Peer-Reviewed Publications
Schneider, William, Megan Feely, & Jeehae Kang. "Maternal work patterns and the risk for child maltreatment." Social Service Review (forthcoming).
Bullinger, Lindsey R., Bart Klika, Megan Feely, Derek Ford, Melissa T. Merrick, Kerri M. Raissian, Whitney Rostad, & William Schneider. "Paid family leave: An upstream intervention to prevent family violence." Journal of Family Violence.
Klika, Bart, Kathryn Maguire-Jack, Megan Feely, William Schneider, Garrett T. Pace, Whitney Rostad, Catherine Murphy, & Melissa T. Merrick. "Childcare subsidy enrollment income generosity and child maltreatment. Children.
Wu, Chi-Fang, Jeehae Kang, Soohyun Yoon, & William Schneider. "How do public benefits affect the material hardship of under- and unemployed single mothers?: Lessons from the Great Recession." Journal of the Society of Social Work and Research.
Page, Garrett, Joyce S. Lee, William Schneider, & Bart Klika. "Supporting fathers to prevent child maltreatment: How paid family leave and child care subsidies are part of a public health approach." International Journal on Child Maltreatment.
Schneider, William & Lindsey Rose Bullinger, & Kerri M. Raissian. “Does the minimum wage affect child maltreatment and parenting behaviors? A city-level analysis.” Review of Economics of the Household
Schneider, William & Anika Schenck-Fontaine. “Growing up unequal: Objective and subjective economic disparities and authoritarian parenting.” Child Abuse & Neglect (Special issue on inequality)
Schneider, William & Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. “Geography of mobility and parenting behavior in low income families.” Child Abuse & Neglect (Special issue on inequality)
Bullinger, Lindsey Rose, Kerri M. Raissian, & William Schneider. “The power of the future: Intergenerational income mobility and child maltreatment in the United States. Child Abuse & Neglect (Special issue on inequality)
Feely, M., Raissian, K., Schneider, W. & Bullinger, L. (2020).The social welfare policy landscape and child protective services: Opportunities for and barriers to creating systems synergy. In “Toward a Better Approach to Preventing, Identifying, and Addressing Child Maltreatment.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 692 (November): 140–161.
Sommer, Teresa, William Schneider, Elise Chor, Terri Sabol, & P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale. “A Two‐Generation Education Intervention and Children’s Attendance in Head Start” Child Development.
Pilkauskas, Natasha & William Schneider. “Paternity Leave and Fathers’ Parenting: Differences between Resident and Non-Resident Fathers” Journal of Marriage and Family.
Bullinger, Lindsay R., Megan Feely, Kerri M. Raissian, & William Schneider. “Heed Neglect, Disrupt Child Maltreatment: A Call to Action for Researchers.” International Journal on Child Maltreatment: Research, Policy, and Practice
Sommer, Teresa E., Terri J. Sabol, Elise Chor, William Schneider, P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Mario Small, Christopher King, & Hirokazu Yoshikawa. “A Two-Generation Human Capital Approach to Anti-Poverty Policy in Head Start.” Russell Sage Foundation Journal of Social Sciences, 4(3), 118-143.
Schneider, William. (2017). "Single Mothers, the Role of Fathers, and the Risk for Child Maltreatment." Children and Youth Services Review, 81, 81-93.
Single motherhood has long been linked to the risk for child maltreatment. However, little is known about the role of fathers in buffering mothers’ risk for child maltreatment. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, this paper investigates (1) the ways in which non-resident fathers’ economic contributions and involvement in parenting may moderate associations between mothers’ transitions to being single and the risk for child maltreatment, and (2) whether these processes vary by race/ethnicity. Results indicate that mothers’ transitions to being single are not strongly associated with the risk for child abuse. However, mothers’ transitions to being single are associated with an increase in the risk for child neglect, and this is moderated by non-resident father involvement. Last, Black but not other mothers’ transitions to being single are associated with the risk for child abuse, and are largely not moderated by non-resident father involvement.
Schneider, William, Jane Waldfogel, & Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. (2017). “The Great Recession and the Risk for Abuse and Neglect.” Children and Youth Services Review, 72, 71-81.
Schneider, William, Jane Waldfogel, & Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. (2017). “The Great Recession and the Risk for Abuse and Neglect.” Children and Youth Services Review, 72, 71-81.
This paper examines the association between the Great Recession and four measures of the risk for child abuse and neglect: (1) maternal physical aggression; (2) maternal psychological aggression; (3) physical neglect by mothers; and (4) supervisory/exposure neglect by mothers. It draws on rich longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a longitudinal birth cohort study of families in 20 U.S. cities (N=3,177; 50% African-American, 25% Hispanic; 22% non-Hispanic White; 3% other). The study collected information for the 9-year follow-up survey before, during, and after the Great Recession (2007-2010). Interview dates were linked to two macroeconomic measures of the Great Recession: the national Consumer Sentiment Index and the local unemployment rate. Also included are a wide range of socio-demographic controls, as well as city fixed effects and controls for prior parenting. Results indicate that the Great Recession was associated with increased risk of child abuse but decreased risk of child neglect. Households with social fathers present may have been particularly adversely affected. Results also indicate that economic uncertainty during the Great Recession, as measured by the Consumer Sentiment Index and the unemployment rate, had direct effects on the risk of abuse or neglect, which were not mediated by individual level measures of economic hardship or poor mental health.
Schneider, William. (2016). "Relationship Transitions and the Risk for Child Maltreatment." Demography, 53(6), 1771-1800.
Family structure as a risk for child maltreatment has long been viewed as a static state in the child maltreatment literature. Drawing on data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, the author uses a series of individual fixed effects models to investigate whether particular types of relationship transitions over children’s first decade of life are associated with increased risk for maternal and paternal child abuse and maternal neglect. Findings both question and confirm a number of longstanding theoretical and empirical findings from the child maltreatment literature. Results indicate that transitions to being single are associated with increased risk for maternal child abuse and neglect. In addition, the frequency and severity of paternal harsh parenting may be closely linked with the nature of fathers’ relationship transitions. Last, results largely do not provide support for the theory that the presence of social fathers increases mothers’ risk for engaging in child abuse or neglect.
Schneider, William, Jane Waldfogel, & Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. “Mothers’ and Fathers’ Parenting.” (2016). In Children of the Great Recession (Eds. Irwin Garfinkel, Sara McLanahan, and Chris Wimer). New York: Russell Sage Foundation Press.
Schneider, William, Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, & Jane Waldfogel. “Child Wellbeing.” (2016). In Children of the Great Recession (Eds. Irwin Garfinkel, Sara McLanahan, and Chris Wimer). New York: Russell Sage Foundation Press.
Schneider, William, Jane Waldfogel, & Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. (2015). “The Great Recession and Behavior Problems in 9-Year Old Children’s .” Developmental Psychology, 51(11), 1615-1629.
Covered online by Psychology Today
Covered online by Psychology Today
This paper examines associations between the Great Recession and four aspects of 9-year olds’ behavior—aggression (externalizing), anxiety/depression (internalizing), alcohol and drug use, and vandalism—using the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a longitudinal birth cohort drawn from twenty U.S. cities (21%, White, 50% African-American, 26% Hispanic, and 3% other race/ethnicity). The study was in the field for the 9-year follow-up right before and during the Great Recession (2007-2010) (N = 3,311). Interview dates (month) were linked to the national Consumer Sentiment Index (CSI), calculated from a national probability sample drawn monthly to assess consumer confidence and uncertainty about the economy, as well as to data on local unemployment rates. Controlling for city-fixed effects and extensive controls (including prior child behavior at age 5), we find that greater uncertainty as measured by the CSI was associated with higher rates of all four behavior problems for boys (in both maternal and child reports). Such associations were not found for girls (all gender differences were significant). Links between the CSI and boys’ behavior problems were concentrated in single-parent families and were partially explained by parenting behaviors. Local unemployment rates, in contrast, had fewer associations with children’s behavior, suggesting that in the Great Recession, what was most meaningful for child behavior problems was the uncertainty about the national economy, rather than local labor markets.
Schneider, William, Mike MacKenzie, Jane Waldfogel, & Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. (2015). “Parent and Child Reporting of Corporal Punishment: New Evidence from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study.” Child Indicators Research, 8(2), 347-358.
This paper provides new evidence on parent and child reporting of corporal punishment, drawing on data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a birth cohort study of families in 20 medium to large US cities. In separate interviews, 9 year olds and their mothers (N=1,180 families) were asked about the frequency of corporal punishment in the past year. Overall, children reported more high frequency corporal punishment (spanking or other physical punishment more than 10 times per year) than their mothers did; this discrepancy was seen in both African-American and Hispanic families (but not White families), and was evident for both boys and girls. These results suggest that reporting of frequency of corporal punishment is sensitive to the identity of the reporter and that in particular child reports may reveal more high frequency punishment than maternal reports do. However, predictors of high frequency punishment were similar regardless of reporter identity; in both cases, risk of high frequency punishment was higher when the child was African-American or had high previous levels of behavior problems.
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, William Schneider, & Jane Waldfogel. (2013). “The Great Recession and the Risk for Child Maltreatment.” Child Abuse & Neglect, 37(10), 721-729. [Lead Article]
Covered online by PBS Newshour and Business Insider
This study draws on the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 2,032), a birth cohort study of families with children from 20 U.S. cities. Interviews occurred between August, 2007 and February, 2010 when the children were approximately 9 years old. Macro-economic indicators of the Great Recession such as the Consumer Sentiment Index as well as unemployment and home foreclosure rates were matched to the data to estimate the links between different measures of the Great Recession and high frequency maternal spanking. We find that the large decline in consumer confidence during the Great Recession, as measured by the Consumer Sentiment Index, was associated with worse parenting behavior. In particular, lower levels of consumer confidence were associated with increased levels of high frequency spanking, a parenting behavior that is associated with greater likelihood of being contacted by child protective services.