Union Dissolution and Children’s Educational Achievement: Decomposing Effects of School and Non-School Environments

Abstract

We study whether the educational disadvantage of children from households where parents have dissolved their union is due to initial selection, less return to learning from time in school, or less return to learning from time spent in non-school environments. Using a differential exposure approach, we conceptualize and identify children’s learning as a function of joint exposure to school and non-school environments. We use test scores from biannual nationwide reading comprehension tests of all Danish public-school children including information on test date and yearly information on parental separation. We consistently find lower returns to exposure to non-school environment for children who have experienced union dissolution across grades. Parental union dissolution functions as a dosage treatment. Placebo regressions and dosage treatment models make plausible a causal interpretation of the findings. Results indicate that degrading non-school environment following parental union dissolution decreases children’s learning, thereby increasing inequality in educational achievement across family forms.

The Equalization Potential of Schools: Does Schooling Increase or Reduce Socioeconomic Inequality in Student Achievement and Conscientiousness in Both Primary and Lower Secondary Education?

“…These results provide empirical support for the claim that the timing of test and survey dates is conditionally random and indicates that the estimate for school exposure warrants a causal interpretation. The student's age at the time of the test can be interpreted as their exposure to the nonschool environment (Fallesen et al 2022;Passaretta and Skopek 2021). As shown in Appendix A3 and A4, there were some associations between background characteristics and age, which indicates that birthdates might not be entirely random.…”

“…This enables me to observe the effects for both achievement and conscientiousness in grades 2 (age 8-9), 4 (age 10-11), 6 (age 12-13), and 8 (age 14-15), as well as grade 0 (age 6-7) for conscientiousness. Fallesen, Passaretta, and Jensen (2022) used the same reading test and the DEA to demonstrate that children who experience union dissolution have lower returns from their non-school environment.…”

Samtalegrupper for børn og unge i sorg eller skilsmisse – en international litteraturgennemgang af skolebaserede interventioner

“…Der er to modsatrettede skilsmisseforståelser, der praeger forskningsfeltet, nemlig den problematiserende og normaliserende tilgang (se fx Rose, 2021a). Kort fortalt retter den problematiserende tilgang sig primaert mod skilsmissens langvarige negative implikationer for børnene og de unge (Amato, 2010;Fallesen et al, 2023;Thuen et al, 2015). I den normaliserende tilgang tager man højde for de formildende omstaendigheder som fx et kaerligt og støttende miljø samt faelles foraeldreskab i ' chains of care' , hvilket øger trivslen blandt børn og unge trods skilsmissen (Fabricius, 2003;Jevne & Andernaes, 2017;Kelly, 1993).…”

“…Inden for skilsmisseforskningen anlaegges der ofte en problemorienteret tilgang til skilsmisse (Rose, 2021a). Den dominerende del af skilsmisseforskningen fokuserer på at dokumentere skilsmissens negative konsekvenser for børns opvaekst og livschancer (Amato, 2010;Fallesen et al, 2023;Thuen et al, 2015). Mange fagprofessionelle er af den opfattelse, at børn med skilte foraeldre befinder sig i en form for sorgproces med langvarige udfordringer med lignende behov og kan i den forbindelse profitere af samme indsatser som børn, der har mistet en naertstående (Rose, 2020).…”