Educational attainment of siblings in stepfamilies

In this paper, we compare the educational attainment of birth and nonbirth children of women in the US Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). We find that children raised by step, adoptive, or foster mothers obtain significantly less education, on average, than do the birth children of the same women. Nonbirth children of a woman receive, on average, I year less schooling than do her birth children. with the educational break occurring at the time children finish high school and begin college. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.