Spillover effects from the divorce of peer parents: Evidence from student academic achievements in China

Although the impact of parental divorce on children’s human capital development has received sufficient attention from scholars, little has been paid to the potential spillovers. Based on a quasi-natural experiment with random student-classroom assignment in secondary schools in China, we aimed to explore whether the peer parental divorce (PPD) can have a negative spillover effect on students’ academic achievements in a class. The results show that the PPD negatively impacted students’ test scores and cognitive abilities, but this adverse effect is not reflected in non-cognitive abilities. Mechanism analyses suggested that this spillover effect may be explained by the decline in parental expectations, development of students’ negative expectations and learning behaviors, and drop in teachers’ efforts and enthusiasm. Moreover, we found that the negative spillovers of PPD are more pronounced for urban children, only children, and non-poor children. Furthermore, supports from teachers, parents, and friends is expected to mitigate this adverse spillover effects. Our study reveals the spillovers from parental divorce, suggesting that the negative effects of divorce on human capital are not confined within the family. These findings further provide some insights into mitigating the human capital loss from divorce.