Floor Effects or Compensation of Social Origin? The Relation Between Divorce and Children’s School Engagement According to Parents’ Educational Level

Abstract

This chapter uses multi-group structural equation models to investigate how the mediators between divorce and school engagement differ according to parents' educational level. Previous studies have failed to address which processes underlie this potential moderating role of parents' educational level and have reported conflicting results. Based on the Leuven Adolescent and Family Study data (N = 7035), our results show that children with lower educated parents are more negatively affected by divorce than children of highly educated parents and that this result cannot be explained by the lower availability of family resources in the group of children with lowly educated parents, whereas family resources are important mediators for children with medium and highly educated parents. Overall, the findings provide more nuanced evidence on how the experience of divorce varies between children of different socioeconomic backgrounds.

Variation in the educational consequences of parental death and divorce: The role of family and country characteristics

“…When faced with adversity like death or divorce, higher-educated parents may use their resources to enhance their children's resilience and counter possible negative consequences (Eriksson et al 2010). For instance, higher-educated parents may pay for extra tutoring or obtain psychological support for their children (Eriksson et al 2010;Augustine 2014;Grätz 2015;Havermans et al 2020). Similarly, higher-educated parents' nonfinancial resources may enable them to better cope with stress and uncertainty after a divorce or loss of a partner and to maintain a positive parenting style (Augustine 2014;Beck et al 2010).…”

“…Nonetheless, previous work on the influence of parental education on the impact of parental death or divorce points in two opposite directions (Bernardi and Boertien 2017). Some studies find that parental education serves as a buffer against the negative impact of growing up in a single-parent household (Augustine 2014;Grätz 2015;Havermans, Swicegood, and Matthijs 2020). Other studies point to larger consequences of parental death or divorce among children of higher-educated parents, as these children experience a larger reduction in resource availability after such an adverse family event (Bernardi and Radl 2014;Martin 2012;Prix and Erola 2017).…”