Longitudinal and Life Course Studies (E-Journal)
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Disability and the transition to adulthood: A life course contingency perspective
No full textBuilding on research on the social nature of health, we view disability as a life course contingency wherein effects are differentially consequential during the transition to adulthood based on interactions between disability type and institutional characteristics of life course pathways. Using data from the United States National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (n=2299 females and 2197 males, respectively), we utilise logit-link latent class analyses to model pathways to early adulthood and assess the effects of disability on these pathways. Results show that disability is variably connected to the transition to adulthood. Specifically, cognitive rather than physical disability is strongly connected to disadvantaged pathways, largely because it disrupts educational attainments that are the fundamental building blocks of the more advantageous pathways into adulthood and has effects consistently larger than several key sociodemographic indicators. Results are discussed with reference to life course capitalisation processes and a conceptualisation of disability in relation to the institutional logics and contexts that are the backdrop to contemporary role transitions
Voicing young and older adult care-leavers in Belgium: How the experience of being in care shapes narratives of the self
Full text linkIn this contribution results of a qualitative study on adult care leavers in Flanders (Belgium) are discussed. Life history interviews with 38 adult care leavers (21-66 years) were conducted to shed light on how a history of being in residential/foster care may impact on further lives. In this article focus is on the identity (and identity changes) of care leavers to explore the process of psychological transition to adulthood.The process of psychological transition is characterised by identity changes; care leavers move away from a care-identity to another, more conventional identity. The narratives clearly evidence the existence of a care-identity, characterised by a perception of a decrease/loss of selfhood. For most care leavers, identification with the group of institutionalised youth and stigmatization leaves a negative imprint on their self-image. However, as care leavers age, new and more conventional identities are developed, making the negative imprint of the care-identity diminish over time. While the care-identity probably will not completely disappear it will be pushed more to the background as it may co-exist with new and conventional identities.In order to initiate/complete the psychological transition to adulthood, the processing of traumatic events is crucial. Also, parenthood and a job in the social care sector are important turning points instigating psychological transition. Remarkably, the process of psychological transition is often prompted later in adulthood, underscoring the importance of a longitudinal perspective both in research and policy (aftercare)
Timing and duration of social assistance receipt during childhood on early adult outcomes
Full text linkThe experience of economic disadvantage during childhood is a major predictor of a variety of negative outcomes during early adulthood. This study provides evidence on the significance of timing of social assistance receipt during childhood on children’s later adjustment problems. The study uses data from the 1987 Finnish Birth Cohort (FBC), which covered all children born in Finland in 1987 (N=59476) and followed them until the age of 25. The data were gathered from Finnish registers that cover health and sociodemographic data for cohort members and their parents. Altogether 11,062 female (38.1%) and 11,537 male (37.9%) cohort members had parents who had received social assistance. Social assistance receipt during childhood increased the risk for all measured adjustment problems: early school leaving (OR 2.37), conviction (OR 1.87), teenage pregnancy (OR 1.89) and mental disorders (OR 1.68) even when adjusting for several social background variables. Economic disadvantage during early childhood (0–2 years) was found to associate with highest risk; all measured adjustment problems compared to exposure to poverty later in childhood. The study concludes that early childhood is a period in which children acquire cognitive and social competencies that form the basis for future wellbeing. Our analysis, based on a total nation-wide birth cohort, indicates that economic disadvantage in early childhood poses the most significant risk for later adjustment problems
Review of 'Pathways to Adulthood'
No full textA review of 'Pathways to Adulthood: Educational opportunities, motivation and attainment in times of social change' by Ingrid Schoon and Rainer K. Silbereisen (Eds), 2017. UCL Institute of Education Press, ISBN: 978-1-78277-208-
Generations and Gender Survey study profile
Full text linkThe Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) is a panel study on families, life course trajectories and gender relations. The GGS is part of the Generations and Gender Programme (GGP), a unique research infrastructure providing open access data to registered researchers. We will be focusing on the GGS waves that were already collected. With large samples per country, the GGS microdata provides researchers with a key resource to examine changes in family life, inter-generational and gender relations. The analysis of these trends is at the core of the research produced in several social science disciplines and the GGS data users have extensively used it to better understand topics such as the transition to adulthood, partnership formation and dissolution, fertility, gender roles and caring responsibilities. In the first part of this study profile, we focus on the design features of the GGS (data collection and adjustment, panel maintenance, and coverage) and subsequently we provide an overview of the organisational setup and outputs of the GGP. In the last part we reflect on the opportunities and challenges ahead of the next round of data collection
Paths to adulthood and advances in anonymisation
Full text linkThis last issue of Volume 9 has cross-cutting contributions from a number of countries in Europe – including (still) the UK – and North America, and from sociology, demography, epidemiology and statistics. The empirical research is mainly confined to people early to mid adulthood from age 18 to 40. Readers interested in childhood and later life may nevertheless find the articles of relevance, and all should take note of the issue of data privacy. This introduction tries to bring out some common themes
Examining life course trajectories of lesbian, gay and bisexual people in England – exploring convergence and divergence among a heterogeneous population of older people
Full text linkBecause of limitations in collecting sexuality data, there are very few studies that quantitatively explore the life courses of lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) individuals. Likewise it is rare that normative patterns of life course trajectories are assessed in terms of their applicability to LGB individuals. We review the current literature on LGB life course trajectories and discuss potential reasons for gaps in the literature. We explore approaches for defining LGB status. We use data from a cohort of people aged 50 and over (English Longitudinal Study of Ageing) to explore the tempo and occurrences of transitions to adulthood and to older age, and establish some of the differences based on sexual orientation. We examine the connecting health behaviours and life course turning points that may explain some of the differences described above. We show that while the first quartile of transitions to adulthood are experienced fairly uniformly by sexual orientation, differences open up thereafter. LGB people’s life course trajectories are marked by different patterns of care, with LGB people less likely to provide care in the form of parenthood, but potentially more likely to provide care earlier to close friends or relatives. Analyses of connecting events suggest that LGB life course trajectories may be marred by higher levels of volatility, including higher risk financial hardship. Caveats to these results are outlined in full in the paper
MatCH (Mothers and their Children’s Health) Profile: offspring of the 1973-78 cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health
Full text linkMatCH (Mothers and their Children’s Health) is a nationwide Australian study to investigate the links between the history of health, wellbeing and living conditions of mothers and the health and development of their children. MatCH builds on the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH), which began in 1996 and has surveyed more than 58,000 women in four nationally representative age cohorts. MatCH focuses on the three youngest offspring of the cohort of ALSWH participants randomly sampled from all women in Australia born in 1973–78 (N=5780 children of N=3039 mothers). These women, who had completed up to seven postal or online surveys since 1996, were invited in 2016–17 to complete surveys about the health and development of their three youngest children aged under 13. The mothers reported on their children’s health conditions and symptoms, diet, anthropometric measures, childcare, screen time, physical activity, temperament, behaviour, language development, motor development and health service utilisation, as well as household and environmental factors. These data are being linked with each child’s records from official sources including the Australian Early Development Census (collected at age five to six), the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (collected at age eight, 10, 12 and 14) and other external datasets. MatCH will combine 20 years of maternal data with all the information on her children, taking into account the family setting. MatCH offers an unprecedented opportunity to advance our understanding of the relationship between maternal health and wellbeing and child health and development.
Residential relocations and academic performance of Australian children: A longitudinal analysis
Full text linkThe family and residential environments are critical to children’s wellbeing and, hence, residential change can affect children’s developmental outcomes. In this research, we study the associations between residential relocations and academic performance in the Australian context using panel regression methods on longitudinal data of a representative sample of 3,481 children born in the late 1990s from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). We examine the impact of residential relocations from infancy to middle childhood and pay special attention to the distance, frequency and developmental age-stage of relocations on academic test scores from the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) of third, fifth and seventh graders. Consistent with previous research, we find that the associations between childhood relocations and school performance are generally small. Frequent relocations during childhood relate to poor academic performance, but the association vanishes after controlling for family and home circumstances. In contrast, moderate levels of residential mobility, particularly relocations towards a different local area, are associated with improvements in academic performance. Relocations around the time of school entry are associated with poorer academic performance in grade 3, but are not associated with performance in grades 5 and 7. Our findings suggest that while moving home is not per se a major determinant of academic performance, the contexts and environments where children are embedded matter. We conclude that further research is needed on what and how intersections between relocation biographies and contexts matter for children’s development
The long-term effects of out-of-home placement in late adolescence: A propensity score matching analysis among Swiss youths
Full text linkThe aim of this study was to examine the outcomes of out-of-home placement in adolescence. We used data from a longitudinal study of Swiss youths and measured all outcomes, including externalising problem behaviour, anxiety and depression, education, and self-efficacy at age 17. Propensity score matching was used to reduce selection effects and multiple imputation to treat the missing values. The findings revealed that youths who were placed in out-of-home care come from disproportionately problematic backgrounds, which complicated their proper matching to youths who were not placed in out-of-home care. Outcome analyses including multiple robustness checks suggest that negative outcomes among youths who were placed in out-of-home care are not so much due to the placement itself, but largely to pre-existing difficulties present already before the placement.