How Do Family Structure and Family Process Matter? A Comparative Study on the Impacts of Military Deployment and Single Parenthood on Children’s Psychological Well-Being

Children from two-parent families have better outcomes, on average, than children from single-parent families. Yet the mechanisms associated with family structure and family process that produce divergent outcomes are less well understood. Based on data from the 2011-2015 National Health Interview Survey (N = 26,783), I leverage the case of military families with deployment and examine the impacts of parenting quality, economic capital, and social capital on children’s psychological well-being. The regression results show that single parenthood produced by divorce, separation, and birth out of wedlock leads to worse child outcomes than single parenthood produced by military deployment, and family process partially explains the variation in children’s well-being beyond family structure. Married families, military or civilian, deployed or not, enjoy advantages that translate into positive child outcomes. Marriage, therefore, emerges as the primary axis of inequality, and maintaining a healthy marriage better promotes children’s well-being.

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