scholarly journals Settlement or Return? The Intended Permanence of Emigration from Germany Across the Life Course

Author(s):  
Andreas Ette ◽  
Lenore Sauer ◽  
Margit Fauser

AbstractEconomic approaches and socio-cultural integration are still the most prominent frameworks applied to explain return migration and permanent settlement. In contrast to the bulk of literature focusing on established migrations from poorer to richer regions, the contribution analyses the permanence of emigration from economically highly developed countries. Based on a life-course approach, it highlights the interrelations between life-course domains shaping the intentions of German emigrants to settle permanently abroad, planning to return, and those who are still undecided. The analyses are based on the German Emigration and Remigration Panel Study (GERPS) surveying recently emigrated German citizens. The results show that almost half of those emigrants intend to return home after living for only a few years abroad, whereas every fifth reports permanent settlement intentions in the destination country. Multinomial logistic regressions demonstrate that the status within individual domains of the life course–particularly economic status, family arrangement, as well as existing social interactions–together with previous migration experiences shape the intended length of the current migration project.

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-180
Author(s):  
Matthew H. Iveson ◽  
Chris Dibben ◽  
Ian J. Deary

Older adults are particularly prone to function-limiting health issues that adversely affect their well-being. Previous work has identified factors from across the life course –childhood socio-economic status, childhood cognitive ability and education – that predict later-life functional outcomes. However, the independence of these contributions is unclear as later-in-the-life-course predictors are themselves affected by earlier ones. The present study capitalised on the recent linkage of the Scottish Mental Survey 1947 with the Scottish Longitudinal Study, using path analyses to examine the direct and indirect associations between life-course predictors and the risk of functional limitation at ages 55 (N = 2,374), 65 (N = 1,971) and 75 (N = 1,534). The odds of reporting a function-limiting long-term condition increased across later life. At age 55, reporting a functional limitation was significantly less likely in those with higher childhood socio-economic status, higher childhood cognitive ability and higher educational attainment; these associations were only partly mediated by other predictors. At age 65, adult socio-economic status emerged as a mediator of several associations, although direct associations with childhood socio-economic status and childhood cognitive ability were still observed. At age 75, only childhood socio-economic status and adult socio-economic status directly predicted the risk of a functional limitation, particularly those associated with disease or illness. A consistent pattern and direction of associations was observed with self-rated health more generally. These results demonstrate that early-life and adult circumstances are associated with functional limitations later in life, but that these associations are partly a product of complex mediation between life-course factors.


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-350
Author(s):  
Fabian Kratz ◽  
Alexander Patzina

Abstract According to theories of cumulative (dis-)advantage, inequality increases over the life course. Labour market research has seized this argument to explain the increasing economic inequality as people age. However, evidence for cumulative (dis-)advantage in subjective well-being remains ambiguous, and a prominent study from the United States has reported contradictory results. Here, we reconcile research on inequality in subjective well-being with theories of cumulative (dis-)advantage. We argue that the age-specific endogenous selection of the (survey) population results in decreasing inequalities in subjective well-being means whereas individual-level changes show a pattern of cumulative (dis-)advantage. Using repeated cross-sectional data from the European Social Survey (N = 15,252) and employing hierarchical age-period-cohort models, we replicate the finding of decreasing inequality from the United States with the same research design for Germany. Using panel data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (persons = 47,683, person-years = 360,306) and employing growth curve models, we show that this pattern of decreasing inequality in subjective well-being means is accompanied by increasing inequality in intra-individual subjective well-being changes. This pattern arises because disadvantaged groups, such as the low educated and individuals with low subjective well-being show lower probabilities of continuing to participate in a survey and because both determinants reinforce each other. In addition to allowing individual changes and attrition processes to be examined, the employed multi-cohort panel data have further key advantages for examining inequality in subjective well-being over the life course: They require weaker assumptions to control for period and cohort effects and make it possible to control for interviewer effects that may influence the results.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S612-S613
Author(s):  
Taylor Patskanick ◽  
Julie Miller ◽  
Chaiwoo Lee ◽  
Lisa D’Ambrosio

Abstract Unprecedented longevity comes with an increased need for providing and receiving care. A 2015 report estimated 39.8 million adults in the United States provided unpaid care to an adult in 2014 (NAC & AARP). Previous research has focused disproportionately on experiences of providing care to older adults, but little has explored experiences of providing care and receiving care among the oldest old. Adults aged 85 and older are likely to have provided care to an adult family member at some point in their lives, but now may be receiving care themselves. The presentation will report on findings from a mixed methods study investigating the experiences of providing and receiving care across the life course among a sample of the “oldest old.” Data draw from focus groups and a survey with the MIT AgeLab Lifestyle Leaders, a bimonthly panel study of adults ages 85 and older. Findings suggest the Lifestyle Leaders had extensive experience providing care, particularly in older age. They most often cared for family members with long-term physical or cognitive conditions. Opinions on learning new technologies to help with caregiving and robot caregivers were mixed. The majority of the Lifestyle Leaders received regular help with at least one care task regardless of household composition or living situation. Many reported help had improved their health, but they felt like a burden to their caregivers. Even in later life, the Lifestyle Leaders had few ideas about who might take care of them if they needed care in the future.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Bruce ◽  
Neema Mojarrad ◽  
Gillian Santorelli

Abstract Background: A recent Genome-wide association meta-analysis (GWAS) of refractive error reported shared genetics with anthropometric traits such as height, BMI and obesity. To explore a potential relationship with refractive error and ocular structure we performed a life-course analysis including both maternal and child characteristics using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children cohort.Methods: Measures collected across the life-course were analysed to explore the association of height, weight, and BMI with refractive error and ocular biometric measures at age 15 years from 1613children. The outcome measures were the mean spherical equivalent (MSE) of refractive error (dioptres), axial length (AXL; mm), and radius of corneal curvature (RCC; mm). Potential confounding variables; maternal age at conception, maternal education level, parental socio-economic status, gestational age, breast-feeding, and gender were adjusted for within each multi-variable model.Results: Maternal height was positively associated with teenage AXL (0.010 mm; 95% CI: 0.003, 0.017) and RCC (0.005 mm; 95% CI: 0.003, 0.007), increased maternal weight was positively associated with AXL (0.004 mm; 95% CI: 0.0001, 0.008). Birth length was associated with an increase in teenage AXL (0.067 mm; 95% CI: 0.032, 0.10) and flatter RCC (0.023 mm; 95% CI: 0.013, 0.034) and increasing birth weight was associated with flatter RCC (0.005 mm; 95% CI: 0.0003, 0.009). An increase in teenage height was associated with a lower MSE (-0.007 D; 95% CI: -0.013, -0.001), an increase in AXL (0.021 mm; 95% CI: 0.015, 0.028) and flatter RCC (0.008 mm; 95% CI: 0.006, 0.010). Weight at 15 years was associated with an increase in AXL (0.005 mm; 95% CI: 0.001, 0.009).Conclusions: At each life stage (pre-natal, birth, and teenage) height and weight, but not BMI, demonstrate an association with AXL and RCC measured at age 15 years. However, the negative association between refractive error and an increase in height was only present at the teenage life stage. Further research into the growth pattern of ocular structures and the development of refractive error over the life-course is required, particularly at the time of puberty.


Author(s):  
Loanna S. Heidinger ◽  
Andrea E. Willson

This study contributes to the literature on the long-term effects of childhood disadvantage on mental health by estimating the association between patterns of cumulative childhood adversity on trajectories of psychological distress in adulthood. There is little research that investigates how compositional variations in the accumulation of childhood adversity may initiate distinct processes of disadvantage and differentially shape trajectories of psychological distress across the adult life course. Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics’ Childhood Retrospective Circumstance Study and latent class analysis, we first identify distinct classes representing varied histories of exposure to childhood adversities using 25 indicators of adversity across multiple childhood domains. Next, the latent classes are included as predictors of trajectories of psychological distress in adulthood. The results demonstrate that patterns of experiences of childhood adversity are associated with higher levels of adult psychological distress that persists, and in some cases worsens, in adulthood, contributing to disparities in mental health across the life course.<br /><br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>Cumulative adversity during childhood has an enduring influence on adult psychological distress.</li><br /><li>Childhood adversities of various types and severities tend to co-occur, which is important for measures of cumulative childhood adversity to consider.</li><br /><li>Childhood adversity increases adult psychological distress, contributing to disparities in mental health across the life course.</li></ul>


2009 ◽  
pp. 171-189
Author(s):  
David Blane ◽  
Juliet Stone ◽  
Gopal Netuveli

- The present paper reviews the development of life course epidemiology since its origins during the 1990s from biological programming, birth cohort research and the study of health inequalities. Methods of studying the life course are examined, including birth cohort studies, linked register datasets and epidemiological archaeology. Three models of life course epidemiology are described: critical periods, accumulation, and pathways. Their conceptual and empirical differentiation can be difficult, but it is argued that accumulation is the underlying social process driving life course trajectories, while the critical period and pathway models are distinguished by their concern with specific types of aetiological process. Among the advantages of the accumulation model are predictive power, aetiological insights, contributions to health inequality debates and social policy implications. It is emphasised that the life course approach is not opposed to, or an alternative to, a concern with cross-sectional and current effects; major social disruption can have a large and immediate impact on health. Other limitations of the life course approach include a spectrum of impact (life course effects can be strong in relation to physiology, but often are weaker in relation to behaviour and psychological reactions to everyday life) and, more speculatively, the possibility that life course effects are diluted in the older age groups where morbidity and mortality are highest. Three issues for the future of life course epidemiology are identified. Many life course data are collected retrospectively. We need to know which items of information are recalled with what degree of accuracy over how many decades; and what methods of collecting these retrospective data maximise accuracy and duration. Second, the two partners in life course research need to take more seriously each other's disciplines. Social scientists need to be more critical of such measures as self-assessed health, which lacks an aetiology and hence biological plausibility. Natural scientists need to be more critical of such concepts as socio-economic status, which lacks social plausibility because it fails to distinguish between social location and social prestige. Finally, European comparative studies can play an important part in the future development of life course epidemiology if they build on the emerging infrastructure of European comparative research. Key words: life course epidemiology, life course trajectories, life course data, social inequalities, accumulation model, socio-economic status. Parole chiave: epidemiologia del corso di vita, traiettorie di vita, dati del corso di vita, disuguaglianze sociali, modello di accumulazione, status socio-economico


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