Race and Ethnicity, Family Structure, and High School Graduation

Using data from the 1979-1985 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we focus on two questions: (1) Can racial and ethnic differences in family structure and single parenthood account for differences in high school graduation rates of white and minority youth? (2) What explains the relationship between family structure and school achievement? We find that parental education is more important than family structure in accounting for differences in schooling among whites, Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Native Americans, and that family structure and parental education are equally important in accounting for differences between whites and blacks. Family income moderates some of the impact of family structure on children's graduation. Statistical controls for the endogeneity of family structure suggest that not all of the family structure effect on school graduation is due to unmeasured heterogeneity.