scholarly journals Joint Family and Work Trajectories and Multidimensional Wellbeing

Author(s):  
C. L. Comolli ◽  
L. Bernardi ◽  
M. Voorpostel

AbstractInformed by the life course perspective, this paper investigates whether and how employment and family trajectories are jointly associated with subjective, relational and financial wellbeing later in life. We draw on data from the Swiss Household Panel which combines biographical retrospective information on work, partnership and childbearing trajectories with 19 annual waves containing a number of wellbeing indicators as well as detailed socio-demographic and social origin information. We use sequence analysis to identify the main family and work trajectories for men and women aged 20–50 years old. We use OLS regression models to assess the association between those trajectories and their interdependency with wellbeing. Results reveal a joint association between work and family trajectories and wellbeing at older age, even net of social origin and pre-trajectory resources. For women, but not for men, the association is also not fully explained by proximate (current family and work status) determinants of wellbeing. Women’s stable full-time employment combined with traditional family trajectories yields a subjective wellbeing premium, whereas childlessness and absence of a stable partnership over the life course is associated with lower levels of financial and subjective wellbeing after 50 especially in combination with a trajectory of weak labour market involvement. Relational wellbeing is not associated with employment trajectories, and only weakly linked to family trajectories among men.

Author(s):  
Cristina Samper Mejia

AbstractUsing data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), this paper employs sequence analysis to identify “typical” early (observation window limited to ages 15 to 30) employment and family formation trajectories among female second-generation migrants in Germany. For the employment domain of the life course, four types of employment trajectories were identified according to their modal states: “long education,” “full-time employment,” “part-time employment,” and “non-employment.” For the family domain of the life course, three types of family trajectories were identified: “postponement of family formation,” “early family formation,” and “early single motherhood.” For the analysis on cluster affiliation, a multinomial logistic regression was used to investigate how parental origin relates to jointly determined employment and family trajectories. As expected, the descriptive results showed that trajectories of low labor market participation are highly related to trajectories of early family formation. The categorization by parental origins shows that there were few differences in the trajectories of most native and G2 women groups. One pattern that stood out was that compared to other origin groups, G2 women of Turkish parental origin were more likely to be on an early family formation path, and they were more likely to be on a path with multiple non-employment spells. In the modeling strategy, the remaining differences in the women’s patterns were partially explained by the differences in their socioeconomic backgrounds (compulsory school track and the father’s professional degree) and their maternal employment role models (the mother’s employment when the woman was age 15).


2017 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 422-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrina Leupp

Despite the importance of employment for shaping mental health over the life course, little is known about how the mental health benefits of employment change as individuals age through their prime employment and child-rearing years. This study examines the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 Cohort ( N = 8,931), following respondents from their late 20s to mid-50s. Results suggest that among women, the aging of children is especially salient for shaping the mental health consequences of employment. Young children diminish the protective effect of mothers’ full- and part-time employment, but the salubrious effects of paid work increase as children get older. The benefit of employment for men’s mental health also changes over time, but it is the aging of men themselves rather than their children that alters the magnitude of full-time employment’s protective effect. Findings suggest the contribution of employment to life course mental health remains tethered to traditional gender roles.


Author(s):  
Sara Zella ◽  
Sarah Harper

ABSTRACT Background Policy and social change have increased women’s participation in the labour market and their opportunity to combine paid work with family care. We analyse whether a specific combination of employment and domestic duties over the life course are associated with variations in English and French women’s health, focusing on two birth cohorts. Methods We used sequence analysis to group women in English Longitudinal Study of Ageing and Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, according to their work and family histories. Using ordered logistic regression, we tested for group differences in later self-reported health and depressive symptoms, while controlling for a range of adult socio-economic circumstances. Results The findings confirm important differences between birth cohorts and countries. French women report a higher risk of poor self-reported health and mental issues than English women. Full-time domestic duties were particularly deleterious for the health of the two younger cohorts, whereas a combination of employment and domestic duties across the life course had a positive association with later-life health. Discussion Further research is needed to explore the mechanisms linking work and care trajectories to poor health.


Incarceration ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 263266632198901
Author(s):  
Marguerite Schinkel ◽  

This article takes a life-course perspective to the meaning of persistent short-term imprisonment and introduces the significance of ‘penal careers’. Examining a total of 62 interviews with men and women in Scotland with long careers of (progression through) criminal punishment, it uses to the concept of belonging as a lens to interpret their experiences. While some participants already felt early on in their career that they belonged in prison because of their shared characteristics with other prisoners, the repetition of imprisonment meant that they increasingly felt displaced from life outside and saw life in prison as ‘easier’ and ‘safer’. Nevertheless, looking back on their many sentences, they felt their cumulative meaning was ‘a waste of life’. The article concludes by considering steps towards tackling the conditions that create this sense of belonging in a place of punishment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 692 (1) ◽  
pp. 227-252
Author(s):  
Fred Wulczyn

To understand what placement outside of one’s home means to the young people involved, we must understand foster care from a life course perspective. I analyze young people’s experiences in foster care from this perspective, accounting for when foster care happens, how long it lasts, and what happens when foster care placements end. I show that the population of children coming into foster care is younger and less urban than it was 20 years ago. I also show reliable measures of exposure to foster care over the life course. Children who enter care early in life are the children who spend the largest proportion of their childhood in foster care—a fact that rarely weighs on the policymaking process. We know very little about state and local variation in foster care placement rates, not to mention the influence of social services, the courts, foster parents, and caseworkers over foster children, so I close by arguing investment in research should be a clear policy priority.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S537-S537
Author(s):  
Brianne M Stanback

Abstract Rhetorical inquires have shown connections between representation and power, workplace fashion and development of ethos, and the rhetoric of glamour through women’s fashion and dress. One element absent from that conversation is how the life course, which typically differs for women because of existing power structures advantaging men, may impact the experience of women as they age, their choice of dress, and the rhetorical implications of those decisions. To explore dress and rhetoric from a life course perspective, this project traces the evolution of Serena Williams’ work apparel across her professional tennis career to the catsuit worn at the 2018 French Open, which is the focus of the project. Press reports on the 2018 catsuit by Nike, New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Business Insider, BBC Sport, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times, interviews given by Williams, and the television documentary, Becoming Serena, will be analyzed for their treatment of Williams’ work attire and the life course. Responses to the catsuit emphasize attitudes about gender, race, and class, either discounting or ignoring the life course implications such as motherhood and changes in health status. Despite professional success, responses about the catsuit may reflect that Williams faces the same jeopardies, and invisibility, common to many women as they age, and the rhetorical perspective provides new methodological and pedagogical possibilities for instruction in aging.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Janneke Van't Klooster

<p>Violence has serious implications for both the victim and the wider community. The current adult rehabilitation programmes accept violent offenders ranged from 20 years and older. This age range could have serious rehabilitation consequences, as a twenty year olds violence and violence related goals may differ substantially to a 70 year old. For this reason an understanding of the development of violence and violence related goals can aide rehabilitation and punitive policies. A review of recent research highlights there are many methodological and empirical gaps in the development of violence whereby the current research aimed to assuage this issue. The current research used grounded theory to develop a model on the development of violence over the life-course. For this research twelve men currently incarcerated at Rimutaka Prison in a violence rehabilitation unit were interviewed. This method developed two models. The “Influences on violence development” model outlines how environment and personal choices had an impact on the development of violence. The “development of violence” model outlines the increasing severity and frequency of violence over time, and the increasing complexity of violence related goals. This model is nested within the influences on violence development model. Comparing the current models to Loeber et al's (1993) pathways model, and Sampson and Laub's life-course perspective on offending, has found support for both models. Thus this model's theoretical value lies within its ability to draw together other areas of research and provide a holistic understanding of both how and why violence develops. One implication of these models is the understanding of the varying influences of environment on violence, upon both different individuals and different ages. This implies that rehabilitation should perhaps follow a more individual based focus. There are many limitations to the research, the most salient one being lack of saturation in the model and low sample size.</p>


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