Parents' living arrangement and the political and civic attitudes of 13-and 14-year-old children

This paper focuses on the role of parents' living arrangement in the attitudes of their children toward society. It uses data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study conducted by the International Educational Association in 2009, which surveys the civic attitudes and participation of 13- and 14-year-old students across 38 countries. In this paper, we use only 22 European countries and examine adolescents' attitudes toward trust in civic institutions, positive attitudes toward one's own country, equal rights for all ethnic groups, and positive attitudes toward gender equality. We distinguish between five living arrangements: two parent families, stepfamilies, single fathers, single mothers who live alone with their children, and single mothers in multi-generational households. The analysis shows strong and significant differences between the civic attitudes of 13- and 14-year-old students living in a two-parent family and those living in other family forms, irrespective of the country, and also after controlling for parental socioeconomic background.