Childhood household composition and future economic outcomes : Are children of single parent families experiencing growing disadvantages as adults in Sweden?

Abstract: Family is a unit of socialization and transmitter of social, cultural and economic resources. Thus family arrangements may result in unequal future outcomes for the children growing up in them. A case in point is children from single parent households. The aim of this study is to investigate whether children growing up in single parent households in Sweden experience growing disadvantages during the life course, compared to children from two-parent households, and if socioeconomic factors explain this association. Previous literature shows that children from single parent households are disadvantaged but few have investigated the long term effects of childhood household composition in Sweden and whether disadvantages grow over time.  Using Swedish representative, longitudinal data from Generations and Gender Survey round 2 (GGSII), individuals living in Sweden during childhood between ages 20 to 59 were observed during the years 1990 to 2019. With ordered logistic regression for each year, earnings trajectories could be analyzed, with semi-elasticities used for interpretation.  The results showed that respondents from single parent households fare worse in future earnings compared to respondents from two-parent household. This is explained by differences in educational attainment: children from single parent households have lower educational level which produce lower future earnings. The effect is statistically significant during several years after 2010, however, the results show no evidence of growing disadvantages. Socioeconomic background partially alter the association but not entirely. Whether socioeconomic background functions as a confounder or a mediator to the association has not been determined in this study but is an important task for future research in order to establish the causal nature of socioeconomic background in relation to childhood household composition and children’s future outcomes.