Single Parenting and Its Effects on Children's Academic Achievement

Introduction and Definition of the Problem

The term family refers to a group of at least two people who are related by birth, marriage, or adoption and who share resources, responsibility for decisions, values and goals, and have a commitment to one another over time (Nelson, 1992). Families provide emotional, physical, and economic mutual aid to their members. However, the family system in the United States has undergone radical changes. From the late 1960s to the 1990s, the proportion of U.S. children being raised in two-parent homes dropped significantly — from approximately 85% in 1968 to 69% — whereas the proportion of children living in single-parent homes nearly doubled (United States Department of Justice, 2011). Since the 1970s, nearly a third of family households with children have been maintained by a single parent, and nine out of ten times that parent is a woman. Single-parent families with only one breadwinner are relatively more disadvantaged than two-parent families with either one or two breadwinners, and the economic circumstances of never-married mothers are significantly worse than those of divorced mothers (Spain & Bianchi, 1996). Single-parent families more commonly occur in urban environments but can be found at every socioeconomic level. In terms of the effect on children's education, it has long been known that adolescents from a lower socioeconomic status are more likely to withdraw from high school before graduating, and those who do graduate are less likely to attend college (Lambert, 1988).

Academic achievement is understood as the extent to which a student has achieved their educational goals. Today, many children come from single-parent homes, and this family circumstance is increasingly affecting them academically. Because they are the primary and frequently sole source of financial support for the family, single parents have less time to help children with homework, are less likely to use consistent discipline, and have less parental control — all conditions that may lead to lower academic achievement (Astone & McLanahan, 1991; Mulkey et al., 1992; Thiessen, 1997). Academic success is important because it is strongly linked to the positive outcomes we value for children. It is therefore necessary to find ways to provide children and parents in single-parent households with the support they need, so that children can reach their academic goals without a constant struggle.

Research on the impact of single parenting on children has followed one of two models: the Family Deficit Model or the Risk and Protective Factor Model (Donahoo, 2003). Research has also shown that single parenting has an adverse effect on a child's development in the classroom. According to Mulkey et al. (1992), among children in single-parent families, those from mother-absent households earn lower science grades than children from father-absent homes; and no matter which parent is absent, children from single-parent families generally find it more difficult to connect with school. Students who regard their parents as warm, firm, and involved in their education earn better grades than their classmates with uninvolved parents (Deslandes, Royer, & Turcotte, 1997).

Many of the studies that focus on child outcomes as a result of growing up in a single-parent or divorced home, compared to "intact" households, are primarily based on a "deficit model" directed by two generally held assumptions. First, this model assumes that a two-parent environment is necessary for the successful socialization of the child. Second, it is assumed that separation or divorce is always traumatic to the child and leads to severe and enduring harmful effects on the child's adjustment (Brubeck & Beer, 1992; Chase-Lansdale, Cherlin, & Kiernan, 1995). It is a long-held belief that an optimal child-rearing environment occurs within the context of a two-parent structure; however, some researchers propose that well-adjusted and competent children can and do develop in a variety of family contexts (Bornstein, 1995). Moreover, many of these deficit-based studies fail to investigate mediating or moderating variables — such as parent and child characteristics or potential family processes that might be considered protective factors — that could significantly contribute to outcomes (Hetherington & Stanley-Hagan, 1999).

Significance of the Problem

In an early study examining the effects of divorce (single parenting) versus non-divorce (two-parent households) on students' grade point averages, Brubeck and Beer (1992) studied 131 high school students. Students' overall GPAs were taken directly from school files. Results indicated that students from divorced homes performed significantly lower than students from non-divorced families, with overall GPAs of 2.35 and 2.93, respectively.

McLanahan and Booth (1991) concluded that children from mother-only single families, when compared to children from two-parent families, are more likely to have:

(a) poorer academic achievement, with this relationship being stronger for boys than girls;
(b) higher absentee rates at school;
(c) higher dropout rates in middle school and high school;
(d) lower earnings in young adulthood and a greater likelihood of living in poverty;
(e) more marriages as teens;
(f) children earlier, both in and out of marriage;
(g) greater divorce rates;
(h) greater rates of delinquency, drug, and alcohol use.

There are quite a few studies that have documented the challenges faced by single-parent families and the disadvantages of their children compared to children raised in two-parent families. Some studies find no difference between the two groups, but the majority of research in this area indicates that children from single-parent families as a group perform more poorly on measures of cognitive functioning and standardized tests, earn lower overall GPAs, and complete fewer years of school when compared to children from two-parent families (see Kim, 2004; Mandara & Murray, 2006; Sigle-Rushton & McLanahan, 2004). As noted above, children from lower socioeconomic status families perform more poorly than those from middle and upper economic status families; however, findings of lower academic achievement for children from single-parent families remain even after controlling for economic and ethnic variables (see Kim, 2004; Mulkey, Crain, & Harrington, 1992; Teachman, 1987).

The rising number of single-parent families is not unique to the United States. Hampden-Thompson and Suet-Ling (2005) reported very similar trends in the rise of single-parent families in Europe over the same time span, as well as similar findings related to the academic achievement of children from these families. Pong, Dronkers, and Hampden-Thompson (2003) compared the difference in academic achievement between children in single-parent and two-parent families across 11 countries. They found that the United States had a larger achievement gap between family types than European countries, but that a sizable gap existed in Europe as well. The authors surmised that European national policies have helped to offset the disadvantages of single parenthood, and that a more generous United States welfare policy might lead to greater equality. Nonetheless, this phenomenon appears to have global implications.

Looking at the Issue from a Systems Perspective

Beginning in the 1980s, certain researchers began to ask why children from single-parent families performed lower and achieved less academically than children from two-parent families. Most of the productive research in this area approached this dilemma from a systems perspective.

Milne, Myers, Rosenthal, and Ginsburg (1986) examined two national databases of students from two educational levels — elementary school and high school. They found higher parental expectations, the number of books in the home, and family income to be significant predictors of academic achievement in children from single-parent families.

Teachman (1987), drawing on data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972, discovered a relationship between the number of educational resources in the home and the academic achievement of children. Many studies have found that the effects of living in a single-parent family differ by gender. For instance, Krein and Beller (1988) found that the negative effects on academic achievement increase with the total time spent in a single-parent family and that these effects are greater for boys. Building on earlier studies, Downey (1994) identified 11 key educationally related factors that predicted academic achievement for children from single-parent families, including having a dedicated place to study, their own room, a computer or typewriter, and access to a daily newspaper, encyclopedia, magazines, more than 50 books, an atlas, a dictionary, and a calculator. Kim (2004) investigated earlier assumptions that family income was the primary predictor of academic achievement and found that parental expectations, family size, and the quality of the child's relationships were better predictors of academic success than family income alone.

By understanding these mediating and protective factors, we can also infer which qualities of single-parent families may be related to poorer academic outcomes. One factor appears to be access to reading materials such as books and newspapers. Another factor is the quality of the parent-child relationship, which is most likely mediated by family size. One would suspect that in larger families headed by a single female parent, boys would have less intimate relationships with their mother than girls, leading to greater developmental difficulties. Many of the factors identified in the literature thus appear to be potentially modifiable.