title: It Takes a Village (Perhaps a Nation): Families, States, and Educational Achievement.
abstract: Research in the United States has shown that children growing up in 2-parent households do better in school than children from single-parent households. We used the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) data to test whether this finding applied to other countries as well (N= 100,307). We found that it did, but that the educational gap was greater in the United States than in the other 13 countries considered. Results from 2-level hierarchical linear models demonstrated that international differences in the educational gap were associated with several indicators of national policy and demographic contexts. No single policy appeared to have a large effect, but several policy combinations were associated with substantially reduced educational gaps between children from different family structures.
authors.affiliation: University of California, Los Angeles.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Heuveline
authors.affiliation: Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.
authors.forename: Hongxing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: University of Cincinnati.
authors.forename: Jeffrey M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Timberlake
keywords: childhood/children; cross-national; education; family policy; family structure; multilevel models