The Effect of Income and Family Structure on Child Education - Annotated Bibliography Example

The affect of income and family structure on child education Introduction Income of the parent has always had an impact on the education of the child for a long time now, whether the impact is direct or indirect. According to the research over an extended period of time, the impact of the research has shifted from generalized impact to all children in different races to having specific impact on the gender of the child; the educational level of the child as well as towards the life the child will lead in future. As the decade moves from 2000 to 2014, the effect the income of parents has towards their children continues to expand more with more dire consequences towards the future of the child. At the beginning of the new millennium and over the whole of that decade, the only worry parents had over their low income towards their children’s education was missing out on a few classes and having to catch up later on in life. However, in the recent past and in this new decade, parents with low income have to worry about the effect the low income will have on their sons and daughters separately, what kind of higher education they will get and what kind of future they will face in the public with the education they have received that is likely to be of lower quality. It is an open secret in this decade that the effects of low or high income are direr on the education of the children than was the case in the past. This is evident in the article by Duncan and Murnane (2014) which states that “rising residential segregation by income has led to increasing concentrations of low and high income children attending separate schools, peer problems, geographical mobility and challenges in attracting and retaining good teachers…making it difficult to provide consistently high quality learning experiences in schools serving a large proportion of low income children.” Mayer, Susan. The Influence of Parental Income on Children’s Outcomes. Wellington: Knowledge Management Group, 2002. Print. The author of the article discusses the general impact low income of the parents have towards several aspects of a child’s life including his education. According to the article, the level of the impact of the parents’ income on the child’s education depends on the source of the income which matters to the child as well as the child’s race. The conclusion drawn by the author is that as the size of the income decreases, the impact on the child’s educational attainment reduces. When the income is low for an extended period of time, the effects on the child’s education also tend to be extended. When however the parent has low income for only a short period of time, the impact on education dwindles and appears to be less severe. The white children’s impact on education with low income parents is less severe than the same on the children of other races such as Hispanics and African-Americans. This article represents the earliest ideas and effects on the child’s education depending on the parental income. The ideas are very general and are tied down to a comparison with other effects of the low income including on the health, the socio-emotional functioning and even behavioral problems. The deviation from the main idea minimizes the real impact on the specific field of education. Davis-Kean, Pamela. The Influence of Parent Education and Family Income on Child Achievement: The Indirect Role of Parental Expectations and the Home Environment. Journal of Family Psychology, 2005, 19(2): 294-304. Davis-Kean’s article is based on an experimental research of 8-12 year olds of non-Hispanic European Americans and African-Americans. The children had parents with different income levels and have attained different levels of academic achievements and schooling and how these affect their education as well as other socioeconomic factors. The findings of the research indicated that the parents’ income level on the other socioeconomic effects other than education had an indirect effect on the children. It however had a direct impact on the child’s education and academic achievement. The impact was also different for the different races as well. Parental schooling years and achievement also had an impact in school-going children though the impact was indirect and needed further research. The research history has not yet improved much from having focus on the general effects combined with the effects on other socioeconomic factor and with mention of effects on the child’s racial background. The only visible improvement is the fact that they have considered the parent’s schooling as well in this article as this still has an impact on motivating the child towards achieving educationally. Engle, Patrice and Maureen Black. The Effect of Poverty on Child Development and Educational Outcomes, 2008. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=psycd_f ac The article discusses how the parents with low income are poor and this has a negative effect on their children’s educational and behavioral development. The authors have moved from what had been the convention of the decade to thinking about how a combination of different factors contributes towards the lack of educational development. These factors include the lack or presence of school readiness in a child as well as a child’s ability to use and benefit from the school and its facilities no matter how meager they may be. The research is not ignoring the fact that there are children from low income, poverty-stricken families whose performance is excellent and this has been contributed by being ready for school and having the ability to benefit from it. However, with more not benefiting, it is time to move from research findings to recommendations and implementation to change this trend for the sake of future. The authors of this article are starting to escape from the generalized thinking process and moving a step further towards thinking of what can be done to alleviate the impact of parental income on the child’s education in the developed countries as well as empower family structures and alleviate poverty in the developing nations. Nichols, Austin, Josh Mitchell and Stephan Lindner. Consequences of Long-Term Unemployment. Washington DC: The Urban Institute, 2013. Print. With the economic depression and inflation having affected the world, there has been an increase in low income parents while others remain unemployed longer than they are employed even in the low paying jobs. This has severe effects on the children’s education which continues to deteriorate as the unemployment and low income period extends. The causes of the relationship include the fact that children in higher education have to drop out of school for lack of school fees and insurance. They lack learning materials that are necessary to excel in their academics. The children also face other social problems from home from lack of enough food to violence and lacking social amenities all which lead to lack of concentration with their academics and end up failing. The research moves towards the specific causes of the relationship between low income and unemployment with the child’s decreasing educational performance. This article has deviated from the norm of the past decade and shows an improvement in the level of research. The fact that this historical period follows economic downturn adds to the causal relationship mentioned above. Chevalier, Arnaud, Colm Harmon, Vincent O’Sullivan and Ian Walker. The impact of parental income and education on the schooling of their children. IZA Journal of Labor Economics, 2013, 2(8). The research has moved from effects of income level on academic performance to the resultant effects of that. It has been established that low incomes affects educational performance of children and the resultant effect of that according to this article is children leaving school before they have completed their studies. Female are more prone to withstand the effects of low income and still persevere with their education no matter how bad their performance is but the same cannot be said for the male. The conclusion that can be drawn from the above is that policies that are being developed on educational sector may change the school performance for the better in girls than boys. The policies also no matter how good and effective they are will not act to change the income permanently with the attitude the different genders are portraying. The specificity in the research continues as this one focuses on the low income effects on education for the different genders landing the conclusion that it has more negative effects on boys than girls. The research also moves from the US education and focuses on specifically other nations in the developed world range with US and seeks to compare the effects on education and whether they are similar. Duncan, Greg and Richard Murnane. Growing Income Inequality Threatens American Education. Phi Delta Kappa International, 2014. Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/03/01/kappan_duncanmurnane.html The authors of this article focus on how changes in the education field and particularly public school system may have contributed to noticing the specifics in academic performance of children from low income family which had been masked before. These includes their performance in individual subjects, the kind of families they come from as well as what their low academic performance means to their social life such as with their peer relationships. The teachers in schools with low income students have difficulty providing quality education due to the high proportion of students and hence further declining these children’s academic performance. This last article deviates even further from the norm and goes deeper into the specifics of the topic. It focuses on academic performance of specific subject which are maths, science and language skills. It further discusses how children from single-parent families with wide income gaps are more affected academically. Lastly, it states how the impact on low income on education extends deeper even into other social aspects of a child while still in school. Work Cited Chevalier, Arnaud, Colm Harmon, Vincent O’Sullivan and Ian Walker. The impact of parental income and education on the schooling of their children. IZA Journal of Labor Economics, 2013, 2(8). Davis-Kean, Pamela. The Influence of Parent Education and Family Income on Child Achievement: The Indirect Role of Parental Expectations and the Home Environment. Journal of Family Psychology, 2005, 19(2): 294-304. Duncan, Greg and Richard Murnane. Growing Income Inequality Threatens American Education. Phi Delta Kappa International, 2014. Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/03/01/kappan_duncanmurnane.html Engle, Patrice and Maureen Black. The Effect of Poverty on Child Development and Educational Outcomes, 2008. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=psycd_f ac Mayer, Susan. The Influence of Parental Income on Children’s Outcomes. Wellington: Knowledge Management Group, 2002. Print. Nichols, Austin, Josh Mitchell and Stephan Lindner. Consequences of Long-Term Unemployment. Washington DC: The Urban Institute, 2013. Print. Read More