Introduction
Findings about the consequences of parental divorce on social, psychological, and health problems in children and adolescents have not been consistent (Amato and Keith
1991; Biblarz and Gottainer
2000; Breivik and Olweus
2006; Bjørklund et al.
2007; Hemminki and Chen
2006; Steele et al.
2009; Zeratsion et al.
2013). Contradictory findings were also reported about associations between family structure and educational ambitions (Garg et al.
2002,
2007).
Using a large sample of Canadian adolescents, Garg et al. (
2007) reported that adolescents from single-parent families had lower educational ambitions than those from two-parent families. Such a difference in ambitions may depend on individual, family and social factors. These factors have been discussed from theoretical perspectives (Amato
1993; Hetherington
1989).
Individual factors that have been mostly studied in relation to a child’s adjustment in the face of parental divorce are age, gender and personality (Hetherington and Stanley-Hagan
1999). Some children possess attributes that increase their vulnerability to adverse effects, while others have better characteristics that foster their resilience in coping with divorce (Amato and Keith
1991).
Younger children may be more adversely affected by parental divorce than adolescents as younger children find it difficult to understand family events, and fear loss of support resources from one or both of the parents (Allison and Furstenberg
1989) but most studies did not find significant effect of child’s age at the time of divorce (Amato
1993). Availability of alternative social support networks that compensate for the lost family resources might be the reason for inconsistent findings about associations between parental divorce and the child’s age.
Gender differential effect of parental divorce was not supported by a meta-analysis (Amato and Keith
1991). Still, boys and girls may differ in their response to parental divorce, especially during middle childhood and adolescence. While girls are more likely to react with “over-controlled” behavior and depression, boys are more likely to develop conduct problems, increase substance use, drop-out from school and experience a decline in academic performance (Rodriguez and Arnold
1998).
In our sample of a cross-sectional study, adolescents with poor mental health reacted to parental divorce with poor adjustment abilities (Zeratsion et al.
2013). The level of social competence, intelligence, temperament and self-esteem contribute to children’s ability to protect themselves from the adverse effects of parental divorce (Hetherington
1989).
Family factors emphasize on parental absence in the household. A family composed of two-biological parents is considered to have an optimal family environment for children (Amato and Keith
1991; Astone and McLenahan
1991; Størksen et al.
2005). Adolescents living in households where one of the biological parents is not present exhibit more adjustment problems and academic difficulties than adolescents living with continuously married parents (Demo and Acock
1996; Fröjd et al.
2011). A study of educational attainment in South-Eastern Norway followed-up 9,749 students after they completed primary education, and found that adolescents living with both biological parents were more likely to complete secondary education than their counterparts living in other form of family structure (Markussen and Sandberg
2005; Markussen et al.
2006). Thus, adolescents of divorced parents may have lower educational ambitions than their peers from intact two-parent families. The argument in this perspective is that each of the biological parents is important resource of emotional support, practical assistance, information and guidance. The amount of resources children lose in relation to parental absence may vary with the factor that led to this absence. Single-parent family due to divorce was reported to have more adverse effect on children’s well-being than single-parent family due to death of a parent (Amato and Keith
1991).
Parental divorce during childhood or early adolescence deprives children mainly of the opportunity to get a male role model (McLanahan
1988), because usually the father leaves the household (Størksen et al.
2005). Father’s absence strongly contributes to the change in parenting practices and family involvement in children’s educational activities (Hetherington et al.
1998; Rodriguez and Arnold
1998). As non-custodial fathers were more likely to maintain contact with sons than with daughters, the link between parental divorce and educational attainment was stronger among female than among male children of divorce (Amato and Keith
1991). The impact of family involvement on academic self-schema of adolescents was stated to be much greater than socioeconomic factors regardless of the marital status of parents. This means that if parents continue to be supportive and actively involved after divorce, there may not be significant change in the adolescent’s orientation to education (Garg et al.
2007).
Social factors may include ethnicity and economic status of a family. Ethnicity is an important social factor because different ethnic groups may react differently to divorce (Amato
1994). A post-divorce single-parent family is expected to be economically less favorable for raising children than intact families (Hetherington et al.
1998; McLanahan
1988). Studies that controlled for the effect of family income have still found significantly more adjustment problems among children of divorce than among children of continuously married parents (Amato and Keith
1991; Demo
1993).
Ambition has been seen as a trait in psychological perspectives, while sociologists consider it to be the product of parental, social or socioeconomic environment. Mentioning the desire to attain ends as its centerpiece, Judge and Kammeyer-Mueller (
2012) defined ambition as the persistent and generalized striving for success, attainment, and accomplishment. Emphasized in this definition is that ambition is about attainment rather than achievement.
In investigations of how adolescents vary in their ambitions, there is a need to recognize the social nature of ambition. An individual’s ambition and future attainment are influenced by the social structural positions that the individual inhabit (Baird et al.
2008). Thus, it is important to investigate if ambition is influenced by family structure (Garg et al.
2007).
Educational ambition of adolescents is important because it is associated with educational performance (Garg et al.
2007; Judge and Kammeyer-Mueller
2012; Sewell et al.
1969). Educational performance was significantly poorer among adolescents of divorced parents compared to peers from continuously married parents, as reported in a cross-sectional study in Norway (Lauglo
2008). Adolescents who experienced parental divorce before the age of 14 were found to have lower educational performance than those who lived with continuously married parents, regardless of the stability of the post-divorce family when the adolescent was 14–18 year-old (Sun and Li
2008). With a focus on academic performance, conduct behaviors and amount of joy at school, Størksen et al. (
2005) had found that Norwegian adolescents of divorced parents had more school behaviors than their counterparts who did not experience parental divorce.
Contrary to the findings above, the grades attained by students who experienced parental divorce did not have significant difference from the grades of those without such experience (Kaye
1989). According to this prospective longitudinal study, parental divorce was associated with educational outcomes of both gender groups only in the short-term; long-term effects on test scores were observed only among boys.
Findings from a cross-sectional study of educational attainment in Norway showed that parental divorce experienced before the offspring turned 16 years of age, influence a child’s educational transition from compulsory school to lower secondary, from lower to higher secondary and from higher secondary to bachelor’s degree level (Steele et al.
2009). In the same study this association was found to get weaker with increase in the child’s age at the time of family disruption. In their longitudinal and cross-sectional studies of a large sample from Sweden, Jonsson and Gåhler (
1997) found that children who experienced parental divorce were less likely to continue to or reach upper secondary school, compared to their peers from intact families. A comparison of single-parent families also found that children raised by widowed single mothers were more likely to continue education beyond high school compared to children raised by divorced mothers (Biblarz and Gottainer
2000). This indicates that the adverse effect of parental divorce is greater even than death of a parent.
Parental divorce is known to be one of the main causes of single-parent or stepparent family. Hence, the consequences of parental divorce have also been explained by referring to effects of these family structures. Adolescents in single-parent families or stepfamilies received less encouragement and less help with school work than their peers who lived with both biological parents (Astone and McLenahan
1991).
The paucity of studies about educational ambitions of children of divorced parents in their late adolescence was the rationale for the present study. The aim was to investigate the relationship of parental divorce with educational ambitions among 18/19 year-old adolescents. We hypothesized that compared to adolescents of continuously married parents the educational ambition of 18/19 year-old adolescents is significantly reduced, or changed to undecided ambition after experiencing parental divorce during the 3 years preceding the age of 18/19 years. This was investigated using a prospective study design. The second hypothesis was that 18/19 year-old adolescents with experience of parental divorce during childhood or adolescence have lower ambitions for education or have undecided educational ambitions when compared to their peers from continuously married parents. A cross-sectional study was conducted to test this hypothesis.
Results
Pearson Chi square (χ
2) was used to investigate binary associations. Late parental divorce that occurred when the adolescents were 15/16 to 18/19 year-old had a statistically significant association with family economy (χ
2 = 11.7;
df = 1;
p value <0.005), with mother’s education level (χ
2 = 5.2;
df = 1;
p < 0.023), and with internalized mental health problems (χ
2 = 5.5;
df = 1;
p < 0.019) (Table
1). Experience of parental divorce during childhood and adolescence had significant association with ethnicity (χ
2 = 15.2;
df = 1;
p < 0.005), family economy (χ
2 = 89.9;
df = 1;
p < 0.005), internalized mental health problems (χ
2 = 11.5;
df = 1;
p < 0.005), and educational performance (χ
2 = 15.5;
df = 2;
p < 0.005) at primary school.
Odds ratio (OR) was used as a measure of association between the explanatory variables and educational ambition. The degrees of freedom was equal to 1 for all reported regression results. Our prospective study shows that compared to adolescents of continuously married parents, those who experienced late parental divorce were more likely to change to undecided ambition rather than to have ambition for university/college education (OR 1.7;
p = 0.03). The same was found even after the model was controlled for potential confounders (OR 1.8;
p = 0.03) (Table
2).
Girls compared with boys were less likely to change from ambition for university/college education to ambition for secondary education in their transition from primary to secondary education (OR 0.4; p < 0.01). In such transition, adolescents with above average family income had less chance of changing from ambition for university/college to undecided ambition than those in the lower family income group (OR 0.7; p = 0.02). In addition, the change from ambition for university/college to secondary education was more common among 18/19 year-old adolescents with poor rather than with outstanding educational performance at age 15/16 (OR 3.7; p < 0.01). 18/19 year-olds who had ambition for secondary education when they were in primary school were more likely to have maintained that ambition (OR 11.0; p < 0.01), or changed to undecided ambition (OR 3.6; p < 0.01) from ambition for university/college.
Crude OR from the cross-sectional study showed that adolescents who experienced parental divorce before 18/19 years of age were more likely to have undecided ambition (OR 1.6;
p < 0.01), or ambition for secondary education (OR 1.9;
p < 0.01) rather than to have ambition for university/college education (Table
3). The association between experience of parental divorce and ambition for secondary education turned to be non-significant after the model was adjusted for potential confounders. The adjustment for adolescents’ educational performance at age 15/16 changed this association from significant to non-significant. Girls (OR 0.5;
p < 0.01) or adolescents from families with above average income (OR 0.6;
p = 0.03) were less likely to have ambition for secondary education rather than ambition for university/college. Adolescents with poor educational performance at primary school (OR 14.6;
p < 0.01), or those born to parents with lower educational level (OR 1.6;
p = 0.03) more often had ambition for secondary education than ambition for university/college at their 18/19 years of age.
Undecided educational ambition was less common among adolescents with non-western ethnic background than among those with western ethnic background (OR 0.4; p < 0.01). There was also higher chance for having undecided educational ambition at 18/19 years of age among adolescents who had poor or average educational performance at primary school (OR 3.3; p < 0.01).
Discussion
We found significant change from ambition for university/college education to having undecided ambition among adolescents who experienced late parental divorce than among their counterparts from continuously married parents. The same was found for adolescents who experienced parental divorce any time before 18/19 years of age.
Thus, the hypothesis of reduced ambitions after experience of late parental divorce has been supported by our findings in the prospective study. Similarly, the findings of our cross-sectional study support the hypothesis that 18/19 year-olds who experience parental divorce during childhood or adolescence are more likely to have undecided educational ambition than their peers from continuously married parents.
Although there is scarcity of previous studies on educational ambition, the findings of the present study are consistent with the findings of studies that investigated the influence of parental divorce on future education (Jonsson and Gåhler
1997; Steele et al.
2009). A previous cross-sectional study from Norway showed that experience of parental divorce influence adolescents’ transition from compulsory education all the way up to college level, although the influence was found to get weaker with the adolescents’ age at time of divorce (Steele et al.
2009). Utilizing both prospective and cross-sectional analyses of a large dataset from Sweden, Jonsson and Gåhler (
1997) found that adolescents who lived with continuously married parents were more likely to continue at school than those who experienced parental divorce. Deterioration in the household’s social class and educational resources due to moving out of the parent with higher educational and/or income levels was stated to explain the negative effects of parental divorce on a child’s ambition to continue education.
Ambition is important for success in future education (Markussen et al.
2006; Judge and Kammeyer-Mueller
2012) which is influenced by parental divorce (Steele et al.
2009). Family structure influenced the years of schooling in a study of children and adolescents in Sweden and the USA; non-intact family structure variables were negatively associated with the decision to continue education (Bjørklund et al.
2007). A follow-up study from Norway found that the likelihood of dropping out of secondary education was significantly higher among adolescents who lived with a single-parent than their counterparts from two-parent families (Markussen and Sandberg
2005; Markussen et al.
2006). Family structure variables are important because adolescents who live with single parents or stepparents get less encouragement and help with school work than children living with continuously married biological parents (Astone and McLenahan
1991). These explanations are consistent with the theoretical perspective of parental absence (Amato and Keith
1991; Hetherington et al.
1998). Since usually fathers move out from the household (Størksen et al.
2005), father absence is likely to be associated with the deterioration of the educational resources and encouragement that the children of divorced parents encounter. Besides losing the opportunity to get a male role model in the household (McLanahan
1988), children of divorced parents get a reduced parental attention and supervision due to a reduced contact between the offspring and the non-custodial parent (Rodriguez and Arnold
1998). Thus, diminished parenting following parental divorce is a factor that contributes to differences between children of continuously married and divorced parents (Cherlin et al.
1991).
The focus of the present study being investigation of the influence of parental divorce on educational ambition among adolescents, more research needs to be done on the mechanisms of how this influence operates. A previous study found that both boys and girls with mental depression in their 14–16 years of age were at increased risk of significantly poorer educational underachievement in their late adolescence compared to adolescents who did not have mental health symptoms in their middle adolescence (Fergusson and Woodward
2002). The relationship between mental health and parental divorce was investigated in our previous cross-sectional study among 15/16 year-old adolescents where we found significant association (Zeratsion et al.
2013). The findings of these two studies imply the possibility of a mechanism where parental divorce exerts its influence on educational ambition through the association it has with mental health. However, no evidence of significant association between mental health symptoms and educational ambition was found in our present study.
Looking closely into the effect of non-intact families, it can be noted that the same type of family structure resulting from different causes of parental absence may not necessarily lead to the same educational outcomes. Children from divorced single-mother families were found to have significantly lower educational levels than children from widowed single-mother families (Biblarz and Gottainer
2000). Thus, not only single-mother family was important but also how the father became absent from the household.
Educational ambitions were found to be negatively associated with cigarette smoking (Hashim et al.
2009) and drug use (Newcomb et al.
1989) in adolescence. These risk behaviors that are more common among adolescents of divorced parents than among same-aged peers from continuously married parents (Zeratsion et al. under review), may increase the chance of having undecided ambition among adolescents of divorced parents.
As strength of the present study data was used from a prospective follow-up of a population with 89 % participation at first survey and a 68 % follow-up rate 3 years later. We were able to conduct a prospectively longitudinal study and a cross-sectional study. While the cross-sectional study was used to compare groups on a specific time, the prospectively longitudinal study enabled us to more accurately estimate the influence of a change in parental marital status—from married to divorced—on educational ambition when the adolescents were between 15/16 and 18/19 year-olds. Although loss-to-follow-up was 32 % in the present study, association measures are shown to be robust to such levels of loss-to-follow-up (Bjertness et al.
2010). Non-response was more common among non-western adolescents making our estimates to be more unsecure for ethnic non-western group. Otherwise, no significant differences were found between missing cases and responders. Having the opportunity to link our dataset with a related database in Statistics Norway, we were able to use in our analyses sufficiently measured potential confounders.
This study was not without limitations. The use of more potential confounders including risk behaviors and measures of parental conflict would have improved model specification. Since we do not have multi-age cohort it was not possible to examine the influence of parental divorce on various age groups. The low incidence rate of parental divorce during a follow-up period of 3 years resulted in a relatively small sub-sample of those with experience of late parental divorce. This low incidence rate might have been the reason for being unable to discern significant associations between experience of parental divorce and change from ambition for university/college education to secondary education although the odds ratio was 1.20.