Variations in Family Structure and School-Age Children's Academic Achievement: A Social and Resource Capital Perspective |
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| Authors: | Michael Shriner Ronald L Mullis Bethanne M Shriner |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Educational Foundations and Inquiry , National Louis University , Chicago, Illinois, USA michael.shriner@nl.edu;3. Department of Family and Child Sciences , Florida State University , Tallahassee, Florida, USA;4. Department of Early Childhood Education , National Louis University , Chicago, Illinois, USA |
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| Abstract: | Data from the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey, Kindergarten Class of 1998–1999 (ECLS–K) involving more than 300 children who continuously resided in different variations of families from kindergarten through fifth grade were used to test the usefulness of social capital theory for understanding the academic improvement of school-age children over two points in time. Social capital theory was found to be a useful framework for explaining academic achievement for single-parent, stepparent, and biological family forms. Analyses revealed that children's change scores in reading and math differed across the three variations in family type. Children in single-parent households scored significantly lower than children from both biological and married stepparent households. |
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| Keywords: | family structure school-age children social and resource capital |
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