Family Stability and Instability among Low-Income Hispanic Mothers with Young Children

In this brief, we examine patterns of stability and instability in family structure (i.e., change in romantic residential relationship status) among urban low-income Hispanic mothers with young children. We focus on mothers with young children because children’s early home experiences can have a profound influence on their well-being and life trajectories. Moreover, while couples tend to stay together during and immediately after a birth, relationship dissolution, one form of family instability, becomes more common during the child’s first years of life.