Externalities in the classroom: How children exposed to domestic violence affect everyone's kids
Date
2008
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Publisher
National Bureau Of Economic Research
Abstract
It is estimated that between ten and twenty percent of children in the United States are exposed to
domestic violence annually. While much is known about the impact of domestic violence and other
family problems on children within the home, little is known regarding the extent to which these problems
spill over to children outside the family. The widespread perception among parents and school officials
is that these externalities are significant, though measuring them is difficult due to data and methodological
limitations. We estimate the negative spillovers caused by children from troubled families by exploiting
a unique data set in which children's school records are matched to domestic violence cases filed by
their parent. To overcome selection bias, we identify the effects using the idiosyncratic variation in
peers from troubled families within the same school and grade over time. We find that children from
troubled families significantly decrease their peers' reading and math test scores and significantly increase
misbehavior of others in the classroom. The effects are heterogeneous across income, race, and gender
and appear to work primarily through troubled boys. The results are robust to within-sibling differences
and we find no evidence that non-random selection is driving the results
Description
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Keywords
exposure to violence, domestic violence, Intimate partner violence, child abuse, school, effects
Citation
Carrell , S. E., & Hoekstra, M. L. (2008). Externalities in the classroom: How children exposed to domestic violence affect everyone's kids. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau Of Economic Research.