The Impact of Family Complexity on the Risk of Developmental Delay and Socio-Emotional Difficulties in Early Childhood

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This reviewer is grateful for the opportunity to read and offer feedback on this manuscript. The study is very interesting and is a strong contribution to the field of early intervention/early childhood special education. Additionally, the paper is well developed and was a joy to read.

Overall, this reviewer finds the literature review highly appropriate and well aligned with the research. The methodology appears sound and the data analysis appropriate. The results and discussion are clear and provide strong insights into the study.

There are a few additional notations, this reviewer would like to provide:

In the introduction, the notation and connections to various theories is a strong contribution for readers in understanding the contribution of this work.

On page 3 line 125, the sentence that begins “Although research has shown…” could use some editing. It is difficult to follow and understand.

The paper would benefit from an advanced organizer at the end of the introduction before leading into methods.

Methods

The methodology appears sound. The instruments used for data collection (such as, the ASQ) are well respected in the field and reliable/valid instruments.

Results

The results are well detailed.

On page 13 line 523 a comma could be useful “…we find that, among children…”

On page 13 line 525, a space is missing with “…at risk of developmental delay…”

Again, this reviewer appreciates the opportunity to review this manuscript. The manuscript is well developed and impactful to the field.

Author Response

please see attached

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

I fully appreciate the complexity of considering family transitions, family structure, and parental relationships simultaneously. The authors are very clear on what they are doing, and yet the paper is not compelling, probably because there are so many theories interacting. This is, of course, the strength of the paper as well as its weakness. They do not oversimplify nor would I want them to. Nonetheless, instead of trying to tell the whole story in every analysis, I think the paper would benefit from focusing on family structure and making family transitions and parental relationship quality important mediators.

I suspect the authors feel they have already done this, but consider posing questions like "what the the effect of living with a stepparent?" and then answering that net of whether there are half of step siblings and net of the biological parent's relationship quality. Issues related to the socioeconomic gradient of divorce would also be part of answering that question appropriately rather than a separate research question.

Similar, questions of what is the effect of step/half siblings net of transitions and stepparents etc? what is the effect of living with a single mother? 

Then the results could read something like "x y and z" are important for developmental delays among children living with stepparents and a% of x, b% of y, and c% of z goes away if the step parent brings no children into the child's household.

A reviewer cannot be the authority on how to best structure a paper; I'm sure there are legitimate problems with what I am suggesting. However, as the paper currently stands it is difficult to extract a memorable picture of what matters for kids, and I think that is the goal of the paper.

This is an exciting dataset and a 3-year paper from it needs to be published as a benchmark for longer term analysis. 

Author Response

please see attached

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf