IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/applec/v56y2024i14p1689-1704.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Single-sex vs. Coeducational schooling: an empirical study on the mental health outcomes of middle school students

Author

Listed:
  • Seul-Ki Kim
  • Young-Chul Kim

Abstract

Unlike previous literature that mainly examined the cognitive effects of single-sex education, this study investigates its effects on students’ mental health, focusing on depression, suicide-related behaviours, and the various causes of stress. Utilizing a national-level large-scale dataset of middle school students in South Korea and employing an instrument variable approach, we find that attending single-sex schools reduces the probability of depression in female students by about 9.9% points, while no significant effect is observed for male students. Additionally, our research regarding the causes of stress uncovers that single-sex schooling reduces the stress associated with peer relationships, particularly for girls. These findings imply that the non-cognitive benefits of single-sex education may be stronger than previously thought. As a result, we advocate for a more thoughtful and inclusive implementation of school policies, taking into consideration the impact of gender peer effects at school.

Suggested Citation

  • Seul-Ki Kim & Young-Chul Kim, 2024. "Single-sex vs. Coeducational schooling: an empirical study on the mental health outcomes of middle school students," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(14), pages 1689-1704, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:56:y:2024:i:14:p:1689-1704
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2023.2291096
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00036846.2023.2291096
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00036846.2023.2291096?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:56:y:2024:i:14:p:1689-1704. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAEC20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.