Family structure and the intergenerational transmission of educational advantage

Abstract

I examine whether the effect of parents’ education on children’s educational achievement and attainment varies by family structure and, if so, whether this can be explained by differential parenting practices. Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, I find that as parents’ education increases, children in single mother families experience a lower boost in their achievement test scores, likelihood of attending any post-secondary schooling, likelihood of completing a 4-year college degree, and years of completed schooling relative to children living with both biological parents. Differences in parents’ educational expectations, intergenerational closure, and children’s involvement in structured leisure activities partially explain these status transmission differences by family structure. The findings imply that, among children with highly educated parents, children of single mothers are less likely to be highly educated themselves relative to children who grow up with both biological parents.

Introduction

Over the last half-century, children’s family structures have dramatically transformed as marriage rates have declined and nonmarital fertility, cohabitation, and divorce rates have risen (Bumpass and Lu, 2000; Teachman et al., 2000). Under this new family regime, fewer children are raised by both biological parents in continuously married families. Approximately one-half of children in recent birth cohorts are expected to live in a single parent family at some point during their childhood (Bumpass and Lu, 2000).

These important changes in children’s family structure could alter other family functions, such as the transmission of socioeconomic status across generations. Some scholars predict that there will be shifts in social mobility because, they argue, two biological parent families are more effective in transmitting their socioeconomic resources to their children (Biblarz and Raftery, 1993, Biblarz and Raftery, 1999, Coleman, 1988). Most of what we know about social mobility derives from children raised in two biological parent families. For recent cohorts, however, it is important to query whether social mobility has changed under this new family regime.

These significant family structure changes offer an opportunity to investigate the intersection of economic and social capital for the production of children’s educational attainment. Coleman (1988) proffered that family structure is an indicator of social capital and that social capital is essential for the transmission of economic capital from parents to children. To be clear, his theoretical argument and the current study’s focus is whether family structure moderates the association between parents’ socioeconomic status (SES) and children’s educational attainment. Coleman (1988) predicts less mobility among children raised in two biological parent families relative to children raised in single parent families. Coleman’s theoretical discussion, however, only briefly alludes to possible mechanisms. To understand how this moderation operates, I provide additional theoretical development and incorporate scholarship about parenting practices (Bodviski and Farkas, 2008, Lareau, 2003).

Most prior research focus on differences in children’s educational attainment across family structures, finding that children raised in single father and stepparent families have lower educational attainments even after accounting for their lower SES and higher unemployment rates (e.g., Amato and Booth, 1997, McLanahan, 1985, McLanahan and Sandefur, 1994). Only three studies have examined the question studied here: whether the association between parents’ SES and children’s education differs across family structures (Battle, 1997, Battle, 1998, Teachman et al., 1996 Further, no studies have examined whether this moderation occurs for children’s educational attainment after the 10th grade and no study explores the mechanisms by which this moderation unfolds.

This study examines differences in educational mobility for birth cohorts exposed to the first wave of modern family structure change. Born in the mid-1970s, they were primarily at risk for experiencing parental divorce. Relatively few were born to unmarried women (13%; Ventura and Bachrach, 2000) and even fewer lived with cohabitating parents (Casper and Bianchi, 2002). These cohorts are now sufficiently old enough to have completed their educations and, thus, offer the first opportunity to examine this research question.

Children’s educational attainment is important because it strongly predicts later occupational status and income (Featherman and Hauser, 1978). Today, there is a greater premium for post-secondary education given declines in manufacturing, globalization, and the addition of computers in the workplace (Mare, 1995). Education also plays a key, though seemingly contradictory, role in intergenerational social mobility. On the one hand, educational attainment facilitates upward mobility, while on the other hand it helps reproduce social classes across generations (Hout and DiPrete, 2006). Thus, children’s educational attainment is a linchpin in intergenerational mobility processes.

In sum, this article examines whether the educational mobility differs by family structure using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS). The research questions are (1) does family structure moderate the association between parents’ socioeconomic status and children’s education? (2) how does that moderation operate? and (3) do family structure differences in parenting practices explain the differential patterns?