Sequence analysis is an established approach to study life courses. When several life domains are considered simultaneously, multichannel sequence analysis (MSA) and the extended alphabet (EA) approach are the most frequently used strategies. We compare these two methods using real data composed of four life domains (cohabitational status, children, professional status, health), and we focus on clustering since sequence analysis usually aims to identify typical patterns in sequences. As professional status trajectories, and potentially their relationship with other domains, proved to be different between men and women, the analyses were run separately by sex. We describe step by step the approach followed and the different criteria to judge the relevance of a typology. Neither of the two approaches is clearly superior, and the typologies obtained with both methods are often close. However, even if MSA is generally easier to use and applies to a broader range of situations, EA can provide original typologies in specific cases and we therefore propose guidelines for choosing between the two approaches depending on the context.
A household’s financial satisfaction is one of the most significant factors driving subjective well-being. However, Poland ranks close to the lowest position, 22nd out of the 28 EU members, in self-reported financial status. The paper investigates the problem of determining patterns of Polish households’ behaviour and shows the evolution of the subjective assessment of financial situation based on the eight waves of the Polish Household panel data. The analysis is carried out on the basis of latent Markov (LM) models, which allow for socio-economic features affecting the parameters of the latent process. We compare different types of LM models considering: (1) different numbers of latent structures; (2) different types of the latent process constraints; (3) socio-economic background characteristics; and (4) survey weights (being excluded in most of the empirical analyses). The final model identifies three latent states, specifies common initial and transition probabilities over a 15-year period and, as a result, enables us to better characterise the families likely to change their position, especially families reporting worsening in their financial situation. To show the main direction of self-reporting financial condition, we present the predicted path for respondents characterised by the selected socio-economic features, relying on algorithm maximising posterior probabilities of the selected LM model.
This study focuses on the constitution of financial reserves in Switzerland from a longitudinal perspective. Personal income after retirement derives from financial reserves whose constitution depends both on positional factors, such as sex and birth cohorts, and processual factors, such as occupational trajectories, in the institutional context of the Swiss pension system (structural factors). We hypothesise that some processual, positional and structural factors interact with each other to shape financial reserves available in old age. We assess this set of factors and their interactions using the occupational trajectory types stemming from optimal matching analysis (OMA) combined with the hierarchical clustering and regression tree methods. We used the retrospective biographic data SHARELIFE gathered during the third wave of the SHARE survey in 2009. The results show that occupational trajectories are influential factors accounting for much of the financial reserves available in later life. However, these processual factors interact with positional factors such as sex and birth cohort. The retirement schemes generalised in Switzerland during the period under consideration add up to the effect of positional factors on the constitution of financial reserves.
Aim:
To review research developments on childhood adversity in the Christchurch Health and Development Study (CHDS) since 2001.
Method:
Narrative overview of the published work of the CHDS since 2001 in the context of research methods.
Results:
The CHDS research has continued to evolve as the cohort has aged. A clear focus has remained on the measurement of outcomes associated with psychosocial risk factors over the life course. This focus has allowed the CHDS to examine the linkages between exposure to adversity in childhood and later mental health, psychosocial and occupational outcomes across the life span to middle adulthood. The CHDS has many strengths, including prospective measurement of a broad and deep set of constructs, the use of multiple informants for data, and a range of statistical approaches suited to repeated measures longitudinal data. The CHDS has pioneered new approaches to the study of human development over the lifespan, which has been instrumental in investigating childhood adversity.
Conclusion:
The CHDS continues to provide unique information from a population cohort that has been studied for more than four decades. Future research will include examination of factors that mitigate the effects of childhood adversity and enhance resilience.
This study explored how middle-aged workers’ career trajectory patterns were associated with their financial security later in life. Grounded by a life course perspective, we approached their career trajectories by considering a ‘human agency within structure’ framework. We explored sequences of employment status, starting with their lifetime main job to subsequent jobs after contractual retirement, using data from 1,010 middle-aged adults in Seoul, South Korea. The sequence analysis identified six career trajectory patterns. Stable career patterns included the Permanent to permanent trajectory as well as the Permanent to self-employment trajectory and these were most common among males with higher education degrees, higher earnings and better career alignment. Unstable career patterns such as the Temporary to temporary trajectory, the Permanent to temporary trajectory or the Churning trajectory were most common among those who were female, had lower levels of education lower earnings or had retired involuntarily. Further results showed that unstable career patterns were associated with lower levels of monthly earnings and total assets post–contractual retirement. Individuals with unstable career patterns were also less likely to be financially prepared for retirement. We suggest individualising education programmes for retirement preparation based on various career trajectories and demographic attributes to aid middle-aged adults in preparing for financial security later in life.
This paper examines and compares the impact of non-employment – more precisely female and male unemployment and female labour-market inactivity – on cohabiting and married couples’ separation risk in eastern and western Germany. Although Germany has experienced substantial changes in the spheres of family and labour market in recent decades, differences between the former East and West Germany persist even over 30 years after reunification. Applying conditional logistic fixed-effect models to German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) data, I find the following: in western Germany, where – despite a trend towards more egalitarian gender norms – traditional gender norms still prevail, male unemployment increases couples’ separation risk, whereas female labour-market inactivity reduces it. Examining change across two birth cohorts – women born in or before 1971 and women born after 1971 – I find for western Germany that the effects of male and female unemployment on couple separation appear to be converging, and the relationship-stabilising effect of female labour-market inactivity seems to be diminishing. This is in line with the trend towards egalitarian gender norms in that region. In eastern Germany, both female and male unemployment have a relationship-destabilising effect in the older birth cohort, which might reflect the more egalitarian gender norms there. However, the relationship-destabilising effect of male and female unemployment is diminishing, and can no longer be found in the younger birth cohort. Unexpectedly, for eastern German women born after 1971, labour-market inactivity is relationship-stabilising, which was not the case in the older cohort.
Research about the Flynn effect, the secular rise in IQ, is heavily based on conscript data from successive male birth cohorts. This inevitably means that two distinct phenomena are mixed: fertility differences by IQ group (‘compositional Flynn effect’), and any difference between parents and children (‘within-family Flynn effect’). Both will influence trends in cognitive ability. We focused on the latter phenomenon, exploring changes in cognitive abilities during adolescence within one generation, and between two successive generations within the same family. We identified determinants and outcomes in three linked generations in the Stockholm Multigenerational Study. School and conscript data covered logical/numerical and verbal scores for mothers at age 13, fathers at 13 and 18, and their sons at 18. Raw scores, and change in raw scores, were used as outcomes in linear regressions. Both parents’ abilities at 13 were equally important for sons’ abilities at 18. Boys from disadvantaged backgrounds caught up with other boys during adolescence. Comparing fathers with sons, there appeared to be a positive Flynn effect in logical/numeric and verbal abilities. This was larger if the father had a working-class background or many siblings. A Flynn effect was only visible in families where the father had low general cognitive ability at 18. We conclude that there is a general improvement in logical/numeric and verbal skills from one generation to the next, primarily based on improvement in disadvantaged families. The Flynn effect in Sweden during the later 20th century appears to represent a narrowing between social categories.
This case study discusses the multiple roles of trustification within contact tracing apps during the COVID-19 pandemic. The internal problems of the UK’s design and deployment of a contact tracing app is discussed in relation to trust in governments, companies, research communities and the role of the media. This is brought into perspective by thinking about the global neo-colonial impact of the UK and the apps in general, with examples from specific countries from across the Global South. These examples draw on the commonalities and contextual differences that shape the experiences of different marginalized populations. The drive towards quantification and solutionism is critiqued under the assumptions on which it is based, assumptions that conceal and perpetuate inequalities.
This case study confronts the various ‘tech for good’ initiatives that embed solutionist values in humanitarian activities. Drawing on examples of ‘data for good’ in Turkey, ‘AI for good’ at the UN, and various other manifestations of these schemes, the ill-defined nature of ‘good’ and its relation to discursive power are discussed. The metricization of humanitarianism is shown to be dehumanizing in the obscuring of context and lived experience. The application of generic technologies to humanitarian issues is not only extractive in itself, but it also operates as a tool to extract trust in the same technologies and companies for wider applications of technologies against different populations.
