Family Structure and Children’s Education Outcome: Evidence from Uruguay

Abstract

As the developed world has experienced a shift away from the traditional two-biological parent family, scholars have sought to understand how children are faring in non-traditional homes. Debate has arisen over assertions that children from non-traditional families do less well in school. Concerns about selection issues as well as a paucity of cross-cultural evidence, have led some scholars to question the influence of family structure on educational attainment.Using data from the 2006 Uruguayan household survey, we evaluate the relationship of family structure with children's education using two different methods to deal with selection problems, an instrumental variables approach and propensity score matching. Both approaches yield evidence that growing up in non-traditional family structures seems to be negative related with the schooling of Uruguayan boys, with more muted results for girls. Interestingly, Uruguay is a developing country with two peculiarities, that is, a culture that experienced fairly rapid modernization in terms of institutions -including family transition-, especially compared with other South American nations, and meanwhile an intriguing high level of school drop-out, unusually high for Uruguay's overall level of development. (JEL: I2, J1)

Does family structure affect children's academic outcomes? Evidence for Spain

“…Some authors defend the notion that family structure is itself the cause of poorer performance (Cid & Stokes, 2013;Francesconi et al, 2010;Frisco, Muller, & Frank, 2007). By contrast, other authors provide evidence that this association is mediated by other factors simultaneously correlated with family structure and academic outcomes.…”

Does childhood family structure help create stratification in adult education and labor market attainment?: An argument for the selectivity perspective

“…We then unpack potential reasons these two research streams reach different conclusions-and ask whether their conclusions are actually that different in the end. While most of the research we discuss here focuses on people in the United States, we note that similar patterns are observed in other countries (e.g., Bjorklund, Ginther, & Sundstrom, 2007;Cid & Stokes, 2011;Steele, Sigle-Rushton, & Kravdal, 2009). Finally, we discuss holes in our knowledge about the relationships between family structure and adult opportunities and attainment, and we outline opportunities for research that could help fill those holes.…”

The Association between Family Structure Changes and High School Completion in South Africa

“…Although mainly dominated by the West, (Cid and Stokes 2013, Uruguay;Monserud and Elder 2011;Martin 2012, USA;Frisco et al 2007, USA), this body of literature has consistently shown that children in 'intact' families have better outcomes across different educational indicators. When examining the effect of family structure on school dropout and falling behind, Cid and Stokes (2013) found that children raised in non-traditional families (without both biological parents) had negative outcomes, with more adverse effects for girls. Others have also shown that growing up in single-parent families might reduce the chances of completing high school and enrolling in post-secondary education (Monserud and Elder 2011;Astone and McLanahan 1991).…”

“…Thus, it is assumed that children from single-headed or non-resident parent families are likely to suffer from economic vulnerability as well as structural deficiency related to lack of parental involvement in their welfare (Monserud and Elder 2011;Martin 2012). On the contrary, co-resident parents are seen as more attractive in transmitting socioeconomic resources to their children (Cid and Stokes 2013).…”