Variations in the Experience of Job Displacement for Single Mothers and the Effects on Their Children’s Educational Outcomes

Juli Simon Thomas, University of California, Los Angeles

Parental job displacement can lead to unemployment, but the length of unemployment following a displacement varies substantially, in some cases not occurring at all; additionally, job displacements can occur more than once during a parent’s career, and they can occur at a time of many or few other layoffs. Brand and Simon Thomas (2012) find significant decreases in high school completion and college attendance as well as increases in depression among children whose single mothers were displaced. This study examines variations in single mothers’ job displacement experiences and the effects on children’s educational outcomes, including high school completion, college attendance, public versus private school attendance, two-year versus four-year college attendance, and full- or part-time college attendance. The National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1979, the Child-Mother File, and Mass Layoff Statistics are used to move toward a more nuanced understanding of the effects of parental job displacement on children’s educational outcomes.