Maternal Cohabitation and Educational Success

Bibliographic Data

ID2328186
AuthorsR Kelly Raley (0000-0002-7734-6179, R. Kelly Raley, Ph.D., is Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, and Research Associate of the Population Research Center, University of Texas at Austin. Her main fields of interest are family trends and the impact of family change on social stratification, as well as the social forces that shape family formation. She has recently investigated the influence of school contexts on adolescent romance., corresponding author), Michelle L Frisco (0000-0002-5333-3701, Michelle L Frisco, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Iowa State University, and a Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholar, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on the intersections of family life, education, and health and well-being during adolescence and the transition to adulthood.), Elizabeth Wildsmith (Elizabeth M. Wildsmith is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology, University of Texas at Austin. Her general interests include family demography, inequality and race/ethnicity Her current research looks at the relationship among socioeconomic status, community context, and the nonmarital fertility of Mexican American women.)
Year2005
Volume78
Issue2
Pages144-164
Publication date2005-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociology of Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0407 • E-ISSN: 1939-8573
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/003804070507800203
OpenAlexW2145500174
LanguageEN
Citations received27
References cited59

Despite the dramatic increase in children's experiences in cohabiting families, little is known about how living in such families affects children's academic success. Extrapolating from two theoretical frameworks that have been commonly used to explain the association between parental divorce and educational outcomes, the authors constructed competing hypotheses about the effect of maternal cohabitation on educational expectations, achievement, and attainment. The analysis of data from the National Survey of Families and Households shows that children who lived with cohabiting mothers fared exceptionally poorly and sometimes were significantly worse off than were children who lived with divorced or remarried mothers. The authors conclude that studies that have ignored cohabitation have probably overestimated the negative effects of divorce on educational outcomes. High levels of family instability that are associated with cohabitation may be one reason why children whose mothers cohabit do less well than do children with other types of family experiences

Cohabitation · Developmental psychology · Educational attainment · Family planning · Geography · National Survey of Family Growth · Political science · Population · Research methodology · Sociology · Demography · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · Psychology