Longitudinal and Life Course Studies (E-Journal)
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Trajectories of life satisfaction and the financial situation in the transition to adulthood
Get PDFThe aims of this study were (1) to investigate young adults’ life satisfaction changes during the transition to adulthood, (2) to identify possible life satisfaction developmental trajectories during the transition, and (3) to examine how individuals’ agency and personal financial situations are related to the identified life satisfaction trajectories in the contexts of life-span and life course theories of development. The present study is part of the longitudinal Finnish Educational Transitions (FinEdu) study, in which a total of 372 (278 female and 94 male) young adults filled in questionnaires at four measurement points, that is, twice before (at 18 and 19 years of age) and twice after (at 20 and 22 years of age) the transition from upper secondary high school to tertiary education and/or employment. Growth Mixture Modelling revealed five trajectories of life satisfaction: low-stable (8%), moderate-stable (41%), high-stable (27%), moderate-increasing (17%), and high-decreasing (7%). The vast majority (76%) of young adults had a stable life satisfaction trajectory throughout the transition. High levels of achievement approach strategies at age 19 were somewhat related to high-decreasing and high-stable life satisfaction trajectories. In turn, those using achievement avoidance strategies at age 19 were more likely to have low-stable or moderately-increasing life satisfaction trajectories. Positive life satisfaction trajectories were related to being in a positive financial situation at age 22. The two largest trajectories indicated better objective and subjective financial situations than did the other trajectories
The link between mother and adolescent substance use: inter-generational findings from the British Cohort Study
Get PDF The objective of this study was to identify mother, family, and individual factors associated with adolescent alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use, using mother and child self-reports. Adolescents aged 12-15 (N=276) and their mothers, who were participants in the British Cohort Study (BCS; born 1970), were both surveyed when mothers were 34 years old. Predictors included mothers’ substance use as well as characteristics of the child (gender, age, conduct problems) and family (social class, two-parent family, parent-adolescent conflict). Outcome variables were adolescent alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use. Child characteristics were predictive, with older children more likely to engage in all behaviors. After controlling for other predictors, mothers’ current drinking frequency and problems predicted adolescent reports of ever drinking and of drinking sometimes/regularly; mothers’ marijuana use was a marginally significant predictor of adolescent marijuana use. Results suggest that mothers’ substance use is an important component of adolescent use, even after accounting for characteristics of the child and the intergenerational family context.
Parental worklessness and children’s early school achievement and progress
Get PDFIn this paper we investigate the relationship between repeated parental worklessness and the academicprogress made by children in England in their first full year of primary school. We draw on data from two recent longitudinal birth cohort studies with multiple rounds of data collection in the very early years up to age 5. We use the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) which started collecting data from more than 14,000 children and their families in a geographically defined catchment area in 1991/2, and the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), which is a sample of 19,000 children and their families born across the UK around the turn of this century. We constructed measures of repeated (persistent) and temporary (intermittent) worklessness and found that both were associated with lower levels of early academic achievement and progress of children. This association cannot be fully explained by a number of other socio-demographic risks factors (including parental education, income, housing conditions and health), indicating independent risk effects. We furthermore could identify beneficial effects of a stimulating early home-learning environment, which were significant even after controlling for previous levels of children’s cognitive and behavioural adjustment
Labour force sequences, unemployment spells and their effect on subjective well-being set points
Get PDFDrawingupon recent psychological literature, we examine the effect of employment statuses pre- and post-unemployment on levels of subjective well-being (SWB),and the return to pre-unemployment levels, i.e. set points. Data came from the British Household Panel Survey. SWB was measured using the GHQ-12 and a question on life satisfaction; Employment status was self-reported. Multilevel, jointed, piecewise, growth curve regression models were used to explore associations by gender, specifically whether different labour force sequences produced different growth curves and rates of adaptation. Overall, there was a tendency for men and women to return to well-being set points for both outcomes. However, findings showed differences by labour force sequence and SWB measure. Women who experienced unemployment between spells of employment returned to their SWB setpoint at a faster rate of return for GHQ than for life satisfaction, while for men, the rates of return were similar to each other. Women who were employed prior to unemployment and then became economically inactive showed a return to their GHQ set point, but there was no return to their life satisfaction setpoint. Economically inactive participants pre-unemployment, who then gained employment, also showed a return to their well-being set point. After economic inactivity and then unemployment, only men experienced a significant increase in life satisfaction upon return to economic inactivity. The findings showed that following unemployment, return to subjective well-being setpoint was quicker for people who became employed than for people who became economically inactive. There were also differences in the return to SWB setpoint by type of economic inactivity upon exiting unemployment
Longitudinal effects of social background on educational and occupational pathways within early and strong school tracking
Get PDFTransitions from education to work are subject to person-related factors and institutional opportunity structures. Life course research increasingly focuses on longitudinal effects of social background on educational and occupational pathways within early and strong school tracking. In this context, Switzerland is a paradoxical case because its education system exhibits elements that should both reinforce and weaken social background effects. We draw on data from a PISA 2000 school-leaver cohort. Employing sequence analysis, optimal matching and longitudinal latent class analysis, we find that persistence tendencies are more pronounced in the academic stratum, compared to vocational and precarious strata. Conversely, the education system and labour market allow for a good integration of weak academic performers. Overall, we show that social background and performance determine selection into tracks, after which effects of opportunity structures take over
A double prevention: How maternal education can affect maternal mental health, child health and child cognitive development
Get PDFThis study uses the longitudinal data of Young Lives for Peru to investigate the protective role that maternal education has for children whose mothers suffer from mental health problems. Our first set of findings confirms previous research in this area by showing that maternal education is associated with reduced risk of mental health problems for mothers and with improved nutrition and cognitive development for their children. We further find that maternal education reduces the burden of maternal mental health problems on child development. This is particularly the case for children of mothers with high levels of education. Unfortunately, for children of mothers with low levels of education maternal mental health problems continues to predict poor nutritional status and poor cognitive development for children. These results suggest that monitoring and support may be especially important for mothers with lower levels of education if inequalities across generations are to be reduced
Identifying biases arising from combining census and administrative data – the fertility of migrants in the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study
Get PDFDemographic research is increasingly making use of longitudinal and life history data, given its strong analytical potential. Such data are frequently produced by linking and matching records from multiple sources. Where this is the case, there is the potential for a person’s appearance in one source of data to be conditional on an event in another source of data. This can lead to bias in estimating occurrence/exposure rates concerning the event in question, unless the correct exposure can be identified. Achieving the latter requires understanding the reasons governing entry to the data. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) Longitudinal Study (LS) for England and Wales is a 1% sample of the population, constructed by combining data from the census, vital registrations (births and deaths) and the National Health Service Central Register (NHSCR). This paper examines the difficulties in obtaining the correct exposure for rates in complex data sets by studying the fertility of migrants using the ONS LS. Three tests in relation to the fertility of female migrants to England and Wales illustrate the possible association between exposure to risk and subsequent events. The first identifies the ability of the data set to record new migrants, the second is concerned with the mode of entry to the data set and subsequent fertility, and the third illustrates how the recorded fertility of migrants depends upon the way migration is measured
Educational pathways and dropout from higher education in Germany
Get PDFExtending access to higher education has led to a growing heterogeneity in the social origins and previous educational biographies of first-year students. They differ in their socialization, their preparedness for tertiary studies, and the salience of alternative options. How do these differences relate to social inequality in dropout from higher education? Drawing on theories and concepts of rational choice, differential learning environments, and selection, we argue that social origins and pre-tertiary educational pathways have at least an initial impact on dropout risks. We draw on retrospective life course data from the “Adult Education and Life-Long Learning” stage of the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) to use pre-tertiary pathways to reconstruct educational careers and perform an event history analysis on dropping out of higher education. Results suggest that these pathways substantially influence dropout rates in Germany. Students taking the direct pathway via the Gymnasium (i.e. the school type representing the highest school track) have significantly lower dropout rates than students with an upwardly mobile educational biography or students who obtained a vocational qualification before starting higher education. Whereas students from a higher social background are less prone to drop out than students from a lower social background at universities, social origins do not have any significant direct influence on dropout rates at universities of applied sciences and influence only the likelihood of entering these institutions
Parental education and adult health outcomes: a cohort study examining disease-specific effects of education levels using Swedish nationwide registries across two generations
Get PDFIt is well known that children with less educated parents have inferior health status in later life. There are two competing hypotheses explaining the association found: the pathway hypothesis – suggesting that children from low educated households are more likely to obtain less education themselves, which, in turn, is associated with inferior health outcomes – and the life course hypothesis – suggesting that living conditions during childhood, as such affected by parental education level, is important for the formation of adult health status. We obtained data from National Swedish registries comprising health outcomes of individuals born between 1940 and 1949, and the Swedish Multi-generation Register. We assessed the differences in risk of hospital admission for individuals with low and high parental education as well as low and high own education. We found that for higher educated individuals, high parental education is associated with even better health outcomes: having a high versus low educated mother or high versus low educated father was associated with an overall decrease in the risk (hazard rate) of hospital admission by 5% (95% CI 0.91-0.98) and 3% (95% CI 0.95-0.99), respectively. This indicates that children from a relatively disadvantaged background, signaled by lower parental educational attainment, are more likely to continue accumulating risk throughout life. Even if they have higher qualifications they may still have a greater accumulation of risk, compared with other highly qualified children from a less disadvantaged background. We found that this effect is primarily attributed to circulatory diseases, and would appear to support the life course hypothesis. We conclude that parental education and ensuing early childhood or even fetal living conditions have a persistent effect on adult health