Family Economics Affects Teens’ Academic Success

Recent research by Rice sociologist Holly Heard paints a startling picture for adolescents in single-mother households below the poverty level: they are more likely to get into trouble in school and less likely to expect to go to college.

“The negative impact that a nonintact family can have on a child has long been understood,” Heard says. “But the risk is particularly high for adolescents in single-mother households, because generally they are most likely to have incomes below the poverty level. In fact, the mothers’ low incomes were the single most important reason that their children were not successful academically.”

Heard’s project grew out of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health at the University of North Carolina—the largest, most comprehensive survey of adolescents to explore the causes of their health-related behaviors and outcomes in young adulthood. She compared various types of family economic resources, parental social control, parents’ educational expectations for their children, and family stress created by frequent moving. To measure the adolescents’ educational success, she examined the children’s grade point averages, their own college expectations, and whether they experienced any disciplinary problems in school.

Heard found that mothers’ income explained poor academic performance more than any other factor. Single mothers also are less likely to convey expectations of college to their child. “I don’t think it’s a lack of desire or even hope on the part of single mothers that prevents their children from attending college,” Heard says. “They may not encourage their children to strive for college because they simply can’t afford it.”

Heard believes her findings point to the need for researchers and especially policymakers to think more broadly about various family structures. “While I’m not claiming that income is the only reason for single mothers having difficulties,” Heard says, “it’s certainly their foremost challenge. Economics can really damage people in indirect ways—in ways we may not realize.”