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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.
Chinese entrepreneurs, whose population has been steadily growing since the Reform and Open Up in 1978, are a diverse group of people. Though previous research has analysed Chinese entrepreneurs by special cases, few have conducted a nationally representative study of their typology. And even fewer have analysed the life outcomes of the different types of entrepreneurs. Relying on two waves of the panel data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) and with the technique of sequence analysis, for the first time, we explored the heterogeneous career trajectories of Chinese entrepreneurs and their corresponding life outcomes. We successfully depicted four unique entrepreneurial trajectories in China since the 1950s, which are necessity entrepreneurs, employee entrepreneurs, persistent entrepreneurs and farmer entrepreneurs. Our empirical results can support both the cumulative disadvantage theory and the set-point theory in health-related studies. Among all the entrepreneurs, farmer entrepreneurs have the worst self-rated health in the long run, which supports the cumulative disadvantage theory. At the same time, all types of entrepreneurs have similar depressive symptoms and economic returns, which supports the set-point theory.
The purpose of this study is to investigate how well-being changes over the adult life course from early adulthood in 1998 through to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. We identify diverse well-being trajectories over time in a cohort of British Columbians and explore the extent to which changes in well-being associated with the pandemic varied for individuals in these different trajectory groups. Specifically, we ask: what was the effect of the pandemic on the well-being of individuals with different prior well-being trajectories over adulthood and how were these effects related to personal, educational and employment factors? To address this question, we model well-being trajectories over a large span of adulthood from the age of 28 to 51 years old. We find a diversity of distinct patterns in well-being changes over adulthood. The majority experience high well-being over time, while almost one in five experiences either chronically low or drastically decreased well-being in mid-adulthood, which coincides with the pandemic. Notably, those who have completed post-secondary education are less likely to report low well-being trajectories. Those with the lowest well-being over time also report the largest negative effects of the pandemic, which illustrates the compounding effects of the pandemic on existing inequalities.
Employment re-entry opportunities decrease with age. For middle-aged welfare benefit recipients, employment obstacles connected to age exacerbate further disadvantages connected to welfare receipt. At the same time, there is considerable diversity in middle-aged welfare benefit recipients’ long-term employment trajectories, which has thus far received little attention. Policies aim to increase labour market participation at higher ages. To this end, it is important to understand specific difficulties and to be realistic when formulating goals for people with very diverse types of employment histories. Using large-scale register data, this paper’s focus is on a cohort aged 45–54 in August 2012 in Germany. Sequence analysis aids in identifying characteristics relevant to employment histories over the past 19 years, from January 1993 to July 2012. Subsequent employment outcomes over the time span September 2012 to December 2018 are investigated, differentiating between jobs of different quality, and effects of training programmes on these outcomes are analysed using entropy balancing methods. Findings are that middle-aged welfare recipients’ employment biographies are very diverse, ranging from very little employment experience, over long histories of intermittent employment, to long continuous employment histories. Employment history attributes significantly affect employment prospects. The analyses further show that it is not too late to invest in skills, independent of employment history type.
Growing Up in Québec, also known as the Québec Longitudinal Study of Child Development, 2nd edition (QLSCD 2), is a prospective cohort that began in spring 2021. Its goal is to follow the development of Québec children from the age of five months to adulthood in about 4,500 families. It is conducted by the Institut de la statistique du Québec and is based on the Québec Longitudinal Study of Child Development, 1st edition (QLSCD 1), which began in 1998 and is still ongoing. This article describes the Growing Up in Québec pilot study started in 2018, focusing on its objectives and key stages of completion, namely content selection, recruitment strategies and the retention plan, collection methods, adjustments to strategies made during collection, and methodology, including the construction of a socio-economic poverty indicator for population stratification. The article continues by presenting pilot results and their implications for the main survey. It ends with recommendations from the pilot study, exemplifying the wealth of experience gained from it.
Studies examining the relationship between young maternal age and maternal outcomes are often cross-sectional or short term. We review birth cohort studies that investigate life course outcomes of teen mothers past age 25. Strengths of birth cohort studies include a focus on a complete cohort, rather than a sample, and prospective data collection beginning before or at birth. Limitations are high cost, attrition and unmeasured background factors. Some 20 studies from six countries met study criteria. This narrative review describes how teenage mothers fare as adults, identifies factors that modify outcomes and examines whether outcomes reflect specific time periods or cohorts.
Childhood disadvantage was a greater marker of teen mothering in more recent cohorts, even in countries with strong social welfare programmes. The effects of young maternal age on all outcomes diminished when strong controls adjusted for selectivity into teen mothering.
We use individual-level population data to characterise the pathways followed by young people in England who experience custody. We identify a typology of pathways up to age 18 and a separate typology covering ages 19–22. Our results confirm the generally poor prospects among this group, showing 80% to be firmly established as not in employment, education or training (NEET) by age 22. Despite the high level of deprivation in the population considered, prospects are still found to vary with specific markers of disadvantage. Managing to avoid NEET when 16–18 is an important part of the strategy for avoiding NEET when older. This suggests the importance of policy interventions aimed at re-engagement of those who experience custody as a young person.
Findings from longitudinal research, globally, repeatedly emphasise the importance of taking an early life course approach to mental health promotion; one that invests in the formative years of development, from early childhood to young adulthood, just prior to the transition to parenthood for most. While population monitoring systems have been developed for this period, they are typically designed for use within discrete stages (i.e., childhood or adolescent or young adulthood). No system has yet captured development across all ages and stages (i.e., from infancy through to young adulthood). Here we describe the development, and pilot implementation, of a new Australian Comprehensive Monitoring System (CMS) designed to address this gap by measuring social and emotional development (strengths and difficulties) across eight census surveys, separated by three yearly intervals (infancy, 3-, 6-, 9- 12-, 15-, 18 and 21 years). The system also measures the family, school, peer, digital and community social climates in which children and young people live and grow. Data collection is community-led and built into existing, government funded, universal services (Maternal Child Health, Schools and Local Learning and Employment Networks) to maximise response rates and ensure sustainability. The first system test will be completed and evaluated in rural Victoria, Australia, in 2022. CMS will then be adapted for larger, more socio-economically diverse regional and metropolitan communities, including Australian First Nations communities. The aim of CMS is to guide community-led investments in mental health promotion from early childhood to young adulthood, setting secure foundations for the next generation.
