TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Jung, Dain
AU  - Kim, Jun Hyung
AU  - Kwak, Do Won
        TI  - Who Benefits from Single-Sex Schooling?  Evidence on Mental Health, Peer Relationships, and Academic Achievements
        PY  - 2024/Sep/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 17330
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp17330
        AB  - Single-sex schooling is a controversial policy whose effects are inconsistent across different studies with its mechanisms poorly understood. Leveraging the random allocation of high school students in South Korea, we study the effect of single-sex schooling on mental health while considering its interactions with peer relationships and academic achievement. Our results closely align with gender-specific responses to competitive pressure in the literature. Female students with better academic achievement than their peers experience better mental health and peer relationships. However, relatively underperforming female students, subject to intense competitive pressure at school, do not benefit from being in the company of other female students in a single-sex environment. Impacts on male students do not significantly depend on the competitive pressures they face. Our study calls for caution in implementing educational policies that may affect competitive pressure or gender composition in schools.
        KW  - single-sex schooling
KW  - gender and competition
KW  - mental health
KW  - peer relationship
        ER  -