Where Are the Effects of Family Structure? The Educational Level, Current Partnership, and Income Level of the Czech Adult Population Socialised in Single-Parent Families

• Authors: Petr Fučík
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Socialisation in a single-parent family has been associated with negative consequences both in previous research and popular discourse. This article investigates whether this association may be different in a society with a high rate of divorce and extramarital fertility. Using data from the Czech contribution to the EU-SILC survey, it tests hypotheses concerning the difference between the current situation of adults who grew up in single-parent families and those who were raised in intact families. We look for the influence of socialisation on single-parent families in three areas—educational attainment, current partnership situation, and current family income. The results of regression analyses show that the differences between children from single-parent families and those from intact ones are very small in the area of education (the influence is apparent only at the secondary school graduation level, no difference is present at the tertiary education level), relatively weak in the area of partnership situation, and imperceptible from the viewpoint of family income. These results exclude a causal explanation for the influence of single-parent families on outcomes, cast doubt on selective principles, and open space for interpretation in terms of mechanisms of family de-institutionalisation.

Keywords

EN

single-parent families; divorce; social reproduction; Czech Republic

Discipline

• SOCIOLOGY: SOCIOLOGY

• Publisher: Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Sociologický časopis. Czech Sociological Review
• Year: 2016
• Volume: 52
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 375-402
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Petr Fučík

• Offi ce for Population Studies, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Joštova 10, Brno, 602 00, Czech Republic

Identifiers

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.13060/00380288.2016.52.3.263