Longitudinal and Life Course Studies (E-Journal)
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Social mobility, parental help, and the importance of networks: evidence for Britain
Full text linkGreater levels of social mobility are widely seen as desirable on grounds of both equity and efficiency. Debate in Britain and elsewhere has recently focused on specific factors that might hinder social mobility, including the role of internships and similar opportunities that parents can sometimes secure for their children. We address the help that parents give their children in the job market using data from the recently collected age 42 year wave of the 1970 British Cohort Study. We consider help given to people from all family backgrounds and not just to graduates and those in higher level occupations, who have tended to be the focus in the debate in Britain. Our data measure whether respondents had ever had help to get a job from (i) parents and (ii) other relatives and friends, and the form of that help. We first assess the extent and type of help. We then determine whether people from higher socio-economic status families are more or less likely to have help. Finally we investigate whether help is associated with higher wages and higher occupation levels. The paper provides insight into whether the link between parental socio-economic background and the individual’s own economic success can be explained in part by parental assistance to their children in getting jobs. We find parental help to have a strong social gradient. But we are unable to identify a clear link between any particular type of help – advice, help through contacts etc. – and individuals’ wages or occupations. The data on parental assistance has some limitations, potentially causing measurement error, and for future research on this topic, better data need to be collected
Family economic vulnerability & the Great Recession: an analysis of the first two waves of the Growing Up In Ireland Study
Full text linkIn this paper we make use of the first and second waves of the 2008 and 1998 cohorts of the Growing Up in Ireland study, to develop a multidimensional and dynamic approach to understanding the impact on families and children in Ireland of the Great Recession. Economic vulnerability is operationalised as involving a distinctive risk profile in relation to relative income, household joblessness and economic stress. We find that the recession was associated with a significant increase in levels of economic vulnerability and changing risk profiles involving a more prominent role for economic stress for both the 2008 and 1998 cohorts. The factors affecting vulnerability outcomes were broadly similar for both cohorts. Persistent economic vulnerability was significantly associated with lone parenthood, particularly for those with more than one child, lower levels of primary care giver (PCG) education and, to a lesser extent, younger age of PCG at child’s birth, number of children and a parent leaving or dying. Similar factors were associated with transient vulnerability in the first wave but the magnitude of the effects was significantly weaker particularly in relation to lone parenthood and level of education of the PCG. For entry into vulnerability the impact of these factors was again substantially weaker than for persistent and transient vulnerability indicating a significantly greater degree of socioeconomic heterogeneity among the group that became vulnerable during the recession. The findings raise policy and political problems that go beyond those associated with catering for groups that have tended to be characterized by high dependence on social welfare
Population sampling in longitudinal surveys
Full text linkIn an opening paper Harvey Goldstein questions the need for observational studies to achieve representativeness for real populations, in particular for longitudinal studies. He draws upon recent debates and argues for the need to distinguish scientific inference from population inference. The points he raises are then debated in commentaries by Peter Lynn, Graciela Muniz-Terrera and Rebecca Hardy, Colm O'Muircheartaigh, Chris Skinner and Risto Lehtonen. These commentaries are followed by a response from Goldstein
Parental criminality and children’s family-life trajectories: Findings for a mid-20th century cohort
Full text linkThe paper analyses the family life courses of sons and daughters from families with low socioeconomic status and at high risk to offend. For this Dutch cohort (N=522), born on average in 1932, register and archive data on offending and family-life events from age 18 to 50 years are investigated. We discuss different mechanisms of how parental criminality may affect demographic behaviours, such as marriage and parenthood. As these demographic behaviours are interlinked, and as their ordering is meaningful, we apply a holistic approach by using sequence and cluster analysis to construct family-life courses. Findings indicate four family-life trajectories that are almost similar for the sons and daughters, although criminal fathers appear to affect sons’ and daughters’ trajectories differently. Daughters’ family-life trajectories seem directly affected by father’s offending whereas sons’ trajectories are only affected by their own juvenile offending
The Great Recession and recent employment trends among secondary students in the United States
Full text linkThe Great Recession had substantial effects on the labor market in the United States, as elsewhere. To what extent did secondary students’ employment decline during this time? Which students are leaving the labor market? Are reductions in employment concentrated in particular jobs? To answer these questions, we use data from the Monitoring the Future study, an ongoing study of secondary students in the United States. More specifically, we examine recent trends in teenage employment using 6 cohorts each of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders (from 2006 to 2011, spanning before, during and after the Great Recession). Results show a gradual decline in school year employment since 2006, including the years after the official end of the recession. Employment during the school year is especially low among 8th and 10th graders, Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black youth, and students from disadvantaged backgrounds (based upon parental education), though the recent drop in work has varied little by population subgroups. The decline in employment is, however, concentrated among the oldest students, and working intensely (over 20 hours per week) has dropped more than working moderate hours. Students are more likely to babysit and do lawn work, and less likely to hold jobs in office, clerical, and sales positions than in years past. These patterns and recent shifts in job type suggest some degree of job replacement by older workers
Holistic housing pathways for Australian families through the childbearing years
Full text linkFor the previous generation, the typical housing tenure pathway in Australia was more clearly defined, with young adults leaving the family home to marry and experience the birth of the first child while residing in a rental home, before entry into home ownership. For the first time in Australia, longitudinal data is available that allows the examination of housing tenure transitions along with other life events, in particular the birth of children, marital transitions and changes in employment. Sequences of tenure transitions and life events were derived for a large sample of individuals using ten waves of data (2001-2010) from the longitudinal Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, with a focus on families with children or of childbearing age. The statistical method of multi-channel sequence analysis was used to identify a typology of housing pathways from these data sequences. Half of all individuals in the sample do not experience any transitions in housing tenure status during the period of the survey and these people record notably fewer transitions in marital status. The main typologies identified were related to transitioning into home ownership, with the birth of a child occurring either before or after the transition. Previously, some individuals also entered home ownership before the birth of their first child rather than after, but it was not acknowledged as a major housing pathway as it is now. In this study, the majority of housing tenure and life event sequences showed that individuals were already married by the time of transitioning into home ownership. Pathways are now more diverse with transitions into home ownership often occurring both before and after the birth of a child, with marriage preceding the decision to buy a home
Familial transmission, support, and youth employment in hard economic times
Full text linkThis is a brief introduction to the Part-Special Issue, "Youth, Economic Hardship, and the Worldwide 'Great Recession.'" (I do not believe that an abstract is needed for an introduction.