Family structure transitions and educational outcomes: Explaining heterogeneity by parental education in Germany

  • Highlights • Family structure transitions decrease academic school track attendance among children of less educated parents. • Children of highly educated fathers in single-mother families also have lower outcomes. • Reduced income and increased exposure to poverty are relevant mediators. • There is no cumulative disadvantage linked to a further transition to a stepfamily. • Previous parental separation does not affect educational outcomes for children residing with a highly educated stepfather. Abstract Recent research has documented that the effect of parental separation on children’s educational outcomes depends on socioeconomic background. Yet, parental separation could lead to a stable single-parent family or to a further transition to a stepfamily. Little is known about how the effect of family structure transitions on educational outcomes depends on the education of parents and stepparents, and there has been limited empirical research into the mechanisms that explain heterogeneity in the effects of family transitions. Using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and models with entropy balancing and sibling fixed effects, I explore the heterogeneous effects of family transitions during early and middle childhood on academic secondary school track attendance, grades and aspirations. I find that family transitions only reduce the academic school track attendance among children of less educated parents living in stepfamilies or with a single mother after parental separation, and among children of highly educated fathers living in single-mother families. The mechanisms that partly explain these effects relate to reduced income and exposure to poverty after parental separation. The findings underscore the importance of considering the stepparent's educational level, indicating that the adverse consequences of parental separation on educational outcomes are mitigated when a highly educated stepfather becomes part of the family. Overall, these findings align more closely with the resource perspective than the family stability perspective.

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Author:Kristina LindemannORCiDGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-835204
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.alcr.2024.100610
ISSN:1569-4909
Parent Title (English):Advances in life course research
Publisher:Elsevier
Place of publication:Amsterdam
Document Type:Preprint
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2024/03/28
Date of first Publication:2024/03/24
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2024/04/10
Tag:Educational outcomes; Family structure transitions; Parental education; Single-mother families; Stepfamilies
Volume:60
Issue:100610
Article Number:100610
Page Number:12
HeBIS-PPN:517862565
Institutes:Gesellschaftswissenschaften / Gesellschaftswissenschaften
Dewey Decimal Classification:3 Sozialwissenschaften / 30 Sozialwissenschaften, Soziologie / 300 Sozialwissenschaften
3 Sozialwissenschaften / 37 Bildung und Erziehung / 370 Bildung und Erziehung
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - CC BY-NC - Namensnennung - Nicht kommerziell 4.0 International