A substantial body of research suggests that a child is more likely to be maltreated if he/she lives with a social father than with his/her biological father mothers’ nonresident boyfriends are also thought to elevate maltreatment risk ( Coohey & Zhang, 2006 Daly & Wilson, 1985, 1988 Lightcap, Kurland, & Burgess, 1982 Margolin, 1992 Radhakrishna, Bou-Saada, Hunter, Catellier, & Kotch, 2001 Schnitzer & Ewigman, 2005 Stiffman, Schnitzer, Adam, Kruse, & Ewigman, 2002 Wilson & Daly, 1987). The absence of biological fathers and the consequent presence of unrelated men may place children at risk of maltreatment. Most single mothers engage in romantic dating relationships and many eventually cohabit or (re)marry ( Furstenberg, Brooks-Gunn, & Morgan, 1987 Osborne & McLanahan, 2007). High rates of union dissolution and formation also imply that children are likely to come into contact with men their mothers date. It is estimated that about a third of children will, at some point during childhood, live with a social parent, most often a social father ( Bumpass, Raley, & Sweet, 1995).

children live in families that do not include their biological fathers, but instead include “social fathers,” defined here as stepfathers or unrelated cohabiting romantic partners of their mothers. As a consequence, a considerable portion of U.S. Out-of-wedlock childbearing and parental cohabitation, divorce, and remarriage are common aspects of family life. These findings withstood the inclusion of detailed controls for the mother’s characteristics and behaviors and (in two-parent families) her partner’s characteristics and behaviors, suggesting that they are not fully explained by observable social selection factors. Results indicated that families in which the mother was living with a man who was not the biological father of all children and those in which she was not romantically involved were significantly more likely to be contacted by CPS than those in which she was living with the biological father of all resident children. Families in which the mother was romantically involved were further delineated by whether her partner was the biological father of none, some, or all of the children in her household. Families were categorized according to whether the mother was living with a (male) partner or spouse, was involved in a dating relationship, or was not romantically involved. This study used data on 2,297 families from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine whether Child Protective Services (CPS) involvement varies by maternal relationship status.

Sims 4 multiple boyfriends