The New Family Structures Study: Introduction and Initial Results

Mark Regnerus, University of Texas at Austin

The New Family Structures Study (NFSS) is a new social-science data-collection project whose survey gathered data from a large and random sample of American young adults (ages 18–39) who were raised in different types of family arrangements (including cohabiting parents, adoptive, step, same-sex parents, and single parents). The data include 2,500 cases (so far), with oversamples of young adults who report being adopted and those who report a parent in a same-sex romantic relationship. The NFSS should enable scholars to compare how young adults from—and currently living in—different family structures fare on a variety of social, emotional, and relational outcomes. Outcomes of particular interest include social behaviors (like educational performance, work history, and risk-taking), health behaviors (like substance abuse, depression, and stress), and relationships (like the stability of romantic relationships, marital history, fertility, and family connectedness). This presentation describes the NFSS’ research design and initial results.