Separation can strongly impact the environment in which a child grows up. In some cases, it can have the positive consequence of reducing the amount of parental conflict a child would experience. In other cases, parental separation can contribute to an increasing disadvantage for children due to a loss of financial resources or spending less time with a parent who moved out.

Numerous studies have confirmed that higher educated women are more likely to be involved in the labour market. However, the strength of education effects on women’s employment can be shown to vary across contexts. In a recent analysis, Nadia Steiber, Caroline Berghammer, and Barbara Haas analyze how and why education effects on women’s employment vary across countries and how these effects are modified by the presence and age of children.

Despite the recent expansion of education, children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are still less likely to attend university than children from wealthier families. This persisting inequality in educational attainment led social scientists to explore a range of possible factors behind these unequal opportunities. Given that in many countries it is very common for children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds to live without at least one parent, family structure has often been held responsible for explaining part of the inequality of opportunities between socioeconomic groups.