Family Facts: Social Science Research on Family, Society & Religion

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This finding looks at the relationship between family stability and high school math attainment.

Family stability during childhood was associated with higher levels of high school math attainment. Adolescents who experienced fewer family structure changes growing up (e.g., changes in their parents’ marital status) were more likely to graduate from high school having completed Algebra II than without having completed it compared to peers who experienced less family stability. One documented change in family structure was associated with a 21-percent decrease in the odds of graduating from high school having completed Algebra II than without having completed it, controlling for teens’ demographic characteristics, family structure at birth, parental education, parent child relationship quality, school context, teens’ math attainment by 9th grade, their educational aspirations and psychological well-being.

Sample or Data Description
Data come from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (Add Health) and the AHAA transcript study supplement. The analytical sample consists of 4,217 adolescents who completed all three waves of the Add Health in-home interviews; who were in grades 7 through 9 during the first wave of the survey in 1995; and who lived with at least one biological or adoptive parent in the first year of life. The analytical sample selection criteria biased the sample in that respondents in the analytical sample tended to come from more stable family environments and higher socio-economic backgrounds.

Source
"Marital Transitions, Parenting, and Schooling: Exploring the Link Between Family-Structure History and Adolescents’ Academic Status"
Cavanagh, Shannon E.
Schiller, Kathryn S.
Sociology of Education Vol. 79, Number . October, 2006. Page(s) 329-354.

FindingID: 8952