Early School Dropouts in Türkiye: The Influence of Personal and Family Characteristics

This study presents evidence on how individual and family factors affects the probability of educational dropout behavior in Türkiye by utilizing data from Household Labor Force Survey (HLFS) provided by Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) for the period 2004–2023. A probit model is employed to analyze the factors determining the school dropout probability of children aged 7-18. The results indicate that the impact of age on dropout probability is more pronounced for boys. As education level is increased, dropout probability is found to decrease in line with the findings in the literature. An increase in parental education results in a decrease in the dropout probability while the father's education level has a stronger impact on dropout rates than the mother's education level in both 2013 and 2023. Children in co-parenting households are less likely to leave school compared to those in single-parent households in all years. The influence of region on dropout probability is stronger for girls than for boys supporting the presence of a patriarchal social structure, and a conservative family environment towards girls' schooling across regions.