Effects of Living in a Single-Parent Family on Educational Attainment of Young Men and Women and on Earnings of Young Men (Achievement)
Krein, Sheila Fitzgerald
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/71745
Description
Title
Effects of Living in a Single-Parent Family on Educational Attainment of Young Men and Women and on Earnings of Young Men (Achievement)
Author(s)
Krein, Sheila Fitzgerald
Issue Date
1984
Department of Study
Human Resources and Family Studies
Discipline
Human Resources and Family Studies
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Sociology, Individual and Family Studies
Abstract
Whether long-term consequences of living in a single-parent family exist is a growing public concern. This study examines the effect of living in a single-parent family headed by a female on two long-run measures of achievement: educational attainment and earnings. The effect is examined within a household production framework, where achievement is a function of the time and money inputs of the parents and their ability to combine these resources. The study is based upon matched mother/son and mother/daughter samples constructed from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience. These samples consist of 1,098 young men ages 28 to 38 and 1,448 young women ages 26 to 36, about one fourth of whom spent some time in a single-parent family.
Four measures of life in a single-parent family are constructed: ever lived in a single-parent family, length of time, period of childhood, and length of time in each period. The first two measures, ever lived and length of time lived in a single-parent family, had a significant negative effect on years of school completed for young men. The impact on educational attainment of young women was negative, but the effect was not significant when family income was included in the equation. The magnitude of the effect was nearly three times as large for young men as for young women. The preschool period of childhood, but not the elementary or high school years, had a negative effect for both young men and women. The length of time in the preschool years also had a significant negative impact for both genders.
Living in a single-parent family had no significant direct effect on the earnings of young men, using a human capital model of earnings. Any impact appeared to be indirect through lowering the education of the young men.
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