This project explores the link between exposure to family instability through maternal repartnering and the development of romantic interest and involvement during childhood and preadolescence. Family instability has long reaching consequences, especially for children's well being. Exposure to family instability spills over into children's own lives, implying parents and children's lives are inextricably linked. The actions, experiences, and choices of parents have a direct and measurable impact on children's lives, as evidenced by links between parents' marital lives and their offspring's romantic involvement during adolescence and adulthood. The goal of this project is twofold. First, I build on this literature to explore how maternal repartnering impacts children's romantic interest and involvement. Through various mechanisms such as increased awareness of romance or searching for a substitute in response to maternal repartnering, I expect children's romantic interest and involvement will be associated with maternal repartnering behaviors and attitudes. The second goal of this project explores this association among a sample of children and preadolescents, examining this link during an earlier period in the life course than existing literature. This includes an in depth examination of the characteristics and developmental trajectories of romantic interest and involvement beginning at age five and extending to age 13. Results suggest that romantic interest and involvement emerges during childhood and is associated with both individual and family level characteristics. As children mature, they report substantially greater levels of romantic involvement with each passing year. Changes in romantic involvement correspond to greater social and pubertal development. Children's reports of romantic interest did not show developmental change but were relatively stable over time. There were no consistent effects of maternal repartnering on children's romantic involvement. Children's romantic interest was linked with maternal repartnering attitudes however. Higher levels of maternal focus on repartnering were associated with greater romantic interest among children, suggesting that maternal repartnering does impact children's romantic trajectories. / text

abstract: Criminologists have directed significant theoretical and empirical attention toward the institution of marriage over the past two decades. Importantly, the momentum guiding this line of research has increased despite the fact that people are getting married far less often and much later in the life course than in any point in American history. The aim of this dissertation is to address this disconnect by focusing attention to nonmarital romantic relationships and their instability during emerging adulthood. To do so, it uses data from the Pathways to Desistance Study, a longitudinal study of 1,354 at-risk males and females who were adjudicated from the juvenile and adult systems in Phoenix and Philadelphia between 2000 and 2003. The project focuses attention to the following issues: (1) the effect of romantic dissolution on aggressive and income-based offenses; (2) the extent to which strain/negative emotionality and peer influence/exposure account for the effect of romantic dissolution on crime; and (3) the extent to which certain relationship and individual circumstances moderate the effect of romantic dissolution. The models reveal a few key findings. First, romantic dissolution is strongly related to an increase in both aggressive and income-based crime, but is more strongly related to income-based crime. Second, the effect of romantic dissolution is reduced when measures of strain/negative emotionality and peer influence/exposure measures are added to models, but the peer influence/exposure measures account for the strongest reduction. Finally, romantic dissolution does not serve as a positive life event among these at-risk youth, but its effect is exacerbated under a number of contexts (e.g. when an individual is unemployed). This study closes with a summary of these findings as well as its key limitations, and offers insight into potential policy implications and avenues of future research. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Criminology and Criminal Justice 2013