It often happens that alongside the life of a child, their parents go through a series of changes or adaptations as their lives progress. For example, they may decide to study further, change jobs, separate, remarry, or move to another country. To what extent do these changes interfere with children's educational trajectories? Researchers at the Mapineq project delved into this subject.
Concretely, Laura Heiskala, Esa Karonen and Jani Erola (University of Turku), and Sanna Kailaheimo-Lönnqvist (University of Helsinki) explored how changes in household human capital, driven by family structure dynamics and parental educational advancements, influence children’s educational outcomes. They did so using full population Finnish register data.
Their results revealed that transitions from a two-parent household to a single-parent household are negatively associated with children’s years of education. Children whose parents separate or die tend to achieve, on average, half a year less education than peers from stable families. Furthermore, the study showed that parental re-partnering following separation or death does not compensate for the loss of household human capital. In fact, children in such households tend to achieve even less education than those experiencing only the initial loss. These findings align with some prior research suggesting negative outcomes associated with stepparents, while diverging from studies identifying positive effects in highly educated households.
Interestingly, the scholars found that an increase in household human capital through new parental degrees was associated with better educational outcomes for children, especially in families with moderate initial levels of household human capital. For families already possessing high levels of household education, the impact of additional degrees was weaker. However, the study’s sibling comparisons suggested that this observed association might result from selection bias rather than a direct causal effect.
When comparing siblings who experienced a parental educational upgrade before the age of 18 with those who experienced it later, no significant differences were found in their educational outcomes. This indicates that factors influencing parents to pursue higher education may also shape their children’s educational paths, rather than the degree itself having a direct effect.
These findings are particularly relevant for Nordic countries, where similar educational and family policies, as well as demographic behaviours like divorce rates, make the results broadly applicable. In contrast, countries with different family dynamics or high tuition fees may experience even stronger associations between changes in family structure and children’s educational achievements.
Acknowledgement:
This publication is part of the Mapineq project, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the grant agreement No. 101061645 (www.mapineq.eu). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
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