Page 17 - IJPS-3-2

Heuveline P and Hong S

3.3 Literacy
Last, we consider the educational proficiency of all children between the ages of 6 and 17 years as assessed by their
literacy. Unfortunately, literacy is only reported as a dummy variable and our models are thus similar to those for
school enrollment. In these models, however, the effects of living arrangements and household structure are generally
smaller than in the previous two sets of models and none of them are significant. For the model including all children,
for instance, the odds of literacy for children co-residing with only one of their biological parents is 20% lower than for
those co-residing with both (Table 4). More surprisingly in this model, children who reside with neither of their parents,
have the better odds of being literate than those residing with both, even though, again, the odds ratio is not significantly
different from one. This may either indicate no effect or a combination of negative effects for some children and positive
effects for some other children. While we typically expect negative selection for not residing with any parent, some
positive selection is possible as well. For instance, parents may send those children that are doing better in school, to stay
with relatives in order to facilitate their further studies.
Controlling for parental characteristics, we find again that parental literacy and employment in either crafts or civil
service are the parental characteristics most associated with higher odds of literacy. We again find gender differences
in favor of girls, whose odds of literacy are 20% to 27% higher than those of boys across models. Also of note, the
age pattern only flattens after age 11 (between the age groups 12 to 14 & 15 to 17), indicating a protracted process of
becoming literate. The odds of being literate among 9 to 11 year-olds are only one sixth of the odds among 12 to 17 year-
olds.

4. Discussion
Our analyses of the effects of residing with only one or no biological parent on children’s school enrollment, grade-
for-age, and literacy reveal some similarities with the effects that have been well documented in high-income Nations.
Consistent with our Hypothesis 1, we find the odds of being in school for children residing with their biological mother
but not with their biological father to be 40% lower than for those residing with both biological parents; and when they
are in school, the former are enrolled in a lower grade on average. Their odds of being literate are also 24% lower than
their peers residing with both parents, but this difference is not significant. Compared with children residing with both
parents, the observed disadvantage of residing with only one parent appears to be up to twice larger across these indicators
when the absent parent is the child’s mother rather than the child’s father—a finding consistent with earlier research (e.g.,
Llyod, and Blanc, 1996). Relatedly, we find school enrollment increases when mothers are literate and employed in a
sector other than farming, which might correlate with a greater influence on familial decisions.
With respect to Hypotheses 2a & 2b, we estimated differences in grade-for-age between Cambodian children residing
with only one versus both of their parents amounting to 0.13 of a SD (0.23 over 1.75, Tables 1 and 3) in a model without
parental characteristics, and barely changed (0.14 of a SD, 0.24 over 1.75) when some maternal characteristics are
added. The literacy gradient is comparatively larger, amounting to roughly half of a SD (0.23 over .44, Tables 1 and
4) before and nearly two thirds of a SD (0.27 over .44) after maternal characteristics are introduced. By this metric,
differences in Cambodia appear to be within the range of those found in a number of high-income Nations as reviewed
in our Background section. Contrary to what has been suggested elsewhere in Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia and
Thailand), we do not find that living with only one parent due to the death of the other parent reduces the educational
gradient. In fact, none of the coefficients for parental survival are significant and if anything the odds of being in school
and literate are lower for children not living with their father when the father is deceased. While educational gradients
have been found to be smaller in poor Nations than in rich ones, our results are more consistent with the hypothesis that
the relative lack of welfare support at the time of the survey contributed to produce relatively large educational gradients
in this low-income Nation. In this respect, the future impact of the RGC’s steps towards a more comprehensive and
integrated social protection system will deserve further analysis.
As indicated in the background section, educational expenses may account in some households for a sizable portion
of the household’s disposable income left after purchasing basic necessities. Although we are limited in our ability to
assess household’s financial situation, we find that socio-economic indicators are positively associated with children’s
school attendance, grade-for-age, and literacy (parents employed in non-agricultural sectors and when farming, not as
paid laborers). This likely explains in part the evidence we find in support of Hypothesis 3 that, consistent with results in
the U.S.A., living in a multi-generational households substantially improves children’s educational outcomes. Anecdotal
evidence suggests that parents may move into a multi-generational living arrangement to increase their own mobility
and ability to respond to more remote work opportunities. On some measures, we even found that children not residing
with either parent fared better than those residing with both parents, which may also be attributed to the opportunistic

International Journal of Population Studies | 2017, Volume 3, Issue 2 11