Examining the Effects of Parental Absence on the Academic Achievement of Adolescents: The Challenge of Controlling for Family Income

Increasingly, researchers are concerned about how to best control for family income when examining the effects of parental divorce and the death of a parent on the children's academic achievement. Some researchers have argued that a predissolution control is preferable over a postdissolution control for family income, because parental divorce or the death of a parent nearly always causes family income reduction. Using the National Educational Longitudinal Study 1988–92 data set, this study has examined whether using a predissolution control for family income yields a different pattern of effects from when a postdissolution control is used. The results indicate that using a predissolution control rather than a postdissolution control for family income does yield a different pattern of effects.     

Psychosocial Well‐Being and the Relationship Between Divorce and Children's Academic Achievement

As an unprecedented number of children live in families experiencing divorce, researchers have developed increasingly complex explanations for the consequences associated with marital dissolution. Current accounts focus on changes to family finances, destabilized parenting practices, elevated parental conflict, and deterioration of the parent–child relationship, to explain the impact of divorce. A less studied explanation draws attention to children's diminished psychosocial well‐being following divorce. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten cohort (ECLS‐K) (N = 10,061), I examined the role of psychosocial well‐being in the relationship between divorce and children's outcomes. The results suggest that divorce is associated with diminished psychosocial well‐being in children, and that this decrease helps explain the connection between divorce and lower academic achievement.     

Stable Postdivorce Family Structures During Late Adolescence and Socioeconomic Consequences in Adulthood

Using four waves of panel data from 6,954 American young adults in the National Education Longitudinal Study, we compare the long‐term socioeconomic consequences of growing up in two types of divorced families. Our findings show that the negative socioeconomic consequences of growing up in unstable postdivorce families are at least twice as large as those of staying in a stabilized postdivorce family environment through late adolescence. The study also finds that variations in parental resources during late adolescence partially explain the divorce effects on most attainment indicators. Further, parental divorce appears to affect the socioeconomic attainment of male and female offspring alike. Overall, the study underlines the importance of including postdivorce family dynamics in studying the effect of parental divorce.     

Dropping Out of High School: The Effects of Family Structure and Family Transitions

We use the 1988, 1990, and 1992 waves of data from the National Education Longitudinal Study to examine the effects of family structure and family transitions on adolescent high school dropout. Our study differs from previous studies by using a large longitudinal sample (N?=?21,420) and applying event history analysis with standard errors corrected for clustered sampling. Our study has two major contributions. First, we examine single-mother, single-father, stepmother, and stepfather families separately. Controlling for socioeconomic status, children from single-mother families are doing better than children from single-father and stepparent families. Second, using event history we can determine the causal order between family transitions and high school dropout rates. We find high school students are not hurt by their parents marrying, remarrying, or starting a cohabiting relationship, but are negatively affected by a parental divorce or separation during the high school years.     

Visitations and Transfers After Divorce

Recent research reveals that divorce negatively impacts children's welfare as a consequence of the reduction in monetary and time contributions of the non-custodial parent. After divorce, the variables that link the absent parent to the child are visitations, child support transfers, and direct expenditures the non-custodial parent makes on the child. In our framework parents constitute a bilateral exchange economy where the mother is endowed with control over visitations and the father has control over financial resources. We use data from National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (5th follow up) to estimate the parameters of the model. We then use the estimates to simulate the effects of alternative endowment levels (such as joint custody) on the proportion of time spent with the non-custodial parent and the ex post parental income distribution. The results indicate that an endowment of equal time for both parents, reducing time under the mother's control implies a reduction in the child support transfers from the father, and, therefore, a loss in the mother's consumption levels. However, a more equally shared time with the children also increases the father's direct expenditures on the child, with the effect of allowing the mother to spend less on child goods and partially compensate her consumption loss.     

Parental Divorce and Interpersonal Trust in Adult Offspring

It has been proposed that recent increases in parental divorce have inhibited the development of trust among offspring. This proposition is tested by examining whether parental divorce is associated with offspring trust in parents, intimate partners, and others. Data come from the Marital Instability Over the Life Course Study. Results reveal that although parental divorce is negatively associated with trust, these effects largely disappear once the quality of the past parent‐teen relationship is taken into account. The one exception is trust in fathers where children of divorce remain at higher risk of mistrust. Trust in parents, intimates, and others is strongly linked to positive parent‐teen relationships regardless of parental divorce. Contemporary relationship experiences also influence trusting intimates and others.     

Childhood Living Arrangements and the Intergenerational Transmission of Divorce

Using detailed data on the childhood living arrangements of children taken from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), the impact of multiple dimensions of parent histories on the likelihood of offspring divorce is investigated. Although past research is replicated by finding a positive impact of parental divorce on offspring divorce, the author also finds that living apart from both parents, irrespective of the reason, is associated with an increased risk of divorce. In particular, children who were born out of wedlock and who did not experience parental divorce or death experience a very high risk of marital disruption. However, neither the number of transitions in childhood living arrangements nor parental remarriage appear to substantially affect the risk of marital dissolution. Finally, variations in the timing of and circumstances surrounding marriage appear to mediate a substantial proportion of the effect of parent histories on offspring divorce.     

Conflict or Divorce? Does Parental Conflict and/or Divorce Increase the Likelihood of Adult Children's Cohabiting and Marital Dissolution?

The short- and long-term effects of family structure on child well-being remains a hotly contested area among both researchers and policymakers. Although previous research documents that children of divorce are more prone to divorce themselves, much of this research has been plagued by multiple data and analytic problems. A second problematic issue relates to whether it is the divorce per se that leads to increased divorce or rather the conflict that may precede the divorce. In this article we examine whether children who experience parental conflict and/or divorce are more likely to experience a cohabiting breakup or divorce as adults compared with children from low conflict and/or intact families. Our examination improves on past research by using a three-wave longitudinal data set and by controlling for predivorce family characteristics, including the conflict between parents before divorce. We extend previous research on the effect of parental conflict and divorce on adult children's likelihood of divorce by also examining the likelihood of a cohabiting dissolution.     

How Parental Involvement Affects Childhood Behavioral Outcomes

National Educational and Longitudinal Study 1988 (NELS88) data were used to examine the impact of parental involvement measures on the behavioral outcomes of high-school students. Parents’ general sense of involvement with the community, as well as non-school child-helping groups, were used as instruments for whether these parents were educationally involved with their child. The instrumental variables strategy helped quantify the true effect of parental involvement on own-child behavioral outcomes. The results showed that parental involvement led to better child behavioral outcomes at the high school level, and that this effect was strengthened in the instrumental variables results.     

Family Structure Pathways and Academic Disadvantage among Adolescents in Stepfamilies*

Using National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) data, this research documents the prevalence of the different stepfamily forms in which American adolescents live, examines the family structure pathways through which adolescents traveled to arrive at their current family form, and explores the effects of these pathways on grades, school‐related behavior, and college expectations (N = 13,988). Compared to those who have always lived with both biological parents, youth in pathways including divorce/separation or a nonunion birth experience significantly lower academic outcomes, while those whose pathways include parental death do not. Specific effects vary, however, according to the outcome examined. For example, the combination of divorce/separation and movement into the least common of family forms is associated with particularly poor GPA outcomes. Divorce/separation is also more detrimental than nonunion birth for college expectations, particularly when coupled with a transition into a stepfamily based on cohabitation. Divorce/separation and nonunion birth have similar, negative effects on school behavior problems. Overall, results indicate that living in a stepfamily does not benefit youth, and can in some ways disadvantage them, even compared to their peers in single‐mother families. This is especially the case if youth transition into a stepfamily following a combination of stressful family experiences. These findings underscore the importance of examining family effects from a longitudinal perspective.     

The Stability of Child Physical Placements Following Divorce: Descriptive Evidence From Wisconsin

This study uses administrative data from the Wisconsin Court Record Database, linked with survey data collected from mothers (n= 789) and fathers (n= 690), to describe the living arrangements of children with sole mother and shared child physical placement following parental divorce. Contrary to prior research, results provide little evidence that children with shared placement progressively spend less time in their father’s care. We find that, over (approximately) 3 years following a divorce, their living arrangements are as stable as those of children with sole mother placement or more so. To the extent that shared physical placement is associated with increased father involvement and positive developmental outcomes, recent increases in shared physical custody following divorce may benefit children.     

Parenting From Abroad: Migration,Nonresident Father Involvement,and Children's Education in Mexico

In Mexico, a country with high emigration rates, parental migration matches divorce as a contributor to child–father separation. Yet little has been written about children's relationships with migrating parents. In this study, I use nationally representative data from the 2005 Mexican Family Life Survey to model variation in the interaction between 739 children in Mexico and their nonresident fathers. I demonstrate that, from the perspective of sending households, parental migration and parental divorce are substantively distinct experiences. Despite considerable geographic separation, Mexican children have significantly more interaction with migrating fathers than they do with fathers who have left their homes following divorce. Further, ties with migrant fathers are positively correlated with schooling outcomes, which potentially mitigates the observed education costs of family separation.     

Effects of Parental Divorce on Teenage Children’s Risk Behaviors: Incidence and Persistence

It is generally difficult to separate the effects of divorce from selection when analyzing the effects of parental divorce on children’s risk behaviors. We used propensity score matching and longitudinal data methods to estimate the effects of parents’ divorce on their children’s binge drinking, alcohol consumption, tobacco use, marijuana use, and hard drug use. The children were between 12 and 18 years old in the first survey and between 18 and 24 years old in the second survey. Our results suggest that parental divorce significantly increased the probability of risk behaviors in their children. Moreover, many of these adverse impacts persisted over time, especially among teenage girls.     

Are Divorce Studies Trustworthy? The Effects of Survey Nonresponse and Response Errors

Researchers rely on relationship data to measure the multifaceted nature of families. This article speaks to relationship data quality by examining the ramifications of different types of error on divorce estimates, models predicting divorce behavior, and models employing divorce as a predictor. Comparing matched survey and divorce certificate information from the 1995 Life Events and Satisfaction Study (N = 1,811) showed that nonresponse error is responsible for the majority of the error in divorce data. Misreporting the divorce event was rare, and more than two thirds of respondents provided a divorce date within 6 months of the actual date. Nevertheless, divorce date error attenuated effects of time since divorce on outcomes. Gender, child custody, marital history, and education were associated with divorce error.     

Effects of Parental Involvement on Experiences of Discrimination and Bullying

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the relationship between parental involvement and their children being picked on or bullied and being discriminated against based on their race during their elementary and secondary school years. The influence of parental involvement on academic achievement during that period was also examined. Specific aspects of parental involvement and an overall parental involvement variable were examined. Two different samples were examined. The first sample was made up of 139 college students, and the second sample consisted of 102 seventh to 12th grade students. Analysis of variance and logistic regression analysis were used. The results indicated that higher levels of parental involvement were associated with higher academic achievement among their children. However, the remainder of the analyses showed mixed results with the effects of parental involvement emerging as more robust with the college sample than for the 7th to 12th grade sample. Overall, it does appear that parental involvement is somewhat related to a lower incidence of children being picked on and discriminated against. The significance of these results is discussed.     

EARLY FACTORS LEADING TO COLLEGE GRADUATION FOR ASIANS AND NON-ASIANS IN THE UNITED STATES

This article explores factors that lead Asian Americans, both as a group and as subgroups, to obtain a college degree in comparison to members of other racial/ethnic groups in the United States. Using data from the 2000 wave of the National Education Longitudinal Study, we find that the effects of race on educational attainment virtually disappear once individual and family factors are controlled. However, there is significant heterogeneity in college attainment among Asian Americans. In addition, we find that the effects of socioeconomic status, parental expectations, eighth-grade grade point average, and family structure are generally weaker for Asian Americans relative to non-Asians while parental immigrant status and standardized test scores are stronger. Asians appear to be "protected" from many of the usual factors that negatively affect educational outcomes while receiving an enhanced benefit from being of an immigrant family.     

Parental Divorce and Children From Diverse Backgrounds: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Mental Health,Parent–Child Relationships,and Educational Experiences

This article utilizes multidisciplinary perspectives to examine the developmental outcomes of divorce for children from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. The authors present a literature review on the outcomes of divorce in terms of mental health, family relationships, and educational achievement for children by focusing on discipline-specific aspects of divorce in sociology, education, and family studies. Furthermore, this study builds on previous literature by examining parental divorce among children with special needs. A discussion of changes in family structure and child outcomes concludes this study with implications for policy and practice to support current population.     

Work‐Related Health Limitations,Education, and the Risk of Marital Disruption

Despite progress in identifying the covariates of divorce, there remain substantial gaps in the knowledge. One of these gaps is the relationship between health and risk of marital dissolution. I extend prior research by examining the linkages between work‐related health limitations and divorce using 25 years of data (N = 7919) taken from the 1979 National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY‐79). I found that work‐related health limitations among husbands, but not wives, were linked to an increased risk of divorce. In addition, I found that this relationship was moderated by education in a fashion that varies according to race. For White men, education exacerbated the effect of health limitations, but for Black men, education attenuated the effects of work‐related health limitations.     

How Childhood Circumstances Moderate the Long‐Term Impact of Divorce on Father–Child Relationships

Using retrospective survey data collected in the Netherlands in 2012, the author examined how childhood circumstances moderate the effect of an early parental divorce on relationships between fathers and adult children. Using adult children's reports about the frequency of contact and the quality of the relationship, he found strong negative effects of parental divorce. These effects are moderated by 3 childhood conditions. The more fathers were involved in childrearing during marriage, the less negative the divorce effect on father–child relationships. Father's resources also moderated the effect, with a smaller divorce effect for more highly educated fathers. Finally, high levels of interparental conflict reduce the impact of divorce as well, generalizing the stress relief effect to a new outcome. In general, the study shows that the impact of divorce is heterogeneous; that childhood circumstances play an important role in this; and that, under specific conditions, there is virtually no negative effect of parental divorce.     

Childhood parental loss and adult depression

Previous research demonstrates convincingly that childhood parental deaths and parental divorces have implications for adult well-being as defined by levels of depression, educational attainment, early age at marriage, and risk of divorce. What this research has failed to examine are the interconnections among these outcomes. Specifically, are the socioeconomic and marital outcomes of parental loss implicated in the observed higher levels of depression? This analysis takes a first step in answering this question. Using data from a sample of 1,755 married men and women, I estimated regression models which examine the extent to which adult socioeconomic status and current marital quality mediate and/or modify the loss-depression relationship. Parental divorce was strongly related to socioeconomic and marital outcomes. Furthermore, current marital quality contributed importantly to understanding the higher levels of depressed mood observed among persons from divorced homes. Parental death was much more weakly related to socioeconomic and marital outcomes, and these outcomes played little role in explaining its relationship to depression. Finally, all of these relationships were stronger among women than men. These findings support the utility of life-course approaches to understanding adult mental health.