The name is absent

Distal family factors

iii. Teenage motherhood;

iv. Income and poverty;

v. Maternal employment.

Evaluating the separate effects of specific distal factors is not an easy task. The effects
of distal factors may have an effect on certain developmental outcomes but their
effect may well depend on children’s characteristics such as age and gender and other
family distal factors such as birth order and number of children. Therefore,
interactions between distal factors and between distal and other factors may be very
important. Although we try to separate the effect of distal factors on developmental
outcomes, it is important to remember that, as discussed above, what matters for child
development is not a single risk associated to a distal factor but the compounding risk.
In this sense, children raised in poverty, whose parents lack qualifications and who
live in a large family headed by a single parent may experience a higher risk of low
achievements at school than other children raised in a one parent household out of
poverty.

5.2. Family structure

Family structure can be defined according to the number of parents, either natural or
non-natural, living in a household. Two categories are given in the literature on family
structure: one or two parent families. Each of these groups contains subcategories
differentiated by marital status and the nature of the relation between parents and
children. In this sense, cohabitation differs from marriage and living with both natural
parents differs from living with step, foster or adoptive parents.

5.2.1 The effects of family structure on child development outcomes

The social science literature has analysed how child development may be affected by
the structure of the family in these terms. One of the main concerns is with
developmental effects due to changes in family structure. For instance, the break-up
of a family, regardless of the causes, brings new interactions between parents and
children as well as new parental roles within the household. Resources at home, such
as time and income, as well as the mental well-being of parents could be affected and,
in turn, influence child development.

The majority of studies point out that what matters for child development, more than
the presence of parents in the household as providers or care and resources, is the
stability of the family and the strength of the relations between household members.
These factors affect both the characteristics of the context as well as the proximal
familial process described in our model.

One important theoretical basis for the role of family structure as a distal factor comes
from economic models of household production. According to these models the
presence of two parents in the household increases the quantity of parental investment
in children’s development (Haveman & Wolfe, 1995). A single parent may be not

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