The School Compositional Effect of Single Parenthood on 10th-Grade Achievement

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that single parenthood carries educational disadvantages for the individual children of single parents. Using NELS data, the author also found a detrimental contextual effect on 10th-grade mathematics and reading achievement associated with attending a school in which a high concentration of children are from single-parent homes. This effect was evident even when individual demographic characteristics and family background were controlled. To account for this contextual effect, the author investigated the mediating role of a school's net socioeconomic status (SES) and net social capital, as indicated by parents' social relations and networks with other parents. She found that both can account for differences in mathematics and reading achievement between schools enrolling less than 25 percent and schools with 25-49 percent of students from single-parent families. Furthermore, there is evidence that even the academic disadvantage of attending schools with 50 percent or more students from single-parent families can be offset when social relations and networks among parents are strong