Do family and neighbourhood matter in secondary school completion? A multilevel study of determinants and their interactions in a life-course perspective

Abstract

BackgroundCompletion of secondary education is important for individuals’ future health and health behaviour. The fundamental purpose of this study is to investigate the variation and clustering of school completion in families and neighbourhoods. Secondly, we aim to examine the impact of individuals’ family structure and neighbourhood of residence and examine to what extent parental education level moderates these associations.MethodsLongitudinal register data for 30% of the entire Norwegian population aged 21–27 years in 2010 (N = 107,003) was extracted from Statistic Norway´s event database. Three-level logistic regression models, which incorporated individual, family, and neighbourhood contextual factors, were applied to estimate the family and neighbourhood general contextual effects and detect possible educational differences in the impact of family structure and urban place of residence in school completion.ResultsCompletion rates were significantly higher within families with higher education level (79% in tertiary educated families vs. 61% and 48% in secondary and primary educated families respectively) and were strongly correlated within families (ICC = 39.6) and neighbourhoods (ICC = 5.7). Several structural factors at the family level negatively associated with school completion (e.g., family disruption, large family size, and young maternal age) were more prevalent and displayed more negative impact among primary educated individuals. Urban residence was associated with school completion, but only among the tertiary educated.ConclusionsInvestment in the resources in the individuals’ immediate surroundings, including family and neighbourhood, may address a substantial portion of the social inequalities in the completion of upper secondary education. The high intra-familial correlation in school completion suggests that public health policies and future research should acknowledge family environments in order to improve secondary education completion rates among young people within lower educated families.

Are school difficulties an early sign for mental disorder diagnosis and suicide prevention? A comparative study of individuals who died by suicide and control group

“…Another reason strongly supporting early diagnosis is that it is easier to involve children and adolescents in treatment when parental support is available, than later on in young adulthood when such support might be harder to come by. Moreover, in cases of inadequate family background, school professionals might help children and adolescents to access treatment, directly in the school environment [5,25,26]. Because children and adolescents do not seek professional help for fear of stigmatization and lack of confidentiality [15,52], that underlines the importance to communicate on mental health services to defuse prejudices.…”

“…Depending on the study, school difficulties are operationalized differently and include different variables, such as academic failure, inappropriate behavior at school or absenteeism. These manifestations are not only indirect predictors of current or future mental health difficulties, but also, as highlighted in several studies, may as well be associated with past family difficulties and early-life adversity [19,25,26].…”

Non-completion of secondary education and early disability in Norway: geographic patterns, individual and community risks

“…School non-completers are also far more likely to receive DP [ 10 , 11 , 19 ] or depend on other medical and non-medical public benefits early in life [ 10 , 11 , 20 ]. Moreover, numerous studies have shown that childhood adversities, such as parental disability and low socioeconomic status, are associated with physical and mental health problems [ 21 – 27 ], low educational achievement [ 28 , 29 ] and work disability [ 10 , 30 , 31 ] later in life.…”

Residential Mobility, Family Structure, and Completion of Upper Secondary Education – A Registry-Based Cohort Study of the Norwegian Adolescent Population

“…Several social dimensions influence educational achievement and may contribute to generate educational inequalities (Støren and Helland, 2009; Bäckman and Nilsson, 2010; Myhr et al, 2017). We have selected the following demographic and socioeconomic determinants to evaluate their effects on the probability of completing secondary education among the Norwegian youth population.…”

“…Family origin and a family’s resources and strategies create a powerful social context that to a large extent predicts educational achievement (Corrás et al, 2017). Factors shown to be associated with youth non-completion of secondary education include low parental socioeconomic status (SES) and family adversity such as parental divorce, household instability, and poverty (Amato, 2001; De Ridder et al, 2013; Myhr et al, 2017). Adolescents who drop out of secondary education are substantially reducing their odds of having long, happy, and healthy lives (Viner et al, 2012).…”