Comparison of perceived chance of graduating from college between single-parent and two-parent African Americans
Family is a valued part of the African Americans culture. Ironically, this does not make them immune to the problems affecting most families today. Like the rest of the population, more and more African Americans find themselves in a single-parent household. The emergence of this trend gave way to various studies focusing on the impacts, causes and implications of single-parent homes to the lives of the children. Studies show that single-parent families have more limitations financially and socially (Ricciuti, 2004) than their two-parent counterparts. These constraints are said to affect the quality of childhood, education and life outcome the child gets.
Education is important for African Americans. It symbolizes economic security and family stability (Herndon and Hirt, 2004, p.494). Unfortunately, Herndon, and Hirt (2004) observed that black population remains low in universities. One possible explanation is the prevalence of poor, single parent households in the black community. Based on some studies, children from single-parent families have lower likelihood of getting an education than the children of two-parent families (Ricciuti, 2004). This paper aims to evaluate the validity of this claim.
Statement of the problem
While there are lots of studies about the effect of family structure in the quality of life and education of African American children, comparison between the effect of single parent home and two-parent homes in the college success of children remains an unexplored territory. The main objective of this research is to investigate the effect of family structure on the students perceived likelihood of graduating from college. It will evaluate whether the structure of the family (single-parent or two-parent) have significant effect in the perception of college success of children. For the purpose of this study, two household categories were considered, the single-parent and two-parent households.
Review of literature
In this section, relevant literature from different sources will be discussed. The first part looks into the present statistics of family structure. Then studies about the impact of family structure to children will be reviewed. This is followed by a discussion of the implications of household structure to the children as shown by previous studies. Lastly, an overview of the African American family culture was also provided.
Family statistics
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the proportion of two-parent households declined from 85 percent in 1968 to below 70 percent in 2003 while single parent households increased from 12 percent to 24 percent in the same period (cited in Scneider, Atteberry, Owens Sloan, 2005). The Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their Child Support 2005 report filed by the U.S. Census Bureau released in August 2007 estimated that 21.2 million children under the age of 21 are in the custody of 13.6 million single parents. Approximately 84 percent of these parents are mothers and only 16 percent are fathers.
In a study conducted by Pong, Dronkers, and Hampden-Thompson (2003), they noted that more than 30 percent of todays children were born outside marriage. What is more disturbing about their findings is that the proportion in Hispanic and African Americans are significantly higher with 40 percent and 70 percent, respectively. In effect, more African American children born today are at risk of growing in a single-parent home. The 2001 census also reported that almost half of the female-headed African American homes with children below 18 are poor (McCreary, and Dancy, 2004). Given this demographic, it is no wonder that the number of black students getting into college remained proportionately low.
Impact of single-parent households to the children
There are two contradictory perspectives regarding the effect of family structure to children. One perspective believes that family structure is vital to the well being of children. On the other hand, some researchers contend that family structure per se do not have any significant impact on the children. Some of the studies that investigated this conflicting issue are discussed in this section.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2001), almost 50 percent of todays children spend part of their childhood apart from one or both of their parents due to increasing rate of divorce and nonmarital childbirth. The report mentioned that children with single parents are more prone to emotional or behavioral problems have poorer school performance resulting to repeating grades, tendency to be suspended or expelled from school, opt to drop out of school, use drugs, smoke or drink.
Lansford, Ceballo, Abbey, and Stewart (2001) believe that having two parents is important to the social development of children. Generally, single-parent families are more at risk (Lansford, et al, 2001 Jones, Forehand, Brody, and Armistead, 2002). The authors cited a study done by Lindner, Hagan and Brown on the long-term negative effect of divorce to children. Also, there are negative consequences of having only one parent provider in the economic well being of the family. In their study about the psychosocial adjustment of African American children in single-mother families, Jones, et al (2002) examined three models of risk using 277 single mothers. They found that children experience adjustment difficulties from parents depression and insufficient guidance. A single parent is unable to provide the emotional support the child needs while trying to support the familys financial needs.
In the study conducted by Pong, Dronkers, and Hampden-Thompson (2003) comparing school achievement between children from single and two-parent families in 11 countries including United States, Australia, Austria, Canada, England, Ireland, Iceland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, and Scotland, they found that children from single-parent families have lower achievement in mathematics and science. However, they also found that the limitation in family resources in single-parent homes do not affect educational achievement. This is consistent with the findings of Biblarz and Raftery (cited in Ricciuti, 2004) that financial deficiency has no academic implication. The authors also tested the effect of national welfare policies on the achievement of children and concluded that the more generous the policy, the smaller the gap between families. Countries that are more supportive with the plight of single parents are able to mitigate the financial constraints of the parents.
A study of the low-Income African American single- parent families conducted by McCreary and Dancy (2004) found that the concept of family in the black community is not limitted by biological affiliation. Family structures do not determine the quality of family functioning. They noted that A familys ability to meet its members needs, not its single-parent status, determines the effectiveness of its family functioning (p. 698). Lansford, Ceballo, Abbey, and Stewart (2001) made the same conclusion after investigating the differences in psychological well being of members in five different family configurations adoptive, two-parent biological, single- mother, stepfather, and stepmother households. They remarked that relationships and family climate play a more significant role in the familys well being than the structure. It is not enough to have both parents at home, what matters to the development of the children is how they interact with them and guide their development.
Ricciuti (2004) studied the effect of single parenthood in the achievement and problem behavior of white, black and Hispanic children between 12-13 years of age. He noted that most of the African American single parents are poor, young, women with limited education. They not only lack the skill but also experience discrimination which makes providing for their families a challenge. These social and financial constraints faced by single parents affects the quality of childcare, environment and education the child gets. Some studies link single parenthood to unfavorable behavior, dropping out of school, poor scholastic performance, teen pregnancy and others (Ricciuti, 2004). However, based on Ricciutis research, the potential negative consequences of single parenthood (p. 205) can be mitigated by the support from other sources.
In this section, various studies investigating the relationship between family structure and its effect on the children were discussed. Two conflicting conclusions were brought out. The first viewpoint believe that family make-up affect the well being and development of children due to financial, social and emotional constraints. The second viewpoint, however claim the opposite, that it is not what constitutes the family but how they interact that matters.
Implications of family structure
Despite the claims of studies like that of Lansford, Ceballo, Abbey, and Stewart (2001), Pong, Dronkers, and Hampden-Thompson (2003), McCreary and Dancy (2004), and Ricciuti (2004) showing no impact of family structure to the life outcome of individuals, the effect of family structure remains a focus of interest of recent studies. Family is the most basic structure in our society. It provides the first form of association a child experiences. As an organization, it comes with two basic pillars- the father and the mother. That is the natural order of things, the way families are designed to be. Despite the increasing population of single parents, the fact remains that they are the exemptions rather than the rule, and such irregularities will remain to be interesting subject of studies.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2001), family structure refers to the number of parents in the household (p.8). This is a subject of debate as some authors regard the term to be ambiguous (Schneider, Atteberry, Owens, and Sloan, 2005). Todays families have taken so many forms that studying family structure is more complicated than just classifying a family as two-parent or single-parent. According to Schneider, et al (2005), some of the terms used by researchers to distinguish these different family structures are traditionalnon-traditional, intactnon-intact, biological or natural parents, stepparents, cohabiting partners, and mother only or father-only (p. 5). A family with two parents does not necessarily imply that the members are biologically related such as in the case of adoptive parents or stepmothers and stepfathers. Also, it does not mean that the lack of blood relation makes a parent less. To complicate matters further, a family may not be living under one roof but the parental support could be intact. These instances cannot be analyzed by simply categorizing a family as single or two-parent which makes research on family structure complicated.
As mentioned earlier, the stance that family structure has significant impacts on the development of children remains a popular belief. Although the subject had been partially touched previously, the impact of family structure on the financial, social and emotional well being of the children will be explored further in this section.
Some authors (Downey 1994 Amato 1993 cited in the National Center for Education Statistics, 2001) contend that families with two parents are structurally stronger (p.8) than single-parent families. According to the report, the parents can work together in managing the children and the household. They can share responsibilities in ensuring the well being and safety of the family. Having two parents ensures that at least one of them will always be available to support and take care of the family when the other is sick or busy.
Another benefit of two-parent household is the financial advantage of having two sources of income. In todays world, two-income households are very common. Economic advantage of two-parent households were recognized by most authors (Pong, Dronkers, and Hampden-Thompson, 2003 McCreary, and Dancy, 2004 and Lansford, et al, 2001) due to its implication in the provision of better care, more quality education and healthier neighborhood for the children. A familys financial capability determines their ability to send children to school. According to Schneider, et al (2005), traditional families have higher college attendance than their non-traditional counterparts. In a study by Painter and Levine (cited in Schneider, et al, 2005), they found that in stepfather and mother-only families have lower probability (16 percent) of sending children to school than those from traditional families. Results of studies show that single-parent households have resulted to negative impact on the educational achievement of children (Krein, 1986). However, as mentioned earlier, these conclusions remain debatable due to the conflicting evidence shown by other studies.
Tangible results like higher capability of two-parent families to obtain more decent housing in safer neighborhoods than single parents cannot be discounted. According to Jones, Forehand, Brody, and Armistead (2002), African American single-parents could not easily get away from violent neighborhoods, thus the children are more exposed to crime and violence which is not good for their well being.
Aside from the financial advantage, there are also emotional and social implications of two-parent homes. Two parents are also more likely to have time to monitor and guide their children than single parents who had to perform the duties of a mother and father. Furthermore, children who grow up exposed to the adult male-female relationships of their parents have a more rounded development. According to the study conducted by Jones, et al (2002), being raised in a single-parent household has psychological risks.
African American family
In the study conducted by Herndon and Hirt (2004) investigating the factors affecting success of black students in college, they noted the strong family influence in African American homes. The study recognized that despite their high regard on the importance of education, the proportion of black population in universities remain low. The study found that black families have strong influence in the life of their children. Despite their desire to be able to send their children to college, a lot of African American parents did not attend college, thus they have difficulty explaining the importance of college education to their children. The study revealed that some families avoid this predicament through the help of fictive kins ( Herndon Hirt, 2004, p. 505). Black communities are characterized by their close ties. Neighbors, friends, church members and extended family members are always willing to offer help to one of their kin, regardless of blood relationship. The authors recognized the significant role of families and fictive kins in ensuring the success of African American students in college. This unique feature of the Black community could blur the already complex definition of family structure. Some Black families often include extended relatives and fictive kins who provide financial and emotional support.
In the study of psychosocial adjustment of African American children from single-parent households conducted by Jones, et al (2002), they proposed that analysis should look at the wider context of the childs environment and culture. They noted that African American children have different way of coping with their environment than European American children, thus evaluating development based on their socio-economic status alone does not reflect the actual experience of the children. Like Herndon Hirts study, this suggests that the unique family culture of black communities should be taken into consideration in understanding the concept of family. The present definition is limiting and ambiguous. Researchers on the value of family should distinguish between the roles of structure and function. Two-parent households do not necessarily imply a healthy functioning, in the same way, single-parent households may lack the structure of a traditional family but it does not imply deficiency in the socio-economic well-being of the child. The unique culture of Black communities disrupt the traditional, normal standard of family.
Theoretical model
The theoretical concept of this paper is Becker and Tomes theory of human capital (Becker, Tomes, 1986). This theory states that parents transmit their earnings, assets and consumption to their children. This model assumes that parents want to maximise the welfare of their children, thus they invest their human capital which includes skills, abilities, personality, reputation, and credentials for the benefit of their family. The more the parents earn, the higher they can afford to invest to their childrens inheretance. According to Becker and Tomes (1986), parents who are discriminated againts their race, religion or any other reason earn less than those who are not discriminated against. In the case of single parents, they not only earn less than the two-parent households as a consequence of limited human capital but they are also stigmatized due to their non-traditional structure. Thus, from the human capital theory, single families indicate lower human capital which implies lower income. This limitation in resources leads to lower investments for the childrens future. This is exemplified by the presumed disadvantages of single-parent families compared to the traditional, two-parent households.
Methodology
Research method
The research method employed for this paper is the quantitative approach. Quantitative research aims to describe, explain, and predict relationships between variables (Dawson, 2002). Results can be used to represent populations other than the sample studied. This method was chosen for this study because it allows for the testing of the relationship between family structure and college education for African Americans which is the hypothesis of the study. Since the goal is to establish the link between the two variables, the survey method was implemented. Closed-ended questionnaires were used for the survey. The advantage of closed-ended questionnaires is the ease of gathering and summarizing data.
Participants
The participants for this study were students from Bethune Cookman University. Since the study was designed to evaluate the effect of family structure on the chance of getting a college education of African Americans, 30 African American students between the age of 18 and 22 were randomly selected for the survey. Among the respondents, 10 were male and 20 were female. Twelve members of the sample came from two-parent homes while 18 are from single-parent homes. Among those who are from two parent homes, only one respondent was a male and the rest are female. In the single parent group, there was an even split of 9 female and 9 male respondents.
Of the 18 respondents who came from single-parent families, 13 reported being raised in a single home for more than 15 years, three people had been living in a single parent home for 1 to 5 years, both the 6 to 10 and 10 to 15 year categories got one response each while none of the respondents came from homes that separated within a year or less.
Procedure
The questionnaire was distributed randomly to 30 African American students between 18 to 22 years of age from Bethune Cookman University. The purpose of the study was explained to them. They were asked to choose their answer from the choices provided for each question. Since the questionnaire was a simple multiple type survey, no extensive explanation was required. Accomplished questionnaires were gathered and the results were summarized. A copy of the questionnaire is provided in Appendix A and raw data of results is in Appendix B.
The questionnaire consisted of 9 multiple choice questions. The first question established the gender of the respondent. Question number 2 was designed to categorize the family structure of the respondents. The third was a follow up question for respondents from single-parent families aimed to chart the duration they had been living with a single parent. Questions 4 and 5 established the source of financial assistance the respondents get.
Questions 6 and 7 were designed to find the source of encouragement and emotional support respectively. The next question aimed to find out their perception of the kind of environment they grow up with and question 9 asked them to rate their likelihood of graduating from college. Respondents from single-parent families were asked how long their parents had been separated. Responses for this category falls either within a year or less, one to five years, five to 10, 11 to 15 and 15 years or more. The respondents were also asked about the source of financial assistance and their relationship with their parents and their perception about the probability of finishing college.
Results
The distribution of respondents is shown in Table 1. Of the 30 respondents, 20 were females and 10 were males. They were grouped into two the first group is the single-parent household with 18 members ( 9 males and 9 females) and the second group is the two-parent households with 12 members (1 male and 11 females).
Table 1 Distribution of respondents
femalemaletotaltwo parent11112single parent9918
Among those who came from single-parent homes, most responded that they had been living with a single parent for more than 15 years. Three of them responded living with single parent for one to five years while the 6 to 10 and 11 to 15 durations both had one representative each.
Responses varied regarding the source of financial support. Eight of the single-parent participants claimed that their father provides financial support presently but only one responded that the father did the same thing in the past. This implies that although the fathers did not help them financially while growing up, they stepped up to finance their college education. Only one respondent from the single-parent group reported getting financial support from his mother presently but nine of them getting financial support from their mother in the past. The difference could imply the inability of the mother to continue support due to financial constraints which is consistent with literature that African American single mothers are generally poor (Ricciuti, 2004 Pong, Dronkers, and Hampden-Thompson, 2003 McCreary, and Dancy, 2004 and Lansford, et al, 2001). Some of the respondents claim that neither parent provides support, while two reported being supported by both parents.
Among two-parent families, most participants reported receiving financial support from both parents. Ten respondents reported not receiving financial support from either parent presently while seven of them reported not receiving financial support from either parent in the past. This implies that the student was able to obtain financial support from other sources such as scholarships, other members of the family, relatives or through personal effort (job).
Table 2 Source of financial supportfathermotherbothneitherotherPresent source of financial assistancesingle parent8127-two parent--93-Past source of financial assistancesingle parent19251two parent--102-government
Table 3 Emotional SupportfathermotherbothneitherotherSource of encouragement to go to collegesingle parent-5535two parent-111--Source of emotional supportsingle parent61326two parent5-7--2 family, 2 self, 1 grandparents2 family, 2 grandparents, 2 siblings
Five of the participants from the single-family group reported being encouraged by their mother to pursue their college education five claimed that both parents did while three answered both. Five of the respondents answered family, self and grandparents as the motivators. Among the two-parent group, except for one respondent who answered mother, the respondents answered both parents.
Although three reported not getting encouragement from parents and two claimed that the decision was personal, most of the respondents admitted outside influence in their decision to pursue higher education. This is consistent with Herndon and Hirts (2004) observation that African American families value education and children look up to their parents for guidance in making decisions.
In terms of the source of emotional support, six from the single-parent group answered father, three answered parents, mother and neither got one and two votes respectively. Other sources of emotional support noted are family, grandparents and siblings. From the two-parent group, the majority responded both parents followed by father.
When asked whether they were raised in a positive environment, all participants from the two-parent families answered yes. Although most participants (13) from the single-parent group answered yes, five answered no. This implies the psychological risks of single-parent homes reported by Jones, et al (2002). Single-parents have to be both the provider and nurturer which could pose a challenge. Another possible implication is that children from single-parent homes sometimes face discrimination which could explain their negative perception of their childhood.
Table 4 Rated likelihood of graduating in collegeRating12345single parent--1-17two parent---111Rating 1 (not likely) to 5 (very likely)
Based on their rating, most participants claimed a very likely probability of graduating from college. Only two participants gave a 3 and 4 rating. The absence of negative response shows that family structure does not stop students from getting college education and predicting their success.
Discussion
The hypothesis for this study is that African American students from single parent home and two parent homes have equal chances of graduating from college. To test this hypothesis, chi-square () test was performed. The goal for the test was to determine if there is a relationship between the structure of family and the respondents perception of the likelihood of graduating from college. The null hypothesis was
There is no relationship between the family structure and likelihood of graduating from college. In mathematical terms
Family structure affects the likelihood of college graduation. In mathematical terms
In the absence of other information, the respondents rating of their perceived likelihood of graduating from college was used. The responses were summarized into two categories, very likely (rated 5) and with some degree of doubt (rated 3-4). None of the respondents answered in the negative. The raw data for the chi-square was
Table 5 Raw data for the Chi-square test
TotalPerception about the probability of graduating from collegewith some degree of doubtvery likelysingle parent11718two parent 11112total22830
Since the data is a bivariate table, the df is
QUOTE , where r is number or rows and c is the number of columns.
Using 0.05 and df 1, our t 3.84. The criteria for decision will be, reject Ho if 3.84.
Expected frequencies for each cell were computed using the formula
where RT is row total CT is column total and GT is the sample total.
Computing for each cell
Table 6 Summary of chi-square test calculations
OEO - E (O - E)(O - E)E11.2-0.20.040.03333310.80.20.040.051716.80.20.040.0023811111.2-0.20.040.0035710.089286
The conditions for the chi-square test was that the null hypothesis will be rejected if 3.84. Since the computed chi-square was 0.089286, which is less than 3.84, Ho cannot be rejected. There is evidence that there family structure does not affect the likelihood of graduating from college. This result is consistent with previous studies that family structure has no adverse cognitive or schooling effects (Ricciuti, 2004, p.197).
Another finding from the study is that the source of financial support does not always depend on who is living with the child. Some respondents from single-parent households reported being supported by both parents and some respondents from the two-parent households claim to be supported by only one parent. Some participants from both groups claim not getting any support from both parents. This also implies that financial constraint is not limited to single-parent households. Another implication is that, financial constraint is not an obstacle in getting a college education. As Herndon and Hirt (2004) noted, there are supports that African American students can take advantage of if they are interested to pursue their education.
The study also shows that although some parents cannot provide financial assistance, their emotional support and encouragement are noted by the participants. McCreary and Dancy (2004) remarked that family functioning includes emotional support, keeping in touch, sharing activities with family members and being there for the family. The support from extended family and fictive kin in African American families could mitigate the absence of complete family structure.
Conclusion
African Americans families, like the rest of the population are experiencing increasing population of single parent households. More and more children today are growing up with only one parent. Some authors believe this trend has negative implications to the children. However, some studies like this one claim otherwise. Although family structure affects the financial capability of parents to provide for their family, it does not have a direct impact on the educational attainment of African American children. The presence of other sources of financial support such as government policies, scholarships, extended families and fictive kins could mitigate the economic disadvantage of single-parent, single-income families and reduce the gap between the traditional family structures with the new trends.
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