We investigate the gap in math and science achievement of third- and fourth-graders who live with a single parent versus those who live with two parents in 11 countries. The United States and New Zealand rank last among the countries we compare in terms of the equality of achievement between children from single-parent families and those from two-parent homes. Following a multilevel analysis, we find single parenthood to be less detrimental when family policies equalize resources between single- and two-parent families. In addition, the single- and two-parent achievement gap is greater in countries where single-parent families are more prevalent. We conclude that national family policies can offset the negative academic outcomes of single parenthood.

Family Policies and Children's School Achievement in Single‐ Versus Two‐Parent Families

Both longitudinal and cross-sectional analyses on a large and recent Swedish data set demonstrate that, compared to children in intact families, children who have experienced family dissolution or reconstitution show lower educational attainment at age 16. Time constraints do not seem to be an important mechanism behind the negative effect of separation. Economic deprivation affects children s attainment negatively, but downward social mobility appears to be an even more important causal mechanism: Losing the parent with the higher social position probably reduces social capital and aspirations. When we control for socioeconomic characteristics, a small net effect of separation and reconstitution remains.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2061705.pdf

Family dissolution, family reconstitution, and children’s educational careers: Recent evidence for Sweden

Family policy, family structure, and children's educational achievement

This paper examines whether national family and welfare policies reduce or exacerbate the effects of single-parenthood on a child's educational achievement. Using the Third International Math and Science Study (TIMSS), we compare 5th grade students from English single-parent families with their counterparts from 13 other European countries. The analysis results suggest that the achievement gap between students from twoparent and single-parent families is far greater in England than it is in all other countries, with the exception of Scotland. The evidence provided in this study suggests that a nation's family policy environment plays an important role in moderating the influence of single-parenthood on children's academic achievement.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/info/41604002

Does family policy environment moderate the effect of single-parenthood on children's academic achievement? A study of 14 European countries

In Norway more than 95 per cent of the students in each annual school-leaving cohort from the lower secondary school continue on to upper secondary education. The result is that there is a wide range of abilities among the students, and so various forms of adapted teaching are necessary. Each year almost 10 per cent of the new entrants in upper secondary are classified as students with special needs. The main focus of this paper is on how different forms of adaptation influence the flow of special needs students through upper secondary education. Two groups are compared: one with students who in their first year are taught exclusively within ordinary classes, and one with students who receive adapted teaching in small groups outside ordinary classes. The analysis controls for the level of functional difficulties among the students. The study illuminates how the organization of the specially adapted teaching influences successes as well as failures among the students. A sample of special needs students fro...

Inclusion or exclusion? Transitions among special needs students in upper secondary education in Norway

One‐parent families are a growing family form, most often characterized by father absence. Of a representative sample of about 9000 Swedish schoolchildren born in 1967 (the UGU project), 82% lived with their two parents, 15% with their mother and only 2% with their father, according to the 69% of parents who answered a questionnaire. Controlling for parental education, at age 13, children living with their mothers scored lower than those with two parents on various measures of educational aptitude and achievement. The differences were larger for girls and larger in mathematics than in verbal measures. At age 21, subjects who had lived only with their mother had less often selected and completed a theoretical course at upper secondary school (for boys particularly less often a technical course) and more often had completed no education after compulsory school. Thus low achievement in the mathematical‐technical sphere, typical of ‘masculine’ orientations, characterizes children with no father in th...

Father Absence and Children's Achievement from Age 13 to 21.

In the context of the expansion of upper secondary education, young people without an upper secondary education might be considered an at‐risk group on the labour market. The present investigation is a longitudinal study of career both in school and at work for young people without upper secondary education. The study is part of a nationwide school research project, in which a national sample of pupils (9000) has been followed from the age of 13 through their school careers. Employment data were collected via a questionnaire given to young people without upper secondary education in 1991 when they were 23‐24 years old. The results show that even though 97% of the age cohort applied to upper secondary school in their final year of compulsory school, about one‐fifth lacked an upper secondary education at the age of 20. The dominant pattern among young people without upper secondary education was a blue‐collar home background, extensive special education, low and declining school achievements, and l...

Young People without an Upper Secondary Education in Sweden. Their Home Background, School and Labour Market Experiences.

McNab, C. & Murray, A. 1985. Family Composition and Mathematics Achievement. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 29, 89‐102. The question examined in this paper is whether or not there is a significant difference in the mathematics test scores of Swedish junior high school students growing up in one‐parent as compared to two‐parent families. Controlling for parental educational attainment, the difference in mathematics test scores is significant only for children with both parents educated beyond elementary school level. However, in all but one case (father only with more than elementary school education) the same trend can be seen, i.e. higher test scores for children in two‐parent families. A similar pattern emerges in an analysis of 18‐year‐old science and technology students at senior high school. A parallel analysis of a much more limited word knowledge test also reveals differences between children of one‐parent and two‐parent families. Reference is made to Zajonc and Markus's theo...

Family Composition and Mathematics Achievement

Les auteurs, a travers l'etude de l'experience suedoise, montre comment dans la deuxieme moitie des annees 90, le risque de chomage a considerablement augmente pour les jeunes a la sortie de leurs etudes secondaires en comparaison avec les jeunes armes d'un diplome secondaire professionnel. L'enseignement secondaire professionnel etait particulierement benefiques pour les jeunes femmes qui voyaient leur chance de trouver un travail augmenter.

Young Adults With no Further Education and Training and the Swedish Labour Market 1970s–1990s

The aim of the study is to investigate the route from school to work in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s for early school leavers in Sweden. How has their situation on the labour market developed during this period in relation to young people With a 2-year vocational education and training from upper secondary school? The research material consists of three large scale follow-up studies of school leavers who were investigated seven years after they had left compulsory school at the age of 23 by Statistics Sweden. The first study was conducted in 1978, the second in 1986 and the third in 1995. Employment rates for 16-year-old school leavers were studied for the 7-year follow-up period and were compared to school leavers with a 2-year vocational education and training. Only small differences in employment rates were found between the young men irrespective of whether they had vocational training or not. In the 1990s only men with building and construction training had a much lower employment rate than the male 16-year old school leavers. Differences in employment rates were also rather small between the compared groups of young women. However, in the 1990s these differences widened and the 16-year-old leavers had the lowest employment rate. Thus, an upper secondary education seems to have become a more important prerequisite for young women to get a job during the investigated period but hardly so for young men.

Åsa Murray

Papers

Father Absence and Children's Achievement from Age 13 to 21.

Young People without an Upper Secondary Education in Sweden. Their Home Background, School and Labour Market Experiences.

Family Composition and Mathematics Achievement

Young Adults With no Further Education and Training and the Swedish Labour Market 1970s–1990s

From School to Work in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s for Early School Leavers