IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/dem/demres/v47y2022i28.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do the consequences of parental separation for children’s educational success vary by parental education? The role of educational thresholds

Author

Listed:
  • Wiebke Schulz

    (Universität Bremen)

Abstract

Background: Research shows that children’s social background influences the extent to which they experience educational disadvantages when their parents separate. However, while some studies find larger separation penalties for children from lower social backgrounds than for children from higher backgrounds, other studies find the opposite. The present study builds on this research by examining heterogeneous parental separation effects by parental education for lower (mid-secondary) and higher (higher-secondary) educational thresholds. Methods: Analyses are based on a sample of children (and their siblings) born in the 1970s and 1960s (N = 6,855 children), drawn from the German Life History Study. A series of linear probability models are estimated; additional analyses include sibling-fixed-effects models. Results: No separation disadvantages for children from higher status backgrounds were found, for either outcome. Children from lower educational backgrounds had fewer chances of completing mid-secondary education; this was true to a lesser extent for higher-secondary education. Sibling fixed effects show the same pattern but also indicate that results may be partly due to unobserved family characteristics. Contribution: The findings of this study support the compensation perspective. In a context of high educational inequality and high socioeconomic disparities between children who experience parental separation and those who do not, children from lower educational backgrounds face the risk of not reaching mid-secondary and to a lesser extent higher-secondary education if their parents separate. Looking only at higher educational outcomes perhaps obscures unequal family separation consequences that may contribute to persistent educational inequalities.

Suggested Citation

  • Wiebke Schulz, 2022. "Do the consequences of parental separation for children’s educational success vary by parental education? The role of educational thresholds," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 47(28), pages 883-918.
    • Handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:47:y:2022:i:28
    DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2022.47.28
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol47/28/47-28.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.4054/DemRes.2022.47.28?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jan Jonsson & Michael Gähler, 1997. "Family dissolution, family reconstitution, and children’s educational careers: Recent evidence for Sweden," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 34(2), pages 277-293, May.
    2. Fiona Steele & Wendy Sigle-Rushton & Øystein Kravdal, 2009. "Consequences of family disruption on children’s educational outcomes in norway," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 46(3), pages 553-574, August.
    3. Juho Härkönen & Fabrizio Bernardi & Diederik Boertien, 2017. "Family Dynamics and Child Outcomes: An Overview of Research and Open Questions," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 33(2), pages 163-184, May.
    4. Fabrizio Bernardi & Jonas Radl, 2014. "The long-term consequences of parental divorce for children’s educational attainment," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 30(61), pages 1653-1680.
    5. Jacob Cheadle & Paul Amato & Valarie King, 2010. "Patterns of nonresident father contact," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 47(1), pages 205-225, February.
    6. Allmendinger, Jutta, 1989. "Career mobility dynamics: a comparative analysis of the United States, Norway, and West Germany," EconStor Books, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, volume 49, number 122874, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Caroline Berghammer & Anna Matysiak & Torkild Hovde Lyngstad & Francesca Rinesi, 2024. "Is single parenthood increasingly an experience of less-educated mothers? A European comparison over five decades," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 51(34), pages 1059-1094.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jeylan Erman & Juho Härkönen, 2017. "Parental Separation and School Performance Among Children of Immigrant Mothers in Sweden," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 33(2), pages 267-292, May.
    2. Letizia Mencarini & Silvia Pasqua & Agnese Romiti, 2014. "Children’s time use and family structure in Italy," CHILD Working Papers Series 27, Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics (CHILD) - CCA.
    3. Liliya Leopold & Thomas Leopold, 2016. "Maternal Education, Divorce, and Changes in Economic Resources: Evidence from Germany," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 836, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    4. Raffaele Guetto & Francesca Zanasi & Maria Carella, 2022. "Non-intact Families and Children’s Educational Outcomes: Comparing Native and Migrant Pupils," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 38(5), pages 1065-1094, December.
    5. Stans, Renske A., 2022. "Short-run shock, long-run consequences? The impact of grandparental death on educational outcomes," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    6. Fabrizio Bernardi & Diederik Boertien, 2017. "Explaining Conflicting Results in Research on the Heterogeneous Effects of Parental Separation on Children’s Educational Attainment According to Social Background," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 33(2), pages 243-266, May.
    7. Matthijs Kalmijn, 2015. "Family Disruption and Intergenerational Reproduction: Comparing the Influences of Married Parents, Divorced Parents, and Stepparents," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(3), pages 811-833, June.
    8. Alessandro Nallo & Daniel Oesch, 2023. "The Intergenerational Transmission of Family Dissolution: How it Varies by Social Class Origin and Birth Cohort," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 39(1), pages 1-33, December.
    9. Jonas Radl & Leire Salazar & Héctor Cebolla-Boado, 2017. "Does Living in a Fatherless Household Compromise Educational Success? A Comparative Study of Cognitive and Non-cognitive Skills," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 33(2), pages 217-242, May.
    10. Carlijn Bussemakers & Gerbert Kraaykamp & Jochem Tolsma, 2022. "Variation in the educational consequences of parental death and divorce: The role of family and country characteristics," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 46(20), pages 581-618.
    11. Tomás Cano & Pablo Gracia, 2022. "The Gendered Effects of Divorce on Mothers’ and Fathers’ Time with Children and Children’s Developmental Activities: A Longitudinal Study," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 38(5), pages 1277-1313, December.
    12. Juho Härkönen & Fabrizio Bernardi & Diederik Boertien, 2017. "Family Dynamics and Child Outcomes: An Overview of Research and Open Questions," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 33(2), pages 163-184, May.
    13. Raffaele Guetto & Fabrizio Bernardi & Francesca Zanasi, 2022. "Parental education, divorce, and children’s educational attainment: Evidence from a comparative analysis," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 46(3), pages 65-96.
    14. Astrid Würtz Rasmussen & Leslie S. Stratton, 2016. "How distance to a non-resident parent relates to child outcomes," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 829-857, December.
    15. Kieron J. Barclay & Martin Hällsten, 2019. "Socioeconomic variation in child educational and socioeconomic attainment after parental death in Sweden," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2019-008, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    16. Sanna Kailaheimo-Lönnqvist & Marika Jalovaara & Mikko Myrskylä, 2023. "Parental separation and children’s education – changes over time?," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2023-036, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    17. Mats Lillehagen & Martin Arstad Isungset, 2020. "New Partner, New Order? Multipartnered Fertility and Birth Order Effects on Educational Achievement," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(5), pages 1625-1646, October.
    18. Chiara Pronzato & Arnstein Aassve, 2019. "Parental breakup and children’s development: the role of time and of post-separation conditions," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 67-87, March.
    19. repec:iab:iabfme:201005(en is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Zuzana Zilincikova & Christine Schnor, 2023. "Trends in Distance Between Non-resident Parents and Minor Children Following Separation: Analysis of the Belgian Case, 1992–2018," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 39(1), pages 1-35, December.
    21. Matthias Rosenbaum-Feldbrügge, 2019. "The Impact of Parental Death in Childhood on Sons’ and Daughters’ Status Attainment in Young Adulthood in the Netherlands, 1850–1952," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(5), pages 1827-1854, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    separation; family; divorce; educational attainment; Germany; interaction; sibling fixed effects; resource compensation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:47:y:2022:i:28. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Editorial Office (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.demogr.mpg.de/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.