Effects of single parenthood on educational aspiration and student disengagement in Korea

The recent rapid increase in divorce, along with its distinctive cultural and welfare environments for single-parent families, makes Korea an interesting case for examining effects of single parenthood on children’s education. Using data from Korean 9th and 12th graders, I compare the levels of educational aspiration and student disengagement between students with two parents and those with a single parent, distinguishing divorced single fathers, widowed single fathers, divorced single mothers, and widowed single mothers. Logistic regression analyses show that students with a divorced single parent, regardless of gender of the parent, are much less likely to aspire to four-year university education and more likely to be disengaged than their counterparts with two parents. The effects of widowhood disappear once control variables are held constant. Lower household income among single-parent families explains in part the poorer educational outcomes of their children. Parent-child interaction is another important mediating factor for the effect of single fatherhood but not for single motherhood. The relevance of the extended family system and distinctive features of post-divorce living arrangements in Korea is discussed to understand the effects of single parenthood.divorce, educational aspiration, Korea, school disengagement, single-parent families

Literacy Gaps by Educational Attainment: A Comparative Study of 19 Countries

Using data of literacy skills among adults aged 26 to 35 from the International Adult Literacy Survey, we compare the degree of literacy gaps between those who completed tertiary education and those who did not graduate from high schools across 19 countries. The result of ordinary least square regression shows that although those with a higher level of educational attainment tend to have a higher level of literacy skills in all countries, countries substantially vary in the degree of literacy gaps by educational attainment. The cross-national variation in the literacy gap is mainly driven by between-country differences in the level of literacy skills among those who did not graduate from high school. The result of two-level hierarchical linear models, furthermore, shows that the cross-national variation in the literacy gap by educational attainment is in part attributable to between-country differences in standardization of educational systems and the extent to which adult education and training are offered to the low educated. We discuss theoretical and policy implications of the findings for addressing inequality of literacy skills

Diverging gaps in childcare time by parental education in South Korea

Background: Parental time is a key resource for children's development. Studies in the United States highlight diverging gaps in parental time for children between highly educated and low-educated parents. South Korea offers an interesting context in which to examine the trend. Objective: This study assesses whether differences in childcare time have diverged or converged between parents with higher and lower levels of education over the 15-year period. Utilizing the advantage of household survey, the total amount of childcare time spent by both fathers and mothers is examined, in addition to separate time for each parent. Methods: The Korean Time Use Surveys (KTUS), conducted in 1999, 2004, 2009, and 2014, provide time diary data for two consecutive days. OLS regression models are applied to 14,044 married mothers and fathers who have at least one child under school age in order to examine how educational differences in childcare time have changed across the four surveys. Results: The OLS results show that both mothers and fathers have spent increasingly more time for childcare between 1999 and 2014, regardless of educational levels. However, the rise of time use is more substantial among mothers and fathers with a university degree than their counterparts with high school or less education. The diverging trend is even more evident for the combined childcare time spent by both mothers and fathers. Contribution: The divergence in childcare time by parental education is consistent with emerging trends of growing educational gaps in family behavior in Korea, raising the concern for diverging destinies between advantaged and disadvantaged children

Growing Educational Differentials in the Retreat from Marriage among Korean Men

Applying discrete-time hazard models to person-year data constructed from 1% microdata sample of 2010 Korean Census, we explore how men’s education affects their transition to first marriage, and how the relationship between education and marriage has changed across three 10-year birth cohorts of Korean men born from 1946 to 1975. Currently, there is only limited knowledge on how education is related to marriage formation and how the effect is contingent upon macro contexts of education, economy, and family among East Asian men. We find that the high educated delay marriage until later ages but catch up to the extent to which they are eventually more likely to marry than the low educated. There is a continued trend across cohorts toward the delay and avoidance of marriage at all educational levels. However, the trend of retreat from marriage has been more substantial for men with high school or less education compared to men with a university degree, leading to growing educational gaps over time in marriage. We discuss the findings in the contexts of deteriorating economic prospects of Korean men with lower education and also the declining pool of potential spouses for the low educated

« Très bien, mais peut mieux faire » : les réponses apportées par le système éducatif coréen aux résultats de l’enquête PISA

Les élèves de Corée du Sud (que l’on nommera ci-après « Corée ») ont régulièrement obtenu des résultats exceptionnels lors des évaluations internationales mesurant les performances scolaires, telles que l’enquête TIMSS ou l’enquête PISA, suscitant l’intérêt des universitaires et décisionnaires du monde entier qui cherchent à identifier l’origine de la réussite des élèves coréens. Mais parallèlement, le système éducatif coréen a fait l’objet de vives critiques, qui ont souvent pris la forme de..