Are Homeschooled Kids at a Disadvantage?

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Concerns about the socialization of homeschooled children have no factual foundation. Evidence shows that homeschooled students score as well as or better than traditionally schooled children on widely used measures of social development. One study found that homeschooled students substantially outperformed traditionally schooled students on measures of communication, daily living skills, socialization, and social maturity subscales, with scores at the 84th percentile compared to the 23rd percentile for the traditionally schooled students. Homeschooled students as a group also exhibit more appropriate social behavior than their traditionally schooled counterparts.  For instance, one study compared the social behavior of homeschooled and traditionally schooled children, matched along demographic and socioeconomic lines. Using the Child Behavior Checklist of 97 problem behaviors, the study found that “the mean problem behavior score for children attending conventional schools was more than eight times higher than that of the home-schooled group.” Probable explanations for this include the increased contact between homeschooled children and caring adults and less time spent in unsupervised groups of age peers. Research conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics found that the top reason cited by parents for homeschooling their children (85.4% of parents surveyed) was a concern about the environment of other schools, such as safety, drugs, and negative peer pressure.