| Gillian Hampden-Thompson
Pennsylvania State University
Social policy, family structure, and children's educational achievement: A comparative study
FINAL REPORT:
This study explores the interface between policy and the family. More specifically, this research examines how the relationship between single motherhood and children's literacy achievement is affected by a country's family policy environment. Using data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), the size of the literacy achievement gap between 15-year-old students from two-parent and those from single-mother households was compared across 18 industrialized nations. This study found that cross-national differences exist in the relationship between single motherhood and literacy achievement. The research findings also demonstrate that economic deprivation is the dominant explanation as to why children in single-mother homes fare worse educationally than their two-parent counterparts. The results of the multilevel analysis, which included country-level data from the Social Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of York (England), indicate that there is a relationship between the family policy environment of a country and the literacy achievement gap between the two family structures. Overall, the results of this study highlight an intricate relationship between policy and the family.
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