The Effects of School Day Duration on Families in Developing Nations
Extending the length of the traditional school day may have unintended consequences for families, including a notable rise in divorce rates, according to a recent study co-authored by María Padilla-Romo, John Quincy and Wanda Weems Wisecarver Faculty Fellow and associate professor in Haslam’s Department of Economics.
For the past decade, Padilla-Romo has studied the effects of lengthening the school day for elementary students, especially in developing countries. Her first project evaluated a Mexican government program that extended the school day from four-and-a-half to eight hours. She found the program boosted both short- and long-term student learning. “It changes the trajectory of their education,” she says. “Even nearly a decade later, exposed students achieved higher test scores through middle and high school.” As a former teacher, these results spoke to Padilla-Romo’s commitment to improving the quality of education.
Unintended Consequences
Padilla-Romo then explored the broader impacts of longer school days, with one notable outcome being increased labor force participation among women. In Mexico, like many developing countries, women make up a smaller share of the workforce. “When the program started in 2007, only 42 percent of women participated in the labor market in Mexico, compared to 59 percent in the U.S.,” Padilla-Romo explains. “Greater financial independence also can influence family dynamics.”
Curious as to how increased income and resources might affect marriages, Padilla-Romo and her co-researchers dug further. Would financial independence reduce conflict at home, or might it lead to more domestic violence or divorces, as women gain the means to leave troubled relationships? “Theoretically, there are competing forces on both sides,” she says. “So, we turned to the data to find out.”
The resulting paper,1 published earlier this year in the Journal of Public Economics, finds that extending the Mexican elementary school day by three-and-a-half hours led to a significant rise in divorce rates, especially in regions with non-traditional societal norms. To reach this conclusion, Padilla-Romo and her coauthors analyzed divorce records, regional participation in the school program, and data from the World Values Survey (WVS), a global study of cultural and political values, which helped the researchers classify areas by whether they hold traditional or nontraditional social norms. “We examined survey responses to statements like ‘If the wife makes more than the husband, that is likely to cause problems,’” Padilla-Romo explains. “Areas where respondents agreed with this and similar statements were classified as holding to more traditional social norms.”
The researchers combined the data into a single dataset and developed measures for social norms, exposure to the extended school day program, and divorce rates. Some of their analysis supports the idea that longer school days increase women’s labor force participation, which may help explain the rise in divorce rates.
Broad Implications
Padilla-Romo’s research aims to reveal both the intended and unintended consequences of policy decisions, rather than offer recommendations.
“When you’re making decisions, it’s important to understand how they affect everyone—from students to parents and grandparents,” she says. “Our work shows that while these policies improve student learning, they also influence family life, labor dynamics, and household structure, all factors that should be considered in policymaking.”
