Mother’s education empirically tied to her family’s economic well-being, latest study shows

A social work professor at Washington University in St. Louis says that despite the latest evidence that single and married mothers can reap financial benefits from a college degree, current social policy discourages post-secondary education for women in poverty.

Moms can reap financial benefits from a college degree, says Shanta Pandey, Ph.D., associate professor at the Brown School of Social Work.
Moms can reap financial benefits from a college degree, says Shanta Pandey, Ph.D., associate professor at the Brown School of Social Work.

“In the United States, poverty is more prevalent among women with children no matter what their marital status might be,” says Shanta Pandey, Ph.D., associate professor at Washington University’s Brown School of Social Work. She points to the 2005 Current Population Survey, which shows that 7 percent of married-couple families and 35.9 percent of female-headed families with children are living below the federal poverty threshold.

In her new study, “Bachelor’s Degree for Women With Children: A Promising Pathway to Poverty Reduction,” Pandey shows how poverty among women with children can be reduced through a college education, especially when women are motivated to pursue a degree. The study is published in the current issue of the journal Equal Opportunities International.

“While our study provides additional evidence that a bachelor’s degree will help lift mothers out of poverty, it also shows that there aren’t sufficient social programs and tax incentives that encourage post-secondary education,” says Pandey. “Even minor federal efforts to promote education of poor women with children may have broad impacts.”

The solution, says Pandey, is social policy that supports and promotes college education among women with children. She suggests some initial steps that are worth considering in future welfare reform:

  • stopping the five-year lifetime welfare limit for women who are attending college;
  • allowing women to take an additional year to complete their college degree while on welfare; and
  • providing incentives to states that create education promotion policies for poor mothers.

Pandey says that the $150 million devoted to healthy marriage initiatives through the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 could be better spent on education programs for mothers. “There is a direct, tested link between education and a reduction in poverty, more so than one’s marital status.”

Of the 16.5 million undergraduate students in the United States, 2.2 million are single parents. Of that number, 70 percent is female, and more than 50 percent of the female single-mother students end up dropping out of college.

“These single-mother students juggle multiple responsibilities of bread winning and care giving as they pursue their education and therefore, it is no surprise that they have the highest risk of leaving before completing college education,” says Pandey.

“Considering that nearly 25 percent of all families with children are headed by a single mother and nearly 24 percent of all children are in a single-mother family home, we need to fund initiatives that will keep women in school and increase their earning capacities. Childcare, transportation, peer mentoring and similar programs will help not only mothers, but their children and future generations.”

Pandey’s study finds that compared to mothers without a high school degree, those with a four-year college degree are three to 10 times more likely to live above the federal poverty line.

“Poverty among college-educated mothers, irrespective of their marital status, is consistently low.”

Policy changes needed

Pandey and her study co-authors, Min Zhan, Ph.D., assistant professor of social work at the University of Illinois, and Youngmi Kim, social work doctoral student at Washington University, used survey data from the year 2000 of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79).

The NLSY79 is a nationally representative sample of 12,686 individuals between 14 and 22 years of age when they were first surveyed in 1979. These respondents were interviewed annually between 1979 and 1994, and now are interviewed on a biennial basis.

While the primary focus of the NLSY79 survey is to learn more about labor force behavior, the survey contains an expansive set of questions ranging from child-care costs to welfare receipt.

The sample for Pandey’s study included 770 single mothers and 1,165 married mothers.

According to Pandey, the good news is over the years more American women have attained a bachelor’s degree and this trend is likely to continue given the uncertainties of marriage.

The bad news, however, is that welfare reform policies may have discouraged college education of some of the very poor women with children.

“We found that the share of low-income mothers who acquired some college education decreased in the post-reform period by 2.2 percent,” she says.

“The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 has further reduced an opportunity for college education of very poor women,” Pandey adds.

“The legislation has strengthened work requirements by requiring states to engage 50 percent of its single mothers caseload to participate in work and work-related activities. Any time spent toward a baccalaureate or advanced degree education is not considered work.”

Editor’s note: Shanta Pandey is available for interviews. Television and radio reporters can conduct live or taped interviews via Washington University’s broadcast studio, which is equipped with VYVX and ISDN lines.