The Family Foundation

This meeting brought together scholars from both North and South America as well as from Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania to present research on the myriad ways in which the family influences children’s education. This research led to The World Family Map Report 2013, titled Mapping Family Change and Child Well-being Outcomes.  The report aims to alert policy makers, educators, family scholars, journalists, religious leaders, and business leaders to the conclusions drawn from the research. It does this by exploring the impact of family structure (e.g., parents’ marital status), family process (e.g., parental involvement), and family economics (e.g., parental employment) on children’s educational outcomes around the world.

A large body of research indicates that children in North America are more likely to flourish in school when they are raised in an intact, married family, when their parents are affectionate and involved, and when at least one parent is employed full-time. But less is known about whether the same factors impact children in Europe and Oceania in much the same way (especially when it comes to parents’ marital status) and much less is known about how these factors influence children’s educational outcomes in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. For instance, parents’ marital status may be less important for educational outcomes in societies where kin play a central role in children’s lives—such as Malaysia or Nigeria.

Post by Social Trends Institute.