Educational Achievement of Children From Single‐Mother and Single‐Father Families: The Case of Japan

• Date: 01 August 2017
• Author: Yuko Nonoyama‐Tarumi
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12409
• Published date: 01 August 2017

Y N-T Waseda University

Educational Achievement of Children From

Single-Mother and Single-Father Families: The Case

of Japan

This article examines the relationships between

single parenthood and student achievement in

Japan. The study uses sixth-grade data from

the 2013 National Assessment of Academic

Ability and the Detailed Survey, which was the

rst nationally representative parental survey

collected through schools in Japan. The results

indicate that children of single-mother and

single-father families perform academically

lower than children of two-parent families. For

children living in single-mother families, more

than 50% of the educational disadvantage was

explained by a lack of economic resources. For

children living in single-father families, the

educational disadvantage was explained more

by a lack of parenting resources, measured by

discussions at home, supervision at home, and

involvement in school, than economic resources.

These ndings suggest that the gendered labor

force and division of labor among spouses

in Japanese society may deprive parents of

the ability to buffer the negative relationship

between single parenthood and children’s

educational achievement.

The negative association between family struc-

ture and children’s educational outcome has

Waseda Institute for AdvancedStudy, Waseda University,

1-6-1 Nishiwaseda Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo,169-8050, Japan

(yuko.n.tarumi@gmail.com).

Key Words: education, low-income families, multilevel mod-

els, parenting, single-parent families.

been documented extensively in Western

countries since the mid-1980s (Astone &

McLanahan, 1991; McLanahan, 1985). This line

of research has also shown how the mechanism

by which family structure affects children’sedu-

cational outcomes differs between single-father

and single-mother families (Downey, 1994).

However, evidence on the association between

family structure and children’s educational

outcome is still scarce in East Asian societies.

Japan offers an important case in testing

theories about family structure and children’s

educational outcome for three reasons. First, the

prevalence of single parents among familieswith

children has been increasing rapidly in the past

20 years. The number of single-parent families

with children has increased from 1,022,000 in

1988 to 1,461,000 in 2011 (Ministry of Health,

Labour and Welfare [MHLW], 2015). This

increase is almost entirely because of increases

in divorce, as nonmartial childbirth is not com-

mon in Japan. Among single mothers, 80.8% are

because of divorce, 7.5% are widowed,and 7.8%

are nonmartial (MHLW, 2015). It is estimated

that roughly one third of Japanese marriages

are expected to end in divorce (Raymo, Iwa-

sawa, & Bumpass, 2004). The prevalence rate

of single-parent families in Japan is still low

(12.3%) when compared with countries such

as the United States (25.8%) or the United

Kingdom (21.5%) (Organization for Economic

Cooperation and Development [OECD], 2011),

but is similar to other East Asian societies, such

as Korea and Hong Kong (Park, 2007).

Journal of Marriage and Family 79 (August 2017): 915–931 915

DOI:10.1111/jomf.12409

916 Journal of Marriage and Family

Second, little is known about the educational

situation of children in single-parent families in

Japan. The relative poverty rate of children in

single-parent families is 50.8% in Japan, rank-

ing the worst among the 33 countries compared

(OECD, 2014). However, there is no large-scale

quantitative data describing their educational sit-

uation. Providing evidence on the educational

outcome of children in single-parent families

will illustrate how family structure is associ-

ated with child development and the intergener-

ational cycle of poverty.

Third, the highly unequal gender division

of labor among spouses in Japanese society

calls for investigating the different mecha-

nism of inequity between single-father and

single-mother families. In Japan, a high propor-

tion of women quit their jobs after marriage,

particularly after childbirth (Shirahase, 2007),

and they are more likely to be hired as nonstan-

dard employees even if they return to the labor

force (Yu, 2013). In addition, the cultural belief

of intensive mothering, with mothers bearing the

chief responsibility and investing their time and

skills in child rearing and child’s education, is

pervasive (Bumpass, Rindfuss, Choe, & Tsuya,

2009; Honda, 2008). As Oppenheimer (1997)

argued, the specialization of roles within a mar-

riage may be a risky and inexible strategy for

maintaining a family’s well-being in a nuclear

family. If men primarily take the role of the

breadwinner, single mothers may be affected

more severely by the loss of income. If women

solely take the role of family caretaker, single

fathers may have less experience and knowledge

to be engaged in children’seducation. Therefore,

this article focuses on the educational outcome

of children living in single-parent families in

Japan, highlighting the extent of disadvantage

and the different mechanism of inequity between

single-father and single-mother families, and

exploring the factors that may moderate the

negative association in the Japanese context.

B

Explanations for Educational Disadvantage

of Children in Single-Parent Families

Because research on the educational outcome

of children living in single-parent families in

Japan is scarce, I developed a conceptual frame-

work for this study based on the large body of

related research in the United States. Since the

mid-1980s, studies in the United States have

shown the negative association between single

parenthood and children’s educational achieve-

ment (Finn & Owings, 1994; Mulkey, Crain,

& Harrington, 1992), high school completion

(McLanahan, 1985), school grades (Astone &

McLanahan, 1991), and early school achieve-

ment (Entwisle & Alexander, 1995; Sun & Li,

2011).

Two key hypotheses developed through these

extensive studies are the deprivation of eco-

nomic resources and the deprivation of paren-

ting resources. The economic deprivation

hypothesis states that lower student achievement

among children of single-parent families is a

consequence of poverty and economic insecurity

(McLanahan & Sandefur, 1994). Single-parent

families are more likely to have lower income

and higher poverty rates than two-parent fami-

lies. Parents with higher incomes can afford to

provide various educational resources, which

create an intellectual atmosphere in the home,

and afford to provide more educational oppor-

tunities, such as academic and nonacademic

out-of-school activities and enrollment in pri-

vate schools. These educational resources and

opportunities enhance children’s academic

achievement (Lareau, 2003).

The parenting deprivation hypothesis states

that the lower student achievement of children of

single-parent families is a result of less parental

involvement in a child’s day-to-day activities.

Interpersonal resources and parenting resources

are overlapping concepts, both based on Cole-

man’s (1988) social capital theory. In this study,

Iusethetermparenting resources because I

focused on parental involvement and did not

look at broader interpersonal relationships, such

as the parents’ ties with the community. Sin-

gle parents are often forced to ll two roles

simultaneously,which deprives them of time and

imposes high levels of stress. This can lead to

inconsistent parenting, less time with their chil-

dren at home, and less involvement in school

(Astone & McLanahan, 1991; McLanahan &

Sandefur, 1994). Parental involvement at home

and at school are both associated with higher

educational outcomes (Hill & Tyson, 2009; Ho

& Willms, 1996; Lareau, 1987).

Using the National Education Longitudinal

Study (NELS):88 data, Downey (1994) showed

that the deprivation of economic resources is

the primary explanation for why children from

single-mother families do poorly in school