Family structures are associated with achievement outcomes, but the percentage of children residing in different family structures has changed over time. In this paper, we revisit data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) to determine whether previous findings have also changed over time. Drawing on PISA 2012, we employ…

This paper examines the influence of single parenthood on children's academic achievement in Japan. While some studies have examined the academic achievement gap associated with family structure, a limitation of existing research is the focus on differences between the mean levels of academic achievement of children in single-parent and two-parent…

When Daniel Patrick Moynihan raised the issue of family structure half a century ago, his concern was the increase in black families headed by women. Since then, the share of children raised in single-parent families in the United States has grown across racial and ethnic groups and with it evidence regarding the impact of family structure on…

Living in a single-parent family is negatively related with children's educational performance compared to living with 2 biological parents. In this article, we aim to find out to what extent the context of the school's share of single-parent families affects this negative relationship. We use pooled data from the Organisation for Economic…

Using data collected by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's Program for International Student Assessment in 2003, this study examines the gap in the educational aspirations of children from single-parent families and two-parent families in the United Kingdom (UK) and Hong Kong. Consistent with previous research on the…

Using data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), the size of the literacy achievement gap between 15-year-old students from two-parent and those from single-mother households were compared across 18 industrialized nations. This study found that cross-national differences exist in the association between single motherhood…

Using the data from Program for International Student Assessment, I examine the gap in reading performance between 15-year-old students in single-parent and intact families in 5 Asian countries in comparison to the United States. The ordinary least square regression analyses show negligible disadvantages of students with a single parent in Hong…

The role played by family background in educational opportunity is a central focus in the sociology of education and stratification. Scholars have long recognized the importance of families in determining their children's educational success and, thus, in reproducing status over the generations. In the United States, children from single-parent…

There is considerable debate about the relative importance of family versus school factors in producing academic and nonacademic student outcomes, and whether and how their impacts vary across different student groups. In addition to critically reviewing and synthesizing earlier work, this study extends the literature by (a) using the ECLS-K, a…

Using data from Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), this study examines the social disparity of family involvement. A total of 4,405 students from 140 Hong Kong secondary schools participated in the first cycle of PISA study identifying four types of…