Parental divorce is not uniformly disruptive to children's educational attainment.

ABSTRACT: Children whose parents divorce tend to have worse educational outcomes than children whose parents stay married. However, not all children respond identically to their parents divorcing. We focus on how the impact of parental divorce on children's education varies by how likely or unlikely divorce was for those parents. We find a significant negative effect of parental divorce on educational attainment, particularly college attendance and completion, among children whose parents were unlikely to divorce. Families expecting marital stability, unprepared for disruption, may experience considerable adjustment difficulties when divorce occurs, leading to negative outcomes for children. By contrast, we find no effect of parental divorce among children whose parents were likely to divorce. Child

SUBMITTER: Brand JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6462058 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature