Effects of School Discipline on Vulnerable Families

• In Event: Examining School Discipline Practices and Their Impacts on Students and Families

Abstract

A growing body of evidence demonstrates the negative impacts of exclusionary discipline practices such as out-of-school suspensions on student outcomes. Yet few studies have explored the extent to which negative impacts might also extend to families. We address this gap by asking whether and how exclusionary school discipline is related to health and labor market outcomes of the mothers of disciplined children. We use linked mother-child data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979. The NLSY79 is a nationally representative longitudinal survey of young adults. The Children’s module interviews and follows all children born to females in the NLSY79. Using an interrupted times series and propensity score matching design, we estimate the causal impact of children’s disciplinary events on mothers.

Authors

• Rebecca Gleit, Stanford University

• Victoria Elyse Sosina, Stanford University