What if you were told that adults who were long-term homeschooled (a) now live in lower income households than do the non-homeschooled and (b) that the long-termed homeschooled value hard work more than do the non-homeschooled? Or, that the long-term homeschooled (a) are the most likely to have done any unpaid, volunteer work than any other group but (b) less likely than the non-homeschooled to have volunteered with a social-service organization that is non-religious. You might scratch your head and wonder, what does it mean?
Background and Methodology
A new study by Cheng and Watson (2025) is appropriately entitled, “Diverse outcomes for a diverse population: Findings about homeschooled adults from the Cardus Education Survey. In previous research on adults from different school sectors (e.g., public school, private school, homeschool), some scholars have lumped together all adults who were home educated. In this study, the scholars created three categories: short-term homeschoolers (spent 1-2 years homeschooled growing up), medium-term homeschoolers (3-7 years homeschooled), and long-term homeschoolers (8-13 years homeschooled). Based on a representative panel of US adults, the sample of 2,350 adults aged 24 to 39 included 181 adults who were homeschooled for at least one year during grade kindergarten to twelfth.
The researchers “… describe how respondents who are short-, medium-, or long-term homeschoolers are faring in life by comparing them across a range of outcomes, including employment, mental health, civic engagement, faith, and family structure” (p. 8). They wanted to compare adults from these three homeschool categories, while being careful to note that their analysis and report do “… not make a causal argument about the effects of being homeschooled or the effects of being homeschooled for particular durations of time” (p. 8). They did, however, statistically control for various demographic characteristics such as “… childhood poverty, whether the respondent grew up with both biological parents, and whether the respondent grew up in a religious household, as well as the respondent’s gender, race, mother’s educational attainment, age, and urbanicity of residence” (p. 8).
Findings
Only a few of the authors’ findings are offered here. Some 27% of long-term homeschoolers have completed a bachelor’s degree or more of formal education compared to 45% and 46% for short-term homeschoolers and non-homeschoolers. At about the same rate, long-term (26%) and short-term homeschoolers (29%) were not working, while a noticeably lower portion (17%) of non-homeschoolers were not working. At the same time, a lower percent of long-term homeschoolers (35%) than short-term homeschoolers (41%) and non-homeschoolers (52%) had household incomes above the median. With that, notably fewer long-term homeschoolers (19%) said money is “very important” to them while 29% of short-term homeschoolers and 34% of non-homeschoolers said money was “very important.” Also, long-term homeschoolers (54%) more prominently valued “hard work” than did short-term homeschoolers (39%) and non-homeschoolers (42%).
In terms of mental health, the long-term homeschoolers (20%) were the least likely of all groups to “agree” or “strongly agree” that “I often feel helpless in dealing with the problems of life” (medium-term homeschoolers, 34%, short-term homeschoolers, 34%, and non-homeschoolers, 34%). Although there were not large differences, long-term homeschoolers were the most likely to agree “I have so much in life to be thankful for,” and they were notably the most likely to agree “When I think about the future, I am positive.” Long-term homeschoolers also had the lowest “depression and anxiety score” and the highest “satisfaction with life score” of all four groups.
Regarding civic engagement, long-term homeschoolers stood out positively in many ways. They were the most likely of all four groups to have done any unpaid, volunteer work and to have volunteered with a religious organization other than their church/congregation during the past 12 months. Simultaneously, long-term homeschoolers were somewhat less likely than short-term homeschoolers and notably less likely than non-homeschoolers to have volunteered with a social-service organization that is non-religious during the past 12 months? Long-term homeschoolers were the most likely of all four groups to have “… donated your own money to a non-profit charity or group” during the past year.
The area of “faith” is where some of the largest and most consistent differences between long-term homeschoolers and the other three groups were manifested. Some 72% of long-term homeschoolers responded “Yes, I definitely believe” “that God or a higher power exists” compared to medium-term homeschoolers (61%), short-term homeschoolers (56%), and non-homeschoolers (41%). Long-term homeschoolers (64%) notably chose “Yes, I definitely believe” in “life after death” than the other three groups (medium-, 46%, short-, 47%, and non-, 33%). And long-term homeschoolers more often feel that they “… experience the presence of God or some other higher power” than all of the other three groups.
Regarding marriage, long-term homeschoolers were the least likely to have never married and the most likely to be currently married. Long-term homeschoolers were also the least likely to be currently separated or divorced. Long-term homeschoolers were the most likely to say having children is “very important.” Finally, on the topic of marriage and family, long-term homeschoolers were the most likely of the four groups to have children and they also had the highest average number of children of those who did have children.
Cheng and Watson provide many easy-to-read and -digest tables and bar graphs to cover their numerous findings.
Conclusions
There are several definite differences between non-homeschoolers and short-, medium-, and long-term homeschoolers. There are also some non-differences. On some variables in the study that Christians might call worldly values, long-term homeschoolers are not as positive as those in the other groups. On the other hand, in terms of religious belief, experience, and practice and family formation, long-term homeschoolers consistently present stronger than the other three groups.
A Few Comments
First, the study is well done. Some scholars (e.g., Ray, 2004, 2015; Ray & Shakeel, 2022) have been encouraging other researchers to gather data on adults’ 13-year schooling history when considering school sector and comparing between and within school sector and these researchers did a good job at that.
Second, the researchers did well at pointing out the diversity of persons and characteristics amongst the adult population that has experienced homeschooling. They make it clear that adults who were homeschooled should not be treated as a monolithic group.
Cheng and Watson were careful to address nuances related to interpreting findings. Again, they cautioned that the design of the study does not lend itself to making causal statements. “Likewise, the findings in this report cannot speak to why homeschooling for different lengths of time might lead to different outcomes. For instance, what is it, if anything, about long-term homeschooling that leads to greater levels of religious engagement? Is it an effect of long-term homeschooling, or do families that tend to engage in long-term homeschooling engage in other practices that promote religious engagement?” (p. 36).
Fourth, despite the researchers using a representative sample panel to obtain their participants, one must be cautious about generalizing findings from a sample of 181 adults who were homeschooled to likely millions in the United States who had been homeschooled at the time of data collection. One must be careful to not assume that the sample accurately depicts the reality of the many more who had been homeschooled.
Finally, this study will engender much discussion for years to come. It is not the final word on various conditions and behaviors in adulthood attach to non-, short-, medium-, and long-term homeschooling experiences but it does lend itself to an important and engaging discussion.
References
Cheng, Albert; & Watson, Angela. (2025). Diverse outcomes for a diverse population: Findings about homeschooled adults from the Cardus Education Survey, https://www.cardus.ca/research/education/reports/diverse-outcomes-for-a-diverse-population/
Ray, Brian D. (2004). Home educated and now adults: Their community and civic involvement, views about homeschooling, and other traits. Salem, OR: National Home Education Research Institute, https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED494771
Ray, Brian D. (2015). Gen2 Survey: A spiritual and educational survey on Christian millennials. Salem, Oregon: National Home Education Research Institute. Retrieved October 28, 2019 from https://www.nheri.org/gen2-survey-a-spiritual-and-educational-survey-on-christian-millennials/
Ray, Brian D.; & Shakeel, M. Danish. (2022). Demographics are predictive of child abuse and neglect but homeschool versus conventional school is a nonissue: Evidence from a nationally representative survey. Journal of School Choice, 17(2), https://doi.org/10.1080/15582159.2022.2108879