The effects of single -parent households versus two -parent households on student academic success, attendance, and suspensions

The traditional family has been replaced predominantly by stepfamilies, binuclear families, and extended families often headed by grandparents. The purpose of this dissertation was to determine if there was a relationship between single-parent households versus two-parent households on student success as measured by Grade Point Average (GPA), attendance, achievement, and suspensions. The essential research questions were the following: (1) Do students from two-parent households receive better grades in school compared to students from single-parent households? (2) Do students from two-parent households attend school with more frequency than children from single-parent households? (3) Are students from single-parent households suspended more frequently from school than students from two-parent households? The research hypothesis stated that academic success for students who live in two-parent households will be greater than students who primarily live in single-parent households, while the number of absences and suspensions will be lower. A quantitative research methodology was used to analyze student data. The independent variable of this research study was the type of families involved: single-parent and two-parent families. The dependent variable was the academic success of the students from both single-parent and two-parent households as measured by student academic success, attendance, and suspensions. The results found that there was not a statistically significant difference between the GPA scores of students who lived in single-parent households compared to scores of students who lived in two-parent households, while the test on absences found that there was a relationship between the number of times a student was absent and the type of household in which the student lived. The highest number of absences was found in the single-parent households. In addition, the results of the study found that the highest number of tardies was found in the single-parent households. Last, the study found that there was not a relationship between the number of times a student was suspended and the type of household in which the student lived