University Park, Pa. -- Children of divorced or separated parents are more likely to drop out of middle or high school because of the related economic hardships than because of the family disruption itself, a Penn State researcher says.
"This group of young people are two or three times more likely to drop out of school than classmates whose families stay together. This is true even for children who, following the divorce or separation of parents, become part of a blended, stepparented or guardian family," notes Dr. Suet-Ling Pong, associate professor of education and sociology.
Children of divorce most often find themselves in a single-parent, usually single-mother household, with the mother's income dropping as much as 35 percent. The resulting financial stress raises the odds of offspring dropping out of school to supplement the family income. However, what is often overlooked is that many of these disrupted families were poor before the divorce or separation, says the Penn State researcher.
Low income is the cause of both family disruption and school dropout. Poverty was "reshuffled" from two-parent families to single-parent families, according to Pong.
"While our research shows that divorce and single motherhood are associated with children's chances of dropping out, the blame should not fall on single mothers," says Pong, also research associate with the University's Population Research Institute. "Our findings in fact support welfare programs that help poor children generally, regardless of family structure, as well as alimony payment enforcement that assist single mothers suffering dramatic losses of income after divorce. These policies would effectively reduce the likelihood that their children will drop out of school."
Pong and co-researcher Dong-Beom Ju from Korea's Kyungpook National University, a Penn State Ph.D recipient., based their findings on data from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) of 1988, conducted by the National Opinion Research Center. The researchers' sample was comprised of 11,094 eighth grade students living in two-parent households in 1988. Follow-up studies of these students in 1990 and 1992 yield information about the change in family structure and dropout status.
Pong and Ju published their work in "The Effects of Change in Family Structure and Income on Dropping Out of Middle and High School," in the March issue of the Journal Of Family Issues.
"Among all detrimental outcomes in the U.S. educational system, dropping out before high school graduation carries perhaps the most serious consequences since it can lead to future economic problems in the form of unemployment, low earnings, propensity to crime and drug abuse, " says Pong of Penn State.
Future attention should be given to income limitations that accompany never-married mothers, who are a growing segment in the population of single-parents. More children are currently being born to never-married mothers. The proportion of children ages 0 to 17 who were living with never-married mothers was only 0.1 percent in 1940 and 3 percent in 1980. By 1988, this percentage had risen to 6.7 percent and 16 percent in 1992, Pong notes.
EDITORS: Dr. Pong is at (814) 863-3770 or at pong@pop.psu.edu by email.
Journal
Journal of Family Issues