Parental Separation and School Performance Among Children of Immigrant Mothers in Sweden

Jeylan Erman,Juho Härkönen

doi:10.1007/s10680-017-9419-3

Jeylan Erman, Juho Härkönen

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10680-017-9419-3

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Abstract

Immigration and family change are two demographic processes that have changed the face of European societies and are associated with inequalities in child outcomes. Yet there is little research outside the USA on whether the effects of family dynamics on children’s life chances vary by immigrant background. We asked whether the effect of parental separation on educational achievement varies between immigrant backgrounds (ancestries) in Sweden. We used Swedish population register data on two birth cohorts (born in 1995 and 1996) of Swedish-born children and analyzed parental separation penalties on grade sums and non-passing grades (measured at ninth grade) across ten ancestry groups, defined by the mother’s country of birth. We found that the parental separation effects vary across ancestries, being weakest among children with Chilean-born mothers and strongest among children with mothers born in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In general, the effects were weaker in groups in which parental separation was a more common experience.

Highlights

Change and immigration are among the demographic processes that have changed the face of European societies
We found that the parental separation effects vary across ancestries, being weakest among children with Chilean-born mothers and strongest among children with mothers born in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Both are associated with inequalities in children’s life chances, and large literatures have investigated differences in educational and other socioeconomic outcomes across family structures (McLanahan and Sandefur 1994; Amato 2000; Harkonen 2014) and by immigrant status (Heath et al 2008). How are these outcomes shaped by the intersection of these two, do effects of family structures and dynamics vary by immigrant background? Most research on this question comes from the USA and finds that parental divorce effects can vary between racial and ethnic groups (e.g., Heard 2007; McLanahan and Sandefur 1994; McLoyd et al 2000; Sun and Li 2007)

Summary

Introduction

Change and immigration are among the demographic processes that have changed the face of European societies Both are associated with inequalities in children’s life chances, and large literatures have investigated differences in educational and other socioeconomic outcomes across family structures (McLanahan and Sandefur 1994; Amato 2000; Harkonen 2014) and by immigrant status (Heath et al 2008). How are these outcomes shaped by the intersection of these two, do effects of family structures and dynamics vary by immigrant background? Many findings indicate that parental separation can have a negative causal effect on education, even though these effects are substantially weaker than the crude associations (Amato 2010; McLanahan et al 2013)

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