The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study is following a cohort of nearly 5,000 children born in large U.S. cities between 1998 and 2000, roughly three-quarters of whom were born to unmarried parents. The study consists of interviews with both mothers and fathers at birth and again when children are ages one, three and five, plus in-home assessments of children and their home environments at ages three and five. The study was designed to primarily address the following questions: (1) What are the conditions and capabilities of unmarried parents, especially fathers?; (2) What is the nature of the relationships between unmarried parents?; (3) How do children born into these families fare?; and (4) How do policies and environmental conditions affect families and children?

Biological mother and father data from the baseline, 1- , 3-, 5-, and 9-year follows-ups, as well as the 3-, 5-, and 9-Year In-Home studies, are available for download from the Princeton University Office of Population Research data archive.