Single-sex and co-educational secondary schooling: What are the social and family outcomes, in the short and longer term?

(2012) - A Sullivan, H Joshi, D Leonard

Journal: Longitudinal and Life Course Studies
Link:: http://www.llcsjournal.org/index.php/llcs/article/view/148
DOI:: 10.14301/llcs.v3i1.148
Links::
Tags:: #paper #NCDS #Gender #Family #SchoolType
Cite Key:: [@sullivanSinglesexCoeducationalSecondary2012]

Abstract

This paper considers the question of whether attending a single-sex or co-educational secondary school made any difference to a range of social outcomes for girls and boys at school, and for men and women as they progressed through the life course. We examine these questions using data from a large and nationally representative sample of British respondents born in 1958. The outcomes examined include whether or not the participants liked school; their histories of partnership formation and dissolution; childbearing; attitudes to gender roles; and well-being. Among the minority of outcomes showing a significant link to attending a single sex school were lower truancy, and for males, dislike of school, divorce, and malaise at 42 (if they had been to private or grammar schools).

Notes

“We find no net impact of single-sex schooling on the chances of being employed in 2000, nor on the horizontal or social class segregation of mid-life occupations. But we do find a positive premium (5%) on the wages of women (but not men), of having attended a single-sex school.” (Sullivan et al., 2011, p. 311)