Families of Children Are Headed by Single Parents

This commodity is part of a newEducation Nextseries on the state of the American family unit . The full series will appear in our Spring 2015 result to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1965 release of Daniel Patrick Moynihan'due south written report "The Negro Family: The Case for National Action" (more often than not referred to as the Moynihan Report).

An unabridged version of this commodity is bachelor here.

When Daniel Patrick Moynihan raised the consequence of family structure half a century ago, his concern was the increase in black families headed past women. Since then, the share of children raised in single-parent families in the United states has grown across racial and indigenous groups and with it bear witness regarding the impact of family unit construction on outcomes for children. Recent studies have documented a sizable achievement gap between children who live with a single parent and their peers growing upwardly with two parents. These patterns are cause for concern, as educational accomplishment is a key commuter of economic prosperity for both individuals and social club as a whole.

But how does the U.Southward. situation compare to that of other countries around the globe? This essay draws on data from the 2000 and 2012 Program for International Student Cess studies to compare the prevalence of single-parent families and how family structure relates to children's educational accomplishment beyond countries. The 2012 data confirm that the U.S. has nearly the highest incidence of single-parent families among developed countries. And the educational achievement gap betwixt children raised in single-parent and 2-parent families, although nowadays in virtually all countries, is specially pronounced in the U.S.

Since 2000, there take been substantial changes in achievement gaps by family structure in many countries, with the gap widening in some countries and narrowing in others. The U.Due south. stands out in this analysis as a country that has seen a substantial narrowing of the educational achievement gap between children from single-parent and two-parent families. These varying trends, and the pattern for the U.S. in particular, confirm that family unit structure is by no means destiny. Ample evidence indicates the potential for enhancing family environments, regardless of their makeup, to improve the quality of parenting, nurturing, and stimulation, and promote good for you kid evolution.

Bear witness on Family Structure

The effect of family structure on child outcomes is a much-studied subject field, and many researchers, including Sara McLanahan and Gary Sandefur (Growing up with a Single Parent, 1994), have explored the potentially adverse effects of unmarried parenting on children. Single parents tend to have fewer fiscal resources, for case, limiting their power to invest in their children's evolution. Single parents may also have less fourth dimension to spend with their children, and partnership instability may subject these parents to psychological and emotional stresses that worsen the nurturing surroundings for children.

Documented disadvantages of growing up in single-parent families in the U.s. include lower educational attainment and greater psychological distress, as well as poor adult outcomes in areas such as employment, income, and marital status. Disadvantages for children from unmarried-parent families have also been documented in other countries, including Canada, Germany, Sweden, and the Uk. Only cantankerous-state testify has been difficult to obtain, in part considering of differing methods for measuring family structure and child outcomes. The PISA studies, which asked representative samples of fifteen-year-olds in each participating state the aforementioned questions almost their living arrangements, provide a unique opportunity to accost this challenge.

At the same fourth dimension, it should be noted that the descriptive patterns documented here practise not necessarily capture a causal upshot of living in a single-parent family unit. Decisions to get divorced, stop cohabitation, or comport a kid outside a partnership are likely related to other factors important for child development, making information technology hard to separate out the influence of family construction. For example, astringent stress that leads to family unit breakup might well accept continued without the breakup and have led to worse outcomes for a child had the family remained intact. If single-parent families differ from 2-parent families in unmeasured ways, then those differences may be the underlying cause of whatsoever disparities in children's outcomes. It is even conceivable that issues a child has in school may contribute to family breakup, rather than existence a event of it.

In add-on to comparing the raw gap in educational achievement between children from unmarried- and two-parent families, I present results that adjust for other background differences, including the number of books at home, parental didactics, and immigrant and language background. This type of analysis can provide useful information virtually the reasons educational accomplishment varies with family unit construction. It is important to go along in heed, however, that even these adapted associations between child outcomes and family construction may well have causes other than family structure itself.

The Information

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an internationally standardized assessment given every 3 years since 2000 past the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). PISA tests the math, science, and reading achievement of representative samples of xv-year-one-time students in each participating state. This analysis is limited to the 28 countries that were OECD members and PISA participants in 2000.

In about all countries, students living in single-parent families have lower achievement on average than students living in ii-parent families.

PISA collects a rich array of background information in student questionnaires. Students report whether a mother (including stepmother or foster mother) normally lives at home with them, and similarly a begetter (including stepfather or foster father). By including students living with footstep- and foster parents, the group of students identified every bit living in two-parent families will include some students who take experienced a family separation. It is possible that, as a consequence, any differences between students from single- and from 2-parent families will be understated in the assay. Bear witness from 2000, the one yr for which it is possible to dissever out students living with stepparents, suggests that this is indeed the case. In the international sample, the achievement difference would be xvi points rather than 14 points if stepparents were excluded from the two-parent families.

I limit the analysis to students who live with either ane or two parents, excluding students living with neither parent and students for whom data on either the father or the mother is missing. On boilerplate across countries, one.vi percent of students with available data from 2012 exercise not live with whatever parent (ane.nine pct in the United states) and 7 percent of the total student population (11 per centum in the Us) have missing data on whether a mother and/or male parent lives at dwelling house with them. My total 2012 sample contains more 230,000 students or almost 8,500 students per country on average. The U.S. sample consists of more than 4,300 students living in either single-parent (pupil lives with either female parent or father only) or two-parent (pupil lives with both mother and male parent) families.

Single-Parent Families and Student Achievement

In the United States, in 2012, 21 percent of 15-yr-old students lived in single-parent families (see Figure ane). Together with Hungary (also 21 per centum), this puts the United states at the top among the countries. On average across all 28 countries, the share of single-parent families is 14 percent. New Zealand also has a share higher than 20 percent, while the Czech republic has 18 percent, and Poland, the United Kingdom, Finland, United mexican states, Denmark, and French republic take shares between 15 and 17 percent. At the other end of the spectrum, Greece, Korea, Italy, and Sweden accept shares between 8.eight and nine.half-dozen percent; Spain, Iceland, Norway, Ireland, and the netherlands each have shares betwixt 10 and 11.three pct.

The vast majority of single-parent families are families with a single mother. On average across countries, 86 per centum of single-parent families are headed past single mothers. In the Usa, the figure is 84 per centum.

To compare student achievement across countries, I focus on test scores in math, which are well-nigh readily comparable across countries. (Results for science and reading accomplishment in 2012, documented in the unabridged version of this study, are quite similar.) In each subject, PISA measures accomplishment on a scale that has a student-level standard deviation of 100 test-score points across OECD countries. That is, any achievement differences tin can exist interpreted as percentages of a standard deviation in examination scores, with ane standard deviation in test-score functioning representing between three and iv years of learning on boilerplate. To illustrate, the average difference in math achievement betwixt the two grade levels in our sample with the largest shares of 15-year-olds (9th and tenth grade) is 28 test-score points, which is a little more than ane-quarter of a standard deviation and roughly equivalent to 1 yr of learning or one course level.

In near all countries, students living in unmarried-parent families have lower achievement on average than students living in two-parent families (see Figure 2a). In the United states of america, the boilerplate raw achievement deviation in math between students living in two-parent families and students living in single-parent families is 27 points, or roughly one grade level. The The states is ane of half-dozen countries with achievement differences larger than 25 points. Belgium has the largest disparity in math achievement by family unit structure, at 35 points, followed past kingdom of the netherlands (29), and Poland, Japan, and the United Kingdom (27 to 28). On average beyond the 28 countries, students living in single-parent families score 18 points lower than students living in ii-parent families.

In that location are exceptions, nonetheless. Mexico shows no achievement difference by family unit structure, and the divergence is statistically insignificant in Portugal as well. The accomplishment departure is below ten points in Portugal (half-dozen), Italy (7), Republic of austria (8), and Germany (9).

Figure 3 plots these achievement gaps by family construction against the countries' shares of students living in single-parent families. At that place is a slight tendency for countries with higher shares of single-parent families to have larger accomplishment disparities, although the correlation is not statistically significant.

The United States stands out in this figure in terms of the prevalence of single-parent families and the associated achievement gap. Kingdom of belgium and the netherlands exhibit the highest accomplishment disparities, although unmarried parenthood is non particularly prevalent in these countries. The southern European countries (Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain) stand out as places with relatively low achievement disparities and relatively low prevalence of single parenthood. The German-speaking countries (Austria, Federal republic of germany, and Switzerland) show similarly low achievement disparities despite their college prevalence of single parenthood. The Asian countries (Korea and Japan) accept lower levels of single-parent families but higher achievement disparities. The Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) all have similarly middling levels of achievement disparities despite varying levels of unmarried-parenthood incidence. Finally, the eastern European countries (Czech republic, Hungary, and Poland) take quite different achievement disparities despite the consistently high incidence of single-parent families.

The four quadrants divide the countries co-ordinate to the degree of impact the prevalence of unmarried-parent families is likely to take over the long term. For countries in the summit right prison cell that take high values on both variables—the Us existence the leading instance—single parenthood may constitute a major business organization for the side by side generation. It is quite prevalent, and the associated accomplishment gap is quite large. In countries in the bottom right cell, such as Hungary and Mexico, single parenthood is as well quite common, simply the achievement disparity is less severe. While unmarried parenthood is less prevalent in the countries in the top left cell, such equally the Netherlands and Ireland, the achievement deviation is large and may all the same establish a serious problem for affected students. Finally, in the bottom left cell, for countries, including Italy and Spain, where single parenthood is less prevalent and achievement disparities relatively small, there is less cause for concern.

Adjusting for Background Differences

The accomplishment differences reported so far are raw differences, not adjusted for background differences betwixt students from unmarried- and 2-parent families. These raw differences may capture furnishings of disadvantaged backgrounds, as distinct from whatsoever independent effects of single parenthood. To provide a sense of the extent to which this might exist the case, we next control for differences in family background beyond family structure.

In item, we hold abiding the number of books in the student's domicile (every bit a proxy for socioeconomic groundwork), the highest educational activity level of the parent(s), clearing status (native, commencement-, and 2d-generation immigrants), and whether the national language is spoken at home. All these measures are strongly associated with educatee accomplishment, and beyond countries, books in the abode and parental education tend to be negatively associated with unmarried parenthood. In the cross-sectional data, though, nosotros cannot detect whether some of these measures are preexisting characteristics of the families, in which case they stand for potential biases, or whether they are an outcome of single parenthood.

Controlling for groundwork factors has a substantial bear upon on the estimated accomplishment disparity between students living in unmarried- and two-parent families (see Effigy 2c). In the Usa, the accomplishment disparity declines by more than lx percent, from 27 to 10 points. On average across all countries, the disparity is reduced by half, from 18 to 9 points. While the United States all the same features above-average achievement differences by family structure later on the adjustment, in absolute terms it differs less markedly from the international average. The countries with the largest adjusted achievement gap by family unit groundwork are Belgium (22), Poland (21), and the netherlands (17). In 12 countries, the adjusted achievement gap is beneath v points, or less than half the adjusted achievement gap in the United States. In seven countries, after the adjustment, the achievement disparity past family structure is no longer statistically meaning. In Korea and Portugal, the adjusted human relationship even turns negative.

With the exception of Mexico and Switzerland, where controlling for background factors inappreciably affects the results, the adjusted gaps are smaller in all countries than in the initial assay. In the majority of countries (xix out of 28), the reduction in the achievement disparity betwixt students in single- and two-parent families from controlling for observed factors is in the range of 40 to fourscore per centum of the raw deviation in achievement.

The background factors do non contribute equally to the reduction in the achievement gap, however. In fact, controlling only for the number of books at home reduces the achievement gap by family unit construction across all countries to nine points. By contrast, clearing status and language spoken at home hardly contribute to the reduction. This pattern is quite like in the United States. That is, in the international sample, roughly half of the accomplishment deviation between students living in single- and two-parent families simply reflects differences in socioeconomic status every bit captured past the number of books in the habitation.

To a large extent, the accomplishment gap between students living in single-parent and two- parent families reflects differences in socioeconomic background, as measured by the number of books at domicile and parental instruction, rather than family structure lone.

With the available data, information technology is impossible to determine whether the relative lack of books in single-parent homes mostly reflects a preexisting feature of the families or whether it is (at least partly) an outcome of the family structure. The number of books may to some extent reverberate the number of people living in the home. Figure 2b presents achievement differences between students living in single- and two-parent families, controlling for parental educational activity, immigration condition, and language spoken at home, only not for books at home. At 19 points, this alternative adjusted accomplishment gap in the United states of america lies roughly midway between the raw difference (27) and the gap as adjusted for books at abode as well every bit the other characteristics (ten). On average across countries, the achievement gap in this model is 15 points. Thus, while decision-making for books at home may well capture in role the event of family unit structure, some of the overall achievement gap conspicuously reflects preexisting differences.

Of grade, the groundwork factors considered hither by no means capture all relevant differences in family unit background, although they accept been establish to be particularly relevant for student achievement. The adjusted achievement gaps by family unit construction in a higher place may partly reverberate additional differences in family unit groundwork rather than family unit structure alone.

Changes Over Time

Finally, I analyze trends in the patterns over fourth dimension. To do and then, I perform the aforementioned analyses as higher up with information from
the 2000 PISA written report, when the first of these surveys was administered. (See unabridged version for details.) Over the period from 2000 to 2012, the share of 15-year-olds living in single-parent families increased from 18 to 21 percentage in the United States, and from 12 to fourteen percent on boilerplate in the international sample, although there are substantial differences across countries. The average achievement gap in the international sample likewise increased by 33 percent, from xiii.6 to 18 points.

In full general, countries with larger increases in the incidence of unmarried parenthood from 2000 to 2012 tended to have larger increases in the accomplishment gap by family construction also. The U.S. is a clear outlier from this pattern, however. The raw difference in math achievement betwixt students from unmarried- and two-parent families in the U.S. was substantially higher in 2000 than in 2012, at 37 points compared to 27 points (see Figure four). Thus, over the class of 12 years, the achievement gap in the U.S. declined past 29 percent. In 2000, only kingdom of the netherlands, with a gap of 43 points, had a larger accomplishment gap than the United States. Korea (26) and Belgium (21) follow at some altitude. At the other stop, vii countries had achievement gaps lower than five points in 2000 (Republic of iceland, Switzerland, Hellenic republic, Italia, Czech republic, Ireland, and Mexico).

Conclusions

Unmarried parenthood is prevalent in about all OECD countries, but the share of single-parent families is particularly loftier in the The states. Students from single-parent families perform significantly lower in math than students from two-parent families in virtually all countries. To a big extent, nevertheless, this achievement gap reflects differences in socioeconomic background, as measured by the number of books at home and parental education, rather than family structure solitary. The United States belongs to the group of countries with the largest achievement gaps past family structure, although the United States was more infrequent in this regard in 2000 than in 2012. While the achievement gap betwixt students from single- and ii-parent families increased in most other OECD countries over the period, it declined in the U.s.a..

This variation in trends shows that achievement disparities by family structure are by no means destiny. Aplenty testify reveals that it is possible to raise family environments to improve the quality of parenting, nurturing, and stimulation, and thereby promote healthy kid development. Future research should investigate to what extent factors such as differing welfare systems, kid back up facilities, divorce regulations, and other land characteristics may lie behind the differences in achievement gaps betwixt students from single- and 2-parent families across countries and over fourth dimension.

Ludger Woessmann is professor of economics at the Academy of Munich and director of the Ifo Center for the Economics of Instruction.

Last updated Jan 27, 2015

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Source: https://www.educationnext.org/international-look-single-parent-family/

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