Family Structure, School Context, and Eighth-Grade Math and Reading Achievement

Abstract

Schools include growing proportions of students from single-parent families and stepfamilies, and this trend prompts the investigation of whether these families affect all students' achievement. Analysis of eighth-grade math and reading achievement scores shows that schools that are predominated by students from single-parent families and stepfamilies negatively affect their students' achievement, even after individual demographic characteristics and family background are controlled. This negative effect of singleparent families and stepfamilies is partly explained by the relatively low socioeconomic status of children in these schools. However, the negative effect of single-parent families and stepfamilies on school achievement can be countervailed when social relations among parents are strong. Key Words: nontraditional families, school achievement, socioeconomic status, stepfamilies. Growing proportions of children in the United States reside with a single biological parent, and there are also more children attending schools where the majority of students are from singleparent families or stepfamilies. Most public attention and debate has focused on the transformation of American families themselves, on the heightened rates of divorce and separation, and on similar rises in childbearing outside marriage. In 1960, only 8% of all children lived in motheronly families; in 1992, the rate increased to 23% (DaVanzo & Rahman, 1993). The proportion of children under 18 years old who were living with one parent increased from 12% in 1970 to 27% in 1992 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1992). Projections suggest that more than half of the children born in the U.S. in the 1990s will spend some of their childhood in single-parent families (Sweet & Bumpass, 1990). Single-parent families clearly make up the majority of all families with one biological parent. However, not only are the number of single-parent families on the rise, but the number of stepfamilies is increasing, as well. Bumpass, Raley, and Sweet (1995) estimated that the proportion of children who were likely to ever live in a stepfamily by age 18 had increased from 14% in 1970-1974 to 23% between 1980-1984. For good reason, these trends have raised concerns about the relationship between family structure and children's schooling. Cumulative evidence suggests that children who live in singleparent families tend to perform more poorly on standardized tests, are less likely to complete high school or to attend college, and are more likely to exhibit behavioral problems than children who live with both parents (Astone & McLanahan, 1991; Downey, 1994; Entwisle & Alexander, 1995; Haveman, Wolfe, & Spaulding, 1991; Hetherington, Camara, & Featherman, 1983; Krein & Beller, 1988; Lee, 1993; Li & Wojtkiewicz, 1992; Milne, Myers, Rosenthal, & Ginsburg, 1986; McLanahan, 1985; McLanahan & Sandefur, 1994; Muller & Cooper, 1986; Sandefur, McLanahan, & Wojtkiewicz, 1992). Nor are single-parent families unique in their association with adverse effects for children. Although children in stepfamilies have two parents, McLanahan and Sandefur (1994) argued that stepfamilies can be viewed as similar to singleparent families because children in both types of families live with only one natural parent. Moreover, previous research has shown that children's emotional, behavioral, and academic problems are as frequent in stepfamilies as in single-parent families. Problem rates for both types of families are significantly greater than those found among children from biological, two-parent families (Dawson, 1991; Lee, 1993; Lee, Burkam, Zimiles, & Ladewski, 1994; Zill, 1988, 1994). Studies comparing mother-only and mother-stepfather families found similar effects on children's attained schooling, the risk of dropping out of high school, and the chance of entering college (Beller & Chung, 1992; Li & Wojtkiewicz,1992). These troubling findings imply a relationship between family structure and children's welfare, one that has provoked considerable commentary and concern. …