Popu Tion Societies

Divorce and end-of-union rates have risen sharply over the past thirty years, and a growing number of children have to cope with parental separation: one non-adult child in four among recent birth cohorts (box 1). Education, too, has changed radically over recent decades; it has been “democratized”—become accessible to all—and the period of compulsory education is now substantially longer. The cohort-specific proportions of students who passed the baccalauréat, the upper secondary school diploma (the university matriculation diploma), more than doubled between 1985 and 1995, from 30% to 63% [1]. How much of a disruptive influence does parental separation have on children’s education, and harm their chances of passing exams? When assessing the impact of parental separation on children’s scholastic achievement, social and cultural background must be controlled for, as these affect educational outcomes. For a given social background, children with the most highly-educated mothers stay in education longer and themselves become higher achievers. On the other hand, there is a greater risk of parental separation where the mother is highly educated, since she has the economic independence which enables her to cope better with the financial consequences of separation. Also, women with higher educational qualifications are more likely to form a second union.