The Long-Run Causal Effects of Single-Sex High Schools on Adult Outcomes: Survey and Experiments

拟议的研究侧重于教育机构——单性别学校（与男女同校学校相比）——在影响成年人对性别和家庭的态度以及人口和社会经济生命历程结果的性别差异方面的作用。直到2009年，一个大城市的一项独特政策要求将初中毕业生随机分配到高中，无论学校是男女同校，是公立还是私立。这一政策提供了一个极好的机会来估计单性别学校的因果影响，而在大多数其他情况下，学生或他们的家庭通常选择单性别与男女同校的学校，因此，对单性别学校的影响进行因果推断是具有挑战性的。确定单性别学校教育经历是否会影响与性别有关的态度和生命历程的结果，可以为学校环境的设计提供信息，有利于在更广泛的社会中实现性别平等。本项目由社会科学计划和社会参与科学计划资助。该项目评估单一性别的高中经历是否对个人的性别和家庭态度、对竞争、信任和互惠的态度以及三四十岁时的主要人口和社会经济结果产生长期影响。该研究小组和其他人之前的研究已经调查了随机高中分配对短期教育成果的影响。这将研究扩展到中年的长期影响。为了获得评估单性别学校对三组结果（态度、人口统计和社会经济结果）的长期因果影响的数据，进行了一项在线调查，收集了2023-24年调查时33-52岁的男性和女性的各种信息，这些人在随机分配制度下从高中毕业。除了传统的调查问题来衡量个人对性别、家庭、竞争、信任和互惠的态度外，在线调查还包括小插曲和行为实验。这种设计使团队能够捕获传统调查问题难以测量的态度维度，并比较调查实验和传统调查问题的见解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The proposed research focuses on the roles of an educational institution – single-sex schools (vs. coeducational schools)– in affecting gender differences in adult attitudes toward gender and family as well as demographic and socioeconomic life-course outcomes. A unique policy in a large city until 2009 required random assignment of middle-school graduates to high schools regardless of whether schools were single-sex or coeducational, and public or private. This policy provides an excellent opportunity to estimate causal effects of single-sex schools, compared to most other contexts where students or their families typically select single-sex vs. coeducational schools and thus it is challenging to draw causal inferences on the impacts of single-sex schools. Establishing whether single-sex schooling experiences affect gender-related attitudes and life-course outcomes can inform the design of school environments conducive to gender equality in the broader society. This project is supported by the Sociology Program and the Science of Broadening Participation Program.The project assesses whether single-sex high school experiences have long-run effects on individuals’ gender and family attitudes, attitudes toward competition, trust, and reciprocity, and major demographic and socioeconomic outcomes in their 30s and 40s. Previous studies by the research team and others have examined the impact of the random high-school assignment on short-term educational outcomes. This extends the research to longer-run effects into middle adulthood. In order to have data to assess long-run causal effects of single-sex schools on three sets of outcomes (attitudes, demographic, and socioeconomic outcomes), an online survey is conducted to collect a variety of information on men and women in the ages 33-52 at the time of the survey in 2023-24 who graduated from high schools during the random assignment regime. In addition to traditional survey questions to measure individuals’ attitudes toward gender, family, competition, trust, and reciprocity, vignettes and behavioral experiments also are included in the online survey. This design allows the team to capture attitudinal dimensions that are considered difficult to measure with traditional survey questions and to compare insights from survey experiments and traditional survey questions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.