Full Citation
Title: Educational Status of Non-biological Children in the United States: New Evidence from Federal Census Microdata
Citation Type: Working Paper
Publication Year: 2015
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Abstract: A substantial number of American children reside in adoptive or step households. Empirical research has found strong correlations between family structure and child outcomes in modern data, showing that non-biological children have lower outcomes than biological children. Few studies have examined how non-biological children fared in historical times, however. In this study, I use the public use samples of federal census microdata in 1900-1930 and 2000 to compare educational status of adopted, step, and biological children in the United States. I find that, for whites and blacks, non-biological children experienced major disadvantages compared to biological children in 1900-1930 even after controlling for child and parental characteristics. by 2000, however, the educational disadvantages of white and black adopted children have been greatly reduced or even reversed in some measures. For stepchildren, educational disadvantages have persisted for both whites and blacks, but their extent was smaller than in 1900-1930. For Asian children, I find no significant difference in educational status among adopted, stop, and biological consistent with major transformations of adoption practices and stepfamily formation in the U.S. during the twentieth century that improved parental incentives and resources to invest in non-biological children.
Url: http://www.ier.hit-u.ac.jp/primced/documents/No69_dp_up_Pdf_2014.pdf
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Authors: Moriguchi, Chiaki
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Publication Number: 69
Institution: Hitotsubashi University
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Publisher Location: Tokyo, Japan
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Education, Family and Marriage, Other
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