Abstract
The aim of this article is to compare the well-being of Dutch children living in different forms of single-parent families and different forms of two-parent families. We found that living in a mother-headed family caused by divorce has a negative influence on children's well-being. However, the effects we found were very small compared to the much larger effects of some other control variables, like parental education. Living in single-parent families or step-families caused by death have less negative effects on children than living in single-parent families or step-families caused by divorce. Our results give some support to the weak social position of the mother as an explanation for the negative effect of single parenthood, while the negative effects of living in a mother-headed family caused by death are larger than those of living in a father-headed family caused by death. Living in a single-parent family does not harm the well-being of boys more or less than that of girls living in the same family form. The negative effects of living in a single-mother family are not strengthened by the low educational level of the mother, nor are they neutralized by the high educational level of the mother. The effects we found in this continental European study are substantially smaller than those found in studies in the U.S.A.
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In this article we use the data from the secondary education pupils' survey 1990 conducted by NIBUD (Netherlands' Institute for Budget Research). We wish to thank NIBUD, and especially R. de Zwart, for making these data available. An earlier Dutch version of this paper was presented at the Nationakl Congress of Women/Genderstudies 1993, 28–29 October 1993 in Amsterdam. An earlier English version was presented for the ESF Research Conference on “European Society or European Societies? Life Courses and Social Inequalities,” Schloß Ringberg, Bavaria, Germany, November 22–26, 1993.
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Borgers, N., Dronkers, J. & Van Praag, B.M.S. The effects of different forms of two- and single-parent families on the well-being of their children in Dutch secondary education. Social Psychology of Education 1, 147–169 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02334730
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02334730