Parental Separation and Children's Education-Changes Over Time?
: Kailaheimo-Lönnqvist, Sanna; Jalovaara, Marika; Myrskylä, Mikko
Publisher: SPRINGER
: DORDRECHT
: 2025
: European Journal of Population
: EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POPULATION-REVUE EUROPEENNE DE DEMOGRAPHIE
: EUR J POPUL
: 5
: 41
: 1
: 35
: 0168-6577
: 1572-9885
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10680-024-09721-7
: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10680-024-09721-7
: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/484215400
The association between parental separation and children's education has been widely studied, but mainly at a single time point and for marital dissolution only. We examine whether the (generally negative) association has changed across cohorts for several educational outcomes and whether the association differs by parental union type (marriage, cohabitation) and socioeconomic family background (parental education).We use Finnish total population register data. We focus on child cohorts born between 1987 and 2003 (N = 967,242) and analyse grade point averages, secondary education and tertiary education using linear regression and linear probability models with standard errors clustered within families.The association between parental separation and educational achievement is negative and has remained similar across the birth cohorts. Differences according to parental union type and socioeconomic family background are rather small. The stability of the association over time suggests that the consequences of parental separation on children's education have not changed over time, and they do not depend much on parental union type or family background.
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This work was supported by the Strategic Research Council (SRC), FLUX consortium, decision numbers 345130, 364374, 364375, and 345131; by the Research Council of Finland under Grant 320162 for the INVEST research flagship; by the European Research Council under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 101019329); by the Strategic Research Council (SRC) within the Academy of Finland grants for LIFECON (# 345219); by the National Institute on Aging (R01AG075208); by grants to the Max Planck - University of Helsinki Center from the Max Planck Society (5714240218), Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation (210046), Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki (77204227), and Cities of Helsinki, Vantaa and Espoo; and the European Union (ERC Synergy, BIOSFER, 101071773). The views and opinions expressed in the article are, however, those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. The authors wish to thank Statistics Finland for granting permission (TK/2182/07.03.00/2024) to use the data.
