The adjustment and prosocial behaviour of 4-year-old children and
their older siblings
growing up in step-parent or single-parent families, or with two biological
parents, was
investigated within a longitudinal community study, the Avon Longitudinal
Study of
Pregnancy and Childhood (ALSPAC). Mean differences in mothers' perception
of
adjustment were found for children in different family settings, with higher
levels of problems
and lower prosocial scores reported for those in single- and step-parent
families than those
in non-stepfamilies. Individual differences within each family setting
were marked. With the
exception of single parenthood, which remained a risk indicator for the
4-year-olds, the
contribution of family type to differences in adjustment and prosocial
behaviour largely
disappeared when account was also taken of negativity in family relationships,
maternal age,
education level, depressive symptomatology, and history of previous live-in
relationships,
mothers' support networks, and the family's current financial
and housing circumstances.
Boys remained more at risk for adjustment difficulties than girls when
this range of factors
was taken into account. The limitations and implications of these findings
on a community
sample, a first step in a programme of research into family processes in
children's
adjustment, are discussed.