Longitudinal and Life Course Studies (E-Journal)
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A cohort analysis of subjective wellbeing and ageing: heading towards a midlife crisis?
Full text linkUsing eight waves from the German Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics (pairfam), we analyse how different domains of subjective wellbeing evolve within seven years (2008–2015) in three different cohorts born 10 years apart (1971/73, 1981/83, and 1991/93). This study contributes to the ongoing debate about subjective wellbeing following a U-shaped pattern over the life course. In four domains our results show the first half of such a U-shaped pattern: on average, general life satisfaction – as well as satisfaction with leisure time, social contacts and friends, and family – declines substantially between the ages of 15 and 44, with the most significant decrease taking place at a young age (early 20s). Nevertheless, trajectories among the three cohorts differ markedly, indicating that, ceteris paribus, responses on subjective wellbeing differ greatly between cohorts born just a decade apart. The results further indicate that the two older cohorts assess family life and social contacts more favourably than the youngest cohort
Changing fortunes? Aspiration and realisation for looked after young people’s post-compulsory educational pathways in England
Full text linkAbstract The post-compulsory educational pathways of young people who have spent some or all of their childhoods in local authority care varied. They are seven times less likely to attend university than their age contemporaries not in care. Even those with some qualifications at age 16 face difficulties in progression. Based on the English data from a European study of young people with a public care background, this paper sets out six pathways and investigates whether and how young people’s aspirations and goals for the short term were realised. The paper argues that among this group of young people who were in local authority care the dominant positioning is of self-responsibility for achieving plans, in line with individualist thinking. But such positioning is an overly optimistic picture; many barriers to the realisation of plans were also evident.
Does the association between teen births or abortions and educational attainment vary by socioeconomic background in Finland?
Full text linkTeen mothers often have a lower socioeconomic position as adults than other women due to selection, opportunity costs of childbearing, or both. Few studies examine whether that is the case after an induced abortion as well. Also, few studies explore whether the strength of the association between teen pregnancy and adulthood socioeconomic position differs by family background. This study uses Finnish register data of 53,252 women born between 1975 and 1979 to examine with logistic regression whether the likelihood of having tertiary education depends differently on teen birth and abortion experiences by parental socioeconomic position. I also control for and report whether having a partner providing childcare helps mitigate the negative association between teen motherhood and education. The results show teen mothers had lower odds than those who aborted to have tertiary education, and both groups were behind those with no teen pregnancy. These groups’ education did not vary statistically significantly by family background, although the gap in the probability of having tertiary education between teen mothers and those with no teen pregnancy among the lowest socioeconomic backgrounds was 43%-points, and only 27%-points among the highest. Teen mothers with and without a partner had similar probabilities of having tertiary education (8– 11%). Those who had an abortion and subsequently separated from their partner, however, had similar probability of having tertiary education as teen mothers (13%), although others who had an abortion had a much higher probability (20%). Selection shapes these relationships. Survey and register data should be combined to study these associations using methods of causal inference
Do private school girls marry rich?
Full text linkThis paper considers for the first time whether there is school-type homogamy, and whether for women there are significant advantages from private schooling as a consequence of school-type homogamy. Its focus is Britain, where a private education is associated with substantial labour market advantages and where access is socially exclusive. We find that privately educated women are 7 percentage points more likely than observably similar state-educated women to marry privately educated men. Privately educated married women have husbands who earn 15% higher pay, according to the BHPS-UKHLS panel (20% at age 42, according to the British Cohort Study). Causation is not established and considerable caution would be needed if interpreting these associations as reflecting causal effects from private schools. The findings nevertheless raise anew the issue of the negative association between Britain’s private schooling and social mobility
Volume 9, No 2
No full textFull issue of Longitudinal and Life Course Studies journal, Volume 9, No 2
From imputation to impact
Full text linkThe topics included in this issue range from the imputation of missing data in longitudinal surveys to demonstrating that their results make a difference in the public arena – both challenges to our research field the world over. Along the way through these pages, the papers include studies of various intergenerational transmissions of social advantages and disadvantages, and social predictors of the mental health of adults. As it happens, three Australian longitudinal datasets feature in these contributions, suggesting that the creation and analysis of longitudinal data resources is thriving ‘down under’
From bad to worse? Effects of multiple adverse life course transitions on mental health
Full text linkThis paper examines whether the simultaneous occurrence of two or more adverse life course transitions has a stronger effect on mental health compared to the effects of the sum of each. The focus is on four life course transitions (partner loss (divorce/separation or death), death of a parent, unemployment, disability) and the data come from a large four-wave longitudinal dataset in the Netherlands (N = 4,192 respondents). There is clear evidence that negative life course transitions tend to cluster. Of the four transitions, partner loss and disability onset have the largest negative impact on mental health but unemployment also has a clear effect. There is not only additive but also interactive accumulation during the life course: one adverse event has a more negative impact on mental health when it occurs simultaneously with another. This provides evidence on the link between ‘turbulent times’ in the life course and negative mental health trajectories. We did not find evidence that effects of adverse transitions depend on education.
Mental health problems and social disadvantages as predictors of teenage parenthood: A register-based population study of Swedish boys and girls
Full text linkIt has been argued that the relationship between mental health and teenage parenthood might be explained by the connection of social disadvantage and mental health. This paper embraces a life course approach and investigates the link between social and health disadvantages and teenage parenthood in Sweden, in attempt to disentangle experiences of early mental health problems from other social disadvantage factors. The research questions were explored through random intercept logistic models for panel data. The data for this study consists of all individuals born in Sweden between 1989 and 1994, drawn from Swedish population registers. The final models comprised 680,848 individuals who were followed throughout their teenage years. The results show that mental health problems in youth function as an independent predictor of teenage parenthood, even after adjusting for other social disadvantage factors. This observation applies for both boys and girls. Activities aimed at increasing the perceived life opportunities of youth and giving significance to life may be considered as means of preventing teenage parenthood through policy. This study suggests that such activities could be extended to include teenagers with mental health problems
Sex of older siblings and stress resilience
Full text linkThe aim was to investigate whether older siblings are associated with development of stress resilience in adolescence and if there are differences by sex of siblings. The study used a Swedish register-based cohort of men (n=664 603) born between 1970 and 1992 who undertook military conscription assessments in adolescence that included a measure of stress resilience: associations were assessed using multinomial logistic regression. Adjusted relative risk ratios (95% confidence intervals) for low stress resilience (n=136 746) compared with high (n=142 581) are 1.33 (1.30, 1.35), 1.65 (1.59, 1.71) and 2.36 (2.18, 2.54) for one, two and three or more male older siblings, compared with none. Equivalent values for female older siblings do not have overlapping confidence intervals with males and are 1.19 (1.17, 1.21), 1.46 (1.40, 1.51) and 1.87 (1.73, 2.03). When the individual male and female siblings are compared directly (one male sibling compared with one female sibling, etc.) and after adjustment, including for cognitive function, there is a statistically significant (p<0.005) greater risk for low stress resilience associated with male siblings. Older male siblings may have greater adverse implications for psychological development, perhaps due to greater demands on familial resources or inter-sibling interactions