Enkele gevolgen van werkloosheid en arbeidsongeschiktheid in de verzorgingsstaat. Ongelijke onderwijskansen van kinderen

Samenvatting

Unequal chances in a West-European welfare state: some negative effects of unemployment and occupational disability on school achievements. The Dutch welfare state guarantees its inhabitants social security. Unemployed or occupational disabled receive an income that attends to a social minimum. Moreover, there is rent subvention, child benefits and a bursary for his or her children. Therefore one might expect no second generation effects of unemployment and occupational disability. The question here is whether children of nonworking fathers have worse school careers than children of working fathers. We controlled for relevant social background variables like educational level of both parents, gender of the child and occupation of the mother. The research results show a negative relationship. In spite of all kind of provisions a welfare state supplies, there are still independent, negative effects of unemployment and occupational disability of fathers on the school careers of their children. The impact of father's unemployment on children's scholastic achievement was assessed via a comparison of the test results of Dutch secondary school students whose fathers were either employed or unemployed in 1977 (total N = 22,000+). Parents' education, mother's occupation, and student's gender were used as control variables. It was found that father's unemployment, whatever the cause, reflected negatively on children's scholastic performance. 5 Tables, 18 References. Modified AA