Father-Only and Mother-Only, Single-Parent Family Status of Black Girls and Achievement in Grade Twelve and at Two-Years Post High School

Abstract

Over the past three decades, there have been dramatic demographic changes in the number of children being reared by a single parent. New arguments and discussions about the pathologies of families have intensified and new questions regarding the impact of having children reared by their mothers without their fathers present have arisen along with this demographic shift. Much of the research on single-parent families has tended to focus on male children and adolescents and has neglected the experience of females in these groups. A secondary data analysis, using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS), examines the relative effect on 12th grade educational achievement in 1992 and two years after high school in 1994 of being in a single-parent, mother-only or father-only family for girls in 8th grade in 1988. Findings show that, for these girls (a) parental configuration was not as significant a predictor of achievement as was socioeconomic status; (b) in 12th grade in 1992, the students in mother-only households outperformed their counterparts in father-only households; and (c) in 1994 the parental configuration differences disappeared when socioeconomic status was held constant. These results are similar to results reported for males based on the NELS data. The implications of these results for interpreting the impact of single-parenting on achievement in girls are discussed. INTRODUCTION Family configuration and a variety of parental behaviors are important influences on development (Baumrind, 1989; Brody & Flor, 1997; Coates, 1985; Maccoby & Martin, 1983). Early in the 20th century, family configuration in families was the focus of heated social science debate. Noted sociologist E. F. Frazier claimed that a large proportion of households were femalecentered due to out-of-wedlock births which led to family disorganization and transmission of disorganized family norms from one generation to the next (Frazier, 1939). Frazier's theories, as well as well-documented political and social views of the time, led to the wide-spread notion that families were both female-headed and dysfunctional. In 1965, Moynihan reinforced this view, linking pathology with female-headed families, by proposing that families were matriarchal which, consequently, caused boys in these families to grow up lacking adequate role models for healthy adult masculinity. The wellknown Moynihan report led to three assumptions that influenced research on families for decades: (a) two-parent families, headed by men, are better than one-parent families; (b) single women are unskilled parents and this notably affects boys; and (c) female-headed families are a deviant cultural norm and, therefore, transmit deviancy to children that negatively influences aspirations and social roles (Moynihan, 1965). There continues to be an ongoing debate about the influence of the single-parent family on a child's development but few studies have examined the impact of single parenting on girls (Collins, 1993; Dickerson, 1995). Demographers have reported a major difference in parental configuration for contemporary families described as or majority and those described as Black or minority. The proportion of children living with one parent rose during the past quarter century and the proportion living with two parents decreased from 82% to 69%. Notably, the percentage of children living with two parents declined to 35%. This was a 16-point decline from 1975 to 1998 compared to a 10-point decline to 79% for White children (Hernandez, 2000; Ruggles, 1994). Over 90% of children will live in families headed by a female at some point in their lives (Hill, 1999). FAMILY CHARACTERISTICS AND ACHIEVEMENT IN BLACK FAMILIES Academic achievement in adolescents has been of long-standing interest in academia. …