Ethnic variation on the impact of family living arrangements on child health: Findings from the Millenium Cohort Study.

Unmarried parenthood, including cohabiting and lone parents, increased from 6% in 1960 to 40% in 2001 in the UK. There is evidence linking family living arrangements to child development and emotional outcomes, mediated through economic and social factors. Less is known about the impact on child health. There are variations in family living arrangements across ethnicities in the UK; as well as differences in child health measures and behaviours. Using birthweight, this paper addresses three questions: do family living arrangements affect child health? Does this vary by ethnicity? What are the pathways and do vary by ethnicity? The UK Millennium Cohort Study allows for a detailed breakdown of ethnicity. Parents of 18,553 babies born in the 2000-2001 academic year were interviewed when the cohort member was aged approximately 9 months. Overall, babies from cohabiting parents households were 75 grams lighter at birth, and those from one-parent households were 150 grams lighter, compared to households with two married parents. In the White group one-parent household babies were 177 grams and cohabiting parents households babies were 106 grams lighter at birth than babies from married parent households. Differences were not statistically significant across the South Asian groups, possibly due to small sample sizes. Differences of about 100 grams between Black Africans babies from married and non-married parents households were not significant. Black Caribbean babies from non-married parents households were 180 grams than those from married parents households. In Whites, behavioural and socio-economic factors had similar importance in explaining differences between married and non-married parents households, although about half of these differences remained unexplained. For Black Caribbeans, most of the differences between married and one-parent households were explained by socio-economic factors, while differences between cohabiting and married parents households remained unexplained.