Longitudinal and Life Course Studies最新文献

The collection of longitudinal data is crucial in some domains such as life course studies. However, prospective studies are considerably costly, and thus retrospective data are an appealing alternative. A life history calendar is a tool specifically conceived to collect retrospective data. However, although it is designed to enhance the recall process of the respondents, the accuracy of the data collected through this approach remains unknown, particularly when data is collected online. In this study, we conducted a secondary analysis of data collected from n = 5,181 respondents through an online survey regarding their sexual health. Because we inquired about the occurrence of certain events twice during the survey, once using a life calendar and once through a traditional questionnaire, we were able to perform three types of consistency checks: (1) reporting of single events, (2) age when the events occurred and (3) correct timing between two events. The main results indicated that it is generally more difficult to remember the exact age of occurrence of an event than the event itself, that the report of related events is generally coherent, and that women are generally more accurate in their answers than men. Based on our results, it is therefore possible to identify a subset of persons whose answers are more consistent throughout the survey. This study also shows that data obtained through an online life history calendar can be of a quality similar to that obtained through a traditional online questionnaire.

This article studies to what extent societal processes such as educational expansion, economic modernisation and business cycles have affected the returns to educational certificates of women and men entering the labour market in West Germany. Using longitudinal data, long-term changes in cohort- and period-specific effects on socio-economic status attainment at entry into the labour market are investigated between 1945 and 2008. Analyses demonstrate that the entrants' average socio-economic prestige scores have clearly risen in the process of modernisation. Despite educational expansion, increasing skill demands for highly qualified graduates resulted in rising rates of returns for the most highly educated entrants across birth cohorts. While educational expansion and economic modernisation have boosted socio-economic returns at entry into the labour market for women from all educational levels, it has not been the case for men with the lowest levels of education. Both educational expansion and rising skill requirements of occupations led to an increasing polarisation of inequality between tertiary educated labour-market entrants and less-qualified school leavers. Educational expansion in West Germany has therefore never exceeded the occupational skill demands at entry into the labour market.

An important question about adult education is whether it compensates for or exacerbates initial inequality. The paper looks at this question in relation to higher education in Scotland, considering inequality with respect to sex and to social class. The data come from three cohorts followed from birth to 2011-12. The oldest is unique to Scotland, consisting of people born in 1936. The other two are the Scottish components of British cohorts who were born in 1958 and 1970. This range of time allows an investigation of the effects of half a century of higher-education expansion, drawing a distinction between all higher education and degree-level higher education. The conclusions are that the proportion of women who gained any higher-education qualification was lower than that of men in the 1936 cohort right up to age 75, was equal to men's in the 1958 cohort up to age 54, and in the 1970 cohort was higher than men's from the outset and moved increasingly ahead up to early middle age. For degrees, the female proportion converged with but did not overtake the male proportion. On social class, inequality for all higher education widened with age in the oldest cohort, did not change in the middle cohort, and narrowed with age in the youngest cohort. For degrees, inequality did not change across cohorts or across ages within cohort. Thus any widening of access by adults to higher education has depended mainly on levels below that of degrees.

Childbearing delay is a pervasive feature of Australian society, but little research has been conducted to examine how socio-economic factors are linked to childbearing timing among Australian men and women. This paper addresses this by analysing the timing of first childbirth for a large sample of Australian residents (N = 4,444). The findings indicate that childbearing delay is socially patterned and that life course experiences shape the risk of delaying childbearing across genders. Having a tertiary qualification delays the transition to parenthood, especially for women. An uninterrupted career prolongs time to parenthood for women but accelerates it for men. Low occupational prestige, being married and having been in only one co-residential union are associated with earlier parenthood for both men and women. For each increase in education level, not being married is associated with increasing levels of childlessness. Clear-cut gender differences are found in the relationship between childlessness and childbearing delay.

This article examines PhD students' migration plans and strategies, their development over time, and the circumstances of their potential or real return within the changing life course context. The research is based on a longitudinal qualitative study conducted over six years (2012-17) among 21 international PhD students coming from developing countries, studying in the Netherlands. Results are discussed in the context of a cultural shift and the migration-development nexus. We argue that: (1) strong feelings of responsibility towards both their family and the development of their country of origin are leading factors shaping their migration strategies; (2) specialisation of their research project and its applicability in the home country also importantly influences their return potential; and (3) an apparent moral responsibility towards the home society and a willingness to help countries of migratory origin was growing stronger over the observation time (in harmony with post-materialist values the informants gained when studying in the Netherlands) along the progressing life course, which creates a broad potential for brain gain.

Climate change and population growth will increase vulnerability to natural and human-made disasters or pandemics. Longitudinal research studies may be adversely impacted by a lack of access to study resources, inability to travel around the urban environment, reluctance of sample members to attend appointments, sample members moving residence and potentially also the destruction of research facilities. One of the key advantages of longitudinal research is the ability to assess associations between exposures and outcomes by limiting the influence of sample selection bias. However, ensuring the validity and reliability of findings in longitudinal research requires the recruitment and retention of respondents who are willing and able to be repeatedly assessed over an extended period of time. This study examined recruitment and retention strategies of 11 longitudinal cohort studies operating during the Christchurch, New Zealand earthquake sequence which began in September 2010, including staff perceptions of the major impediments to study operations during/after the earthquakes and respondents' barriers to participation. Successful strategies to assist recruitment and retention after a natural disaster are discussed. With the current COVID-19 pandemic, longitudinal studies are potentially encountering some of the issues highlighted in this paper including: closure of facilities, restricted movement of research staff and sample members, and reluctance of sample members to attend appointments. It is possible that suggestions in this paper may be implemented so that longitudinal studies can protect the operation of their research programmes.