenting with an emphasis on its heterogeneous effect by mothers' genetic propensities. We exploit the fortuitous timing of the Year 9 survey of the FFCWS to construct an exogenous measure of the Great Recession and utilize information on the dopamine receptor gene DRD2 to study gene-environment interactions. Results suggest that the recession has an acute effect on maternal harsh parenting, and its acute effect is more salient among mothers with the risky allele of the DRD2 Taq1A polymorphism. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a survey of 1,589 at-risk fathers to examine the effects of incarceration on earnings. We use a propensity score model, criminal history data, and measures of individual human capital to match ex-prisoners to a comparable group of men who have never been incarcerated. Controlling for propensity for incarceration increases the likelihood that observed differences between the two groups are caused by the stigma of incarceration and the associated break in human capital development. We find that among men incarcerated for two years or less, incarceration causes an 8.8% drop in earnings. While this difference is less than one-fourth that of an unmatched estimate, the matched sample increases our confidence that it is due specifically to incarceration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]