On the Educational Attainment of Offspring

This paper addresses the question of whether offspring living in one-parent families at age seventeen obtain less education than offspring living in two-parent families. Four hypotheses for parent absence effects are tested: the "no effects" hypothesis, the "economic deprivation" hypothesis, the "absent father" hypothesis, and the "family stress" hypothesis. Separate analyses are presented for blacks and whites. The findings show that economic deprivation and the stress associated with recent family disruption can account for nearly all the parent absence effect among whites. For blacks there is some evidence for the economic deprivation hypothesis and more consistent support for the absent-father explanation. THE EFFECTS OF THE ABSENCE OF A PARENT ON THE EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT OF OFFSPRING