Does co-residence with grandparents reduce the negative association between family size and reading test scores? Evidence from 40 countries.

KREIDL, Martin and Barbora HUBATKOVÁ. Does co-residence with grandparents reduce the negative association between family size and reading test scores? Evidence from 40 countries. In Poster na výroční konferenci Population Association of America, New Orleans, 11.-13. dubna 2013. 2013.

Basic information

• Original name: Does co-residence with grandparents reduce the negative association between family size and reading test scores? Evidence from 40 countries.
• Authors: KREIDL, Martin and Barbora HUBATKOVÁ.
• Edition: Poster na výroční konferenci Population Association of America, New Orleans, 11.-13. dubna 2013. 2013.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Presentations at conferences
• Field of Study: 50000 5. Social Sciences
• Country of publisher: United States of America
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• WWW: URL
• Organization unit: Faculty of Social Studies
• Keywords in English: divorce rate.sibship size; school achievement; reading literacy; development; three-generation households; co-residence
• Tags: International impact

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of co-residence with grandparents in three-generation households on the nature and size of the association between sibship size and reading test scores. It also explores whether this interaction changes with the level of socioeconomic development of a society. We argue that co-residence in traditional three-generation households has a protective effect against resource dilution, and thus decreases the magnitude of the negative association between family size and test scores. We also suggest that coresidence in more modern contexts magnifies the degree of this negative association, since modern families form three-generation households only when severely destabilized. We apply 3-level regression models to the PISA 2000 data to examine our hypotheses and use the Human Development Index as a measure of development. We find that the negative association between family size and test scores increases at higher levels of development and does so more strongly when students co-reside with grandparents. The main finding holds even when controlling statistically for public expenditure on education, public social security expenditure, and crude divorce rate.

Links

• GAP404/11/0130, research and development project: Name: Struktura rodiny a stratifikační proces: vysvětlují trend změny ve vnitrorodinných procesech, kompoziční změny anebo samo-výběr?

Investor: Czech Science Foundation, Family structure and the stratification process: Do compositional effects, changes in intra-family processes, or selection bias explain the trend?