Short‐ and Medium‐Term Effects of Parental Separation on Children's Well‐Being: Evidence from Uruguay

Abstract

There is limited quantitative research on the effect of parental union dissolution on children's well-being in developing countries. We use three waves of an Uruguayan longitudinal study that follows a cohort of first graders at public primary schools in 2004 to study the short-term (at age 13) and medium-term (at age 19) effects of parental separation on school attendance, grade repetition, completed years of schooling, socioemotional status, time devoted to a broad range of activities, and labor force participation. We carry out a difference-in-difference fixed-effects estimation comparing children of married or cohabiting couples that remained together versus a similar group of children whose parents separated after 2004. In contrast to studies for developed countries, socioemotional well-being remains unchanged. However, union dissolution worsens boys' educational outcomes in the short and medium term, whereas girls are only affected in the short term. Since lower educational attainment is difficult to reverse, it can result in reduced earnings during adulthood and in this way contribute to the intergenerational transmission of disadvantages. We also explore a set of potential moderators, including household income, maternal employment, access to durable goods, and public transfers, which suggest that worsened educational outcomes are closely connected to post-separation economic hardship.