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Source: European Union
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Bernardi, Fabrizio
Boertien, Diederik
Do Parental Separation and Single Motherhood Strengthen Intergenerational Inequality in Educational Attainment? A Decomposition Analysis for Germany, Italy, the UK and the US
Family and Societies Working Paper Series 45, European Union's Seventh Framework Programme, 2015.
Also: http://www.familiesandsocieties.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/WP45BernardiBoertien2015.pdf
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: European Union
Keyword(s): British Cohort Study (BCS); Cross-national Analysis; Educational Attainment; Family Structure; Germany, German; Italy/Italian Social Surveys; Marital Disruption; Motherhood; Parents, Single; Socioeconomic Status (SES)

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

We test the hypothesis that parental separation and single motherhood amplify children's inequality in educational attainment by social background. This hypothesis lies on two premises a) parental separation and single motherhood are more common among low SocioEconomic Status (SES) families and b) they are also associated to worse educational outcomes for children. We argue that there is a third premise that is largely overlooked in the literature, namely that c) there is no heterogeneity by social background in the consequences of growing up in a non-intact family. If the third premise does not hold and the consequences are more negative for children of high SES parents, the overall aggregate contribution of parental separation and single motherhood is difficult to predict a priori. We test the hypothesis in four countries that differ in the prevalence and consequences of parental separation and single motherhood: Germany, Italy, the UK, and the US. We use an Oaxaca decomposition approach to calculate a 'counterfactual' estimate of inequality of educational attainment by social background in the absence of non-intact families. Overall, we find very little influence of family structure on the level of inequality of educational attainment by social background in the four countries considered.
Bibliography Citation
Bernardi, Fabrizio and Diederik Boertien. "Do Parental Separation and Single Motherhood Strengthen Intergenerational Inequality in Educational Attainment? A Decomposition Analysis for Germany, Italy, the UK and the US." Family and Societies Working Paper Series 45, European Union's Seventh Framework Programme, 2015.