Educational and labour force participation of Australian young people living in two- and one-parent families.

Abstract

"A major objective of this study is to analyse how the immediate family of origin affects a young person's decision to remain in school or education, join the work-force, or in some way combine both activities. A crucial question related to these decisions is: What difference does it make to young people if their launching into the adult world is done from the base of a one-parent or two-parent family?" Data are from "the 1981 Household Sample File (HSF), a one per cent sample of households and non-private dwelling members drawn by the Australian Bureau of Statistics from the 1981 Census." The sample includes 14,142 people between the ages of 15 and 24 who were residing with one or both parents. The analysis shows that young people coming from one-parent families are disadvantaged both educationally and in the labor force when compared with young people in two-parent families. However, "these overall differences vanish once family income is taken into account. It is low income more than family type which explains restricted education and labour force opportunity."