Single-mother families and the gender gap in children’s time investment and non-cognitive skills

Abstract

This paper analyzes the role of family structure in the gender gap in children's time investment in studying and non-cognitive skills. We focus on Italy, a country that, similar to many other OECD countries, is experiencing both an increasing number of single-parent families (most of which are headed by mothers) and an increasing gender gap in children's cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes. By using a difference-indifferences specification comparing children's outcomes in singleversus two-parent families for boys compared to girls, we analyze the differential effect across gender of living with a single mother on both the amount of time spent studying and the amount of effort put into studying. Our analysis suggests that living in a single-mother family has a more detrimental effect on boys, though all childrenregardless of genderreceive fewer parental inputs if they live with a single mother. The greater detrimental effect of living with a single mother for boys seems to be driven by less educated, less well-off families or families with working mothers.

Covid-19 shocks to education supply: how 200,000 U.S. households dealt with the sudden shift to distance learning

“…16 e.g. Mencarini et al (2019). 17 Adams-Prassl et al (2020) find evidence of this for the U.S., U.K., and Germany.…”

“…E.g.,Porterfield and Winkler (2007),Guryan et al (2008),Wight et al (2009), andDotti et al (2016).4 See references in previous footnote as well asRamey and Ramey (2010),Heckman and Mosso (2014), andMencarini et al (2019).Covid-19 shocks to education supply: how 200,000 U. S. households dealt with the sudden. .…”

Fathers matter: Intrahousehold responsibilities and children's wellbeing during the COVID-19 lockdown in Italy

“…This is particularly worrying as this four-month reduced activity period adds straight to the usual three-month inactivity period of Italian school during summertime. In addition, the effect is likely to be heterogeneous not only by family socio-economic status and level of education (Mancini et al, 2017;Mencarini et al, 2019), but also by age of the children. In fact, while about 95% of children attending secondary school had access to distance education classes and material, for primary school the school ability to provide distance education was much more limited and quite heterogeneous.…”

Gender differences in child and adolescent daily activities: A cross-national time use study

“…Studies with US data found that female teenagers are more active in domestic chores, reading and doing homework, while male teenagers are more involved in screen-based activities (Wight et al, 2009). Research using Italian data found that girls spend less time than boys on active leisure and sports, and more time on domestic chores, with gender differences increasing remarkably from childhood to youth (Dotti-Sani, 2018;Mencarini et al, 2019). In a study with Canadian data, boys and girls were also found to have gendered leisure patterns (Hilbrecht et al, 2008).…”