Table 2.

Means on Couples’ Supportiveness and Children’s Behavioral Problems

Measure	1 Year		3 Years		5 Years		9 Years
	M	SD	M	SD	M	SD	M	SD
Supportiveness (range: 1–3)
Overall (N = 773)	2.74	0.24	2.74	0.24	2.72	0.27	2.68	0.30
Married couples (n = 445)	2.74	0.20	2.74	0.21	2.74	0.22	2.69	0.26
Cohabiting couples (n = 328)	2.70	0.35	2.72	0.36	2.64a	0.49	2.67	0.41
Externalizing behavioral problems (range: 0–2)
Overall (N = 767)			0.52	0.32	0.37	0.22	0.14	0.15
Married couples (n = 442)			0.52	0.27	0.36	0.18	0.14	0.12
Cohabiting couples (n = 325)			0.52	0.51	0.37	0.37	0.15	0.28
Boy children (n = 409)			0.52	0.31	0.37	0.21	0.15	0.14
Girl children (n = 358)			0.51	0.31	0.35	0.25	0.11b	0.16
Internalizing behavioral problems (range: 0–2)
Overall (N = 770)			0.35	0.23	0.23	0.20	0.16	0.15
Married couples (n = 443)			0.34	0.19	0.22	0.16	0.15	0.11
Cohabiting couples (n = 327)			0.41	0.42	0.27	0.37	0.18	0.28
Boy children (n = 410)			0.35	0.22	0.22	0.18	0.17	0.14
Girl children (n = 360)			0.34	0.25	0.24	0.23	0.15	0.17

Note: Supportiveness is based on couples’ reports. Behavioral problems are based on mothers’ reports. All figures weighted by city sampling weights. Number of cases is unweighted.

^aSignificantly different from married couples at p ≤ .05 (two-tailed test using weighted data).

^bSignificantly different from boys at p ≤ .10 (two-tailed test using weighted data).