Can Time Heal All Wounds? Timing of Family Transitions and Final School Grades in Norway

Sandra Krapf , State Institute for Family Research, University of Bamberg
Pauline Kleinschlömer, University of Mannheim
Jonathan Wörn, Norwegian Institute of Public Health

Prior research shows that children and adolescents with separated parents do on average less well in school compared to those who grow up with non-divorced parents. However, we know little about the role of stepfamily formation on school outomes and the role of children's age at family transition. We expect that children adapt to their new family situation and that negative effects on educational success are strongest in the years shortly after a family transition. In the focus of our study are two family transitions: parental separation and stepfamily formation. In our analyses, we use register data and linked datasets from Norway (n=1,368,808). The data contain information about school performance in 10th grade, when children are 16 years old, and various demographic variables. School performance is measured in the Grade Point Average (GPA). We analyze differences in GPA between children who have experienced separation or stepfamily formation at different ages and children who live with their biological parents. Using inverse probability weighting, our preliminary results indicate that educational disadvantages of children in single parent families are independent of children's age at separation and are (at least partly) driven by unobserved family characteristics.

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 Presented in Session 40. Flash Session Family Effects on Children