Steele, Fiona, Sigle-Rushton, Wendy 
ORCID: 0000-0002-8450-960X and Kravdal, Øystein
(2009)
Consequences of family disruption on children's educational outcomes in Norway.
Demography, 46 (3).
pp. 553-574.
ISSN 0070-3370
Abstract
Using high-quality data from Norwegian population registers, we examine the relationship between family disruption and children's educational outcomes. We distinguish between disruptions caused by parental divorce and paternal death and, using a simultaneous equation model, pay particular attention to selection bias in the effect of divorce. We also allow for the possibility that disruption may have different effects at different stages of a child's educational career. Our results suggest that selection on time-invariant maternal characteristics is important and works to overstate the effects of divorce on a child's chances of continuing in education. Nevertheless, the experience of marital breakdown during childhood is associated with lower levels of education, and the effect weakens with the child's age at disruption. The effects of divorce are most pronounced for the transitions during or just beyond the high school level. In models that do not allow for selection, children who experienced a father's death appear less disadvantaged than children whose parents divorced. After we control for selection, however, differences in the educational qualifications of children from divorced and bereaved families narrow substantially and, at mean ages of divorce, are almost non-existent.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | http://www.populationassociation.org/publications/... |
| Additional Information: | © 2009 Population Association of America |
| Divisions: | Social Policy Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HA Statistics H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman L Education > L Education (General) |
| Date Deposited: | 10 Jan 2011 10:29 |
| Last Modified: | 25 Jan 2024 04:39 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/31305 |
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