Secondary School Success in Times of Parental Divorce

• Published date: 01 April 2021
• Author: Stijn Baert,Greet Van der Straeten
• Date: 01 April 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12476

S B G V  SGhent University

Secondary School Success in Times

of Parental Divorce

Objective: We investigated how educational

performance during secondary education

evolves in the years before, during, and after

parental divorce.

Background: Theoretical models predict differ-

ent divorce effect patterns in the school year of

the divorce and in the years around it. However,

we are not awareof any existing studies attempt-

ing to measure this pattern.

Method: The study was based on unique panel

data capturing parental divorce and school

results for 2,685 Belgian pupils. We employed

this panel to correct for time-invariant, unob-

servable drivers of educational performance,

as well as to take into account time-variant

unobserved drivers.

Results: The results indicate that the divorce

penalty peaks in the school year of the divorce. A

zero treatment effectin the preceding and subse-

quent years cannot be rejected. Moreover, sim-

pler econometric strategies tended to overesti-

mate the divorce penalty.

Conclusion: Our ndings are mostly in line

with the parental adjustment and life stress the-

ories. From a policy perspective, we suggest

that it is essential to support children in the

months before and after parental divorce, while

special treatment in later years may be less

necessary.

Ghent University, University of Antwerp, Sint-Pietersplein

6, 9000 Gent, Belgium (stijn.baert@ugent.be;

http://www.stijnbaert.be).

Key Words: Divorce, education, endogeneity,timing.

“From this day forward, until death do us

part” is generally said with conviction each

time someone enters into marriage. The real-

ity, however, often falls short of this ideal. In

Belgium, the country of analysis in this study,

the Ministry of Economy predicted in 2009

that two out of three marriages contracted in

that year would end in divorce. Therefore,

not surprisingly, there is ample concern both

in academic and policy circles regarding the

negative consequence that divorce may have on

children. Størksenet al. (2005) listedproblems

seen in children of divorced parents, ranging

from withdrawal, lower self-esteem, anxiety,

depression, and social problems to aggressive

and even delinquent behavior. This article aims

to contribute to the literature on the effect of

parental divorce on educational performance.

Most earlier studies have found that chil-

dren from divorced families are at an academic

disadvantage. Offspring from divorced fam-

ilies appear to have greater absenteeism

(Ham, 2004;Raleyet al., 2005),tendtohave

lower educational expectations and ambitions

(Raleyet al., 2005;Zeratsionet al.,2014),

display deviant behavior in school (Eriksen

et al., 2017; Tillman, 2008), obtainlower grades

(Aughinbaughet al., 2005;Friscoet al., 2007;

Tillman, 2008), havelower testresults (Amato

& Anthony,2014), and are less likely to grad-

uate from secondary education (Ermisch

& Francesconi,2001; Gruber,2004; Song

et al., 2012).On theotherhand,fewer studies

report the negative impact related to divorce

as small or even insignicant (Björklund &

Sundström, 2006; Francesconi et al., 2010).

Family Relations 70 (April 2021): 575–586575

DOI:10.1111/fare.12476