Single-Parenthood and Educational Achievement in Five Asian Countries -- Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Thailand -- in PISA

Hyunjoon Park, University of Wisconsin at Madison

Regarding the effects of family structure on children's educational outcomes, our knowledge has been limited mostly to American or European experiences. Extending our focus into non-Western societies with significantly different social and cultural structure will provide further insights into the roles of institutional contexts for the linkage. This paper addresses the extent to which children from single-parent families experience disadvantages in their educational achievement in five Asian countries--Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Thailand--participating in the first round of PISA 2000-2002 (Program for International Student Assessment). In terms of public welfare provision, prevalence of single-parent family, and family network, these Asian countries provide interesting contexts for comparison. In Asian contexts, this study compares the extent to which the gaps in reading literacy between students from single-parent families and two-parent families are explained by 1) economic conditions of family and 2) parental involvement in interaction with their children.