The impact of a parent leaving the family and children’s labour outcomes .

As Annelies already said in her blog (The effects of single parenting), the absence of a parent has its effects on an individual's labour market outcome.

In the article (The impact of parentel divorce or death on adolescents' eductaion & earnings), the authors refer to different studies which all have the same finding: the absence of a parent has some effect. 

But they disagree on what that exactly effect is. Some say that when the change in the family structure happens during the young adulthood, it will have an effect on the labour market outcomes of these individuals.

Children who were raised in a regular family are more likely to attend college and graduate. With a regular family, I mean: Mom, Dad and children. No stepfathers or stepmothers.
 In my opinion, I cannot say that I completely agree with this statement. Children from divorced parents are also perfectly able to attend and graduate college. It may be that it is less likely, but I don’t see why the family structure is an element that defines their labour market outcome. 
It is so, as Annelies said, that in a two-parent-family both parents help around. The parents will place themselves in different roles.

When there are two persons, they can divide the different chores and spend an approximately equal amount of quality-time with their offspring. This giving the children a stable situation to grow up. In this way their chances of going to college are increased.
This is also possible with a stepmother or stepfather. My theory is that the absence of a parent only has an effect when the situation at home is not stable. This can be matter if the single parent works too much or the single parent does not spend enough quality-time with their kid. So it feels neglect and it might search the attention of his parent in a wrong way.

Therefore, I conclude that the impact of a parent leaving  is not a bad thing when there is still enough parent-child quality-time.

Carol Tijtgat

Source : The impact of parentel divorce or death on adolescents' eductaion & earnings