Father absence and the educational gender gap

Citation

Lundberg, Shelly J. (2018). Father absence and the educational gender gap. Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America. Denver, CO.

Abstract

The educational attainment of young women now exceeds that of young men in most of the developed world, and several studies have suggested that the increase in single-parent households may be contributing to the growing gender gap in education, as boys are more vulnerable to the negative effects of father absence and economic disadvantage than girls. Using data on recent cohorts of young men and women, I find evidence consistent with other studies that boys are relatively more likely to experience problems in school, including school suspensions, when their father is absent, but also that girls are relatively more likely to experience depression in adolescence, particularly in step-father families. By the time Add Health subjects are young adults, there is no evidence that father absence early in life is more strongly associated with lower rates of college graduation for men, compared to women, in either cross-sectional or family fixed-effect models.

URL

https://paa.confex.com/paa/2018/webprogrampreliminary/Paper18419.html

Keyword(s)

family father absence education gender stepfamilies

Reference Type

Conference proceeding

Book Title

Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America

Series Title

Nonresident fathers and families

Author(s)

Lundberg, Shelly J.

Year Published

2018

City of Publication

Denver, CO

Reference ID

8417