Advances in Life Course Research最新文献

Building on Georg Simmel’s concept of “form”, the article presents a relationship related structural concept of social relationships that specifically accounts for opportunities and constraints resulting from the fact that relationships are solidified patterns of interaction that, once established, can develop a power of their own (inertia, momentum) that cannot easily be influenced by the involved actors. In this “relationship-related structural approach”, social relationships or “forms” can be understood as specific constellations of “basic structural properties”, i.e. specifications of various aspects of quantity, of time, of space, of similarity, and including also a certain degree of freedom to enter or quit a relationship, knowledge about one another, and types and degree of institutionalization. The specification of these structural properties impacts the functional capacity of relationships, as well as the dynamics of both relationships and networks, especially the ways in which relationships are formed, maintained, or lost. Referring to various life course transitions from different phases of the life course, it is demonstrated how this approach helps to better understand the dynamics of social relationships and networks and the impact of life events on personal relationships across the life course. Finally, implications of this novel perspective for life course and network research are discussed.

A key question in the ongoing drug policy debate is whether legalising cannabis leads to an increase in cannabis use. In Europe although no country has yet moved to legalisation, many have decriminalised personal possession. However, some jurisdictions are still discussing increased sanctions or have further strengthened penalties for the possession of illicit substances in order to deter widespread cannabis use. This is the case in Italy, where a law introduced in 2006 and repealed in 2014 de facto criminalised personal drug possession, and a potential increase in penalties is currently being debated as a policy option. Despite the intense public debate surrounding the legal status of cannabis, limited empirical research has been conducted in Europe to assess the population-level effects of drug policy reforms, mainly due to data availability constraints. In this study, we analyse the effect of criminalisation on the age of onset of cannabis use using an unique dataset that combines seven waves (2001–2017) of the nationally representative Italian Population Survey on Alcohol and other Drugs with relevant socio-economic data. The final dataset comprises 77,650 observations. Leveraging the rare opportunity to examine the effects of a policy that remained in force for a limited period, our empirical investigation employs a Complementary Log-Log model to analyse the starting rate, that is, the transition rate from non-use to use. To do so, we use self-reported data on the age of first cannabis use. Our results suggest that the implementation of stricter punishments has a significant effect in reducing the likelihood of early cannabis use initiation. The observed impact of criminalisation is limited in younger ages and diminished as adulthood approaches. This paper also discusses other considerations related to the social costs of criminalisation, which should also be taken into account in the ongoing policy debate.

Much of the literature on fertility intentions has shown that they are broadly predictive of fertility behaviour. Fertility intentions tend to change over a person’s life. How religiosity affects these changes over time has rarely been the subject of investigation. In this paper, we focus on whether and how religiosity affects trajectories of lifetime fertility intentions. Specifically, we examine whether highly religious people start with higher fertility intentions and are more likely to sustain them during their life course compared to their less religious counterparts. We apply random and fixed effects growth curve models to data from the German family panel pairfam, using a sample of 6214 women and 5802 men aged 14–46. We find that religiosity mainly contributes to explain the starting level at teenage years but not the trajectories of lifetime fertility intentions as people get older. Highly religious people start with higher intentions than less religious people. However, similarly to less religious people they experience a decline in their fertility intentions with age. This study demonstrates that religiosity is an important variable in research on fertility intentions but with changing relevance over the life course.

This article introduces the concept of “unlinked lives” and illustrates its significance for scholarship on the life course. There are many lessons to be learned about human interdependence by focusing not on relationships that are formed and then maintained, but instead on relationships that are lost or ended by choice or circumstance, such as through changes in institutional affiliations, social status and positions or places. Unlinked lives carry important social meanings, are embedded in complex social processes, and bring consequences for the wellbeing of individuals, families, and societies. To develop this concept, we put forward nine key propositions related to when and how unlinkings happen as processes, as well as some of the consequences of being unlinked as a status or outcome. The coupling of “unlinked lives” with “linked lives” offers a crucial avenue for advancing life course theories and research, integrating scholarship across multiple life periods and transitions, and bridging the two now-distinct traditions of intellectual inquiry on the life course and on social networks.

In this study, I investigate the potential impact of parental unemployment on the academic achievement of children, with a particular focus on the child's age at the time of parental unemployment. While previous research has concentrated on isolated occurrences of unemployment, my study expands on this literature by examining the complete employment history of the parent over the child's life course and exploring how the effects of unemployment may vary based on similar past experiences. To achieve this, I combine population-wide data from the Danish administrative register with the results of mandatory Danish language tests administered in public schools since 2010 to determine whether parental unemployment affects academic performance at ages nine and fifteen. Using inverse probability treatment weighting of marginal structural models, I account for non-random unemployment occurrences and time-variant confounders that may partially mediate the effects of unemployment. My findings demonstrate that parental unemployment can have both persistent and immediate negative effects on children's academic achievement. Although no age period clearly emerges as especially sensitive to the impact of unemployment, the proximity of the unemployment event to the outcome measurement consistently results in a small negative effect on academic achievement. Additionally, the timing of unemployment appears to affect children's academic performance differently based on whether the mother or father experienced unemployment.

Child abuse is a significant global health problem. While data on child abuse in Ghana are scant, anecdotal evidence suggests the vast majority of Ghanaian children have experienced some form of physical or sexual abuse. This paper explores links between early childhood abuse and health outcomes using a life course perspective. Nationally representative cross-sectional data were collected from a sample of 2289 ever-married Ghanaian women in 2017. Women provided retrospective accounts of different types of violence in early childhood. Random-effects logit models were used to examine the impact of two dimensions of early childhood abuse (physical and sexual) on the physical, sexual, and psychosocial health outcomes of women in later years. Women who experienced childhood physical abuse, but not often, were significantly more likely to report physical disabilities in later years than women who did not experience it. Women reporting childhood sexual abuse were more likely to be depressed in later years than those who never experienced such abuse. They were also significantly more likely to report sexually transmitted diseases. Our findings provide support for the life course theory by showing abuse experienced in childhood could have a long-term impact. We therefore suggest the need for early interventions to address child abuse.

Prior research indicates that parental psychiatric disorders increase their offspring’s risk of substance use problems. Though the association is likely bidirectional, the effects of an adult child’s substance use on parental mental health remain understudied. We examined parents’ psychotropic medication use trajectories by parental sex and educational attainment before and after a child’s alcohol- or narcotics-attributable hospitalization. We identified Finnish residents, born 1979–1988, with a first hospitalization for substance use during emerging adulthood (ages 18–29, n = 12,851). Their biological mothers (n = 12,283) and/or fathers (n = 10,765) were followed for the two years before and after the hospitalization. Psychotropic medication use was measured in three-month periods centered around the time of child’s hospitalization, and the probability of psychotropic medication use at each time point was assessed using generalized estimating equations logit models. Among mothers, the prevalence of psychotropic medication use increased during the year before, peaked during the 0–3 months after hospitalization, and remained at a similarly elevated level until the end of follow-up. The prevalence among fathers increased gradually and linearly across follow-up, with minimal changes evident either directly before or after the hospitalization. Parents’ educational attainment did not modify these trajectories. Our results highlight the importance of considering linked lives when quantifying substance use-attributable harms and underscore the need for future research examining the intergenerational spillover effects of substance use in both directions, particularly in mother-child dyads.

Previous research suggests that lack of employment security can lead young adults to experience a higher degree of insecurity with regard to their future life. We test the relationship between life-course insecurity, i.e. worrisome feelings with regard to one’s own future, and young adults’ employment status using a newly developed measurement instrument. Furthermore, we examine whether, in terms of life-course insecurity, specific groups of young people are more affected by insecure employment conditions based on their structural position. Survey data (n = 1087) were collected within a Dutch representative panel among those aged 18–35. Structural equation modelling is used to construct latent dependent variables for experienced insecurity in four life domains, namely ‘work’, ‘finances’, ‘partner and family’ and ‘leisure and personal development’. Results show that, while controlling for gender, life phase, education level and level of neuroticism, lack of employment is associated with higher insecurity in all four domains of life. Precarious employment based on a flexible contract is associated with higher insecurity regarding ‘work’, ‘finances’ and ‘partner and family’. Moreover, we find the relationship between lack of employment and life-course insecurity to be stronger for young people in the 26–35 age bracket. However, higher educational attainment does not attenuate the positive relationship between precarious employment and life-course insecurity. The findings of this study inform our theoretical understanding of agency within the life course of young adults by signaling insecure labour market attachment as a potential constraint to formulating plans for the future.

Research examining the extent that people’s attitudes toward abortion vary across the life course is mixed. Some studies do not show a strong relationship between abortion attitudes and life stage, while others do find strong associations in both directions—older age associated with both more and less favorable attitudes toward legal abortion. Taken together, these findings suggest that individual attitudes toward abortion are static for some but malleable for others. Little is known about the prevalence, reasons, and directionality of attitude changes. This explanatory sequential mixed methods study investigates people’s perceptions of whether, how, why, and for whom their abortion attitudes may have changed over their life course. We qualitatively investigated the reasons (e.g., experiences, life events) that triggered changes in respondents’ abortion attitudes and quantitatively explored the sociodemographic factors associated with the perceived direction of those changes. The quantitative data come from a 2020 online survey completed by 1501 English and Spanish-speaking adults in the US. Qualitative data were collected from a subsample (n = 24) of the survey respondents who indicated interest in a follow-up in-depth interview. Our findings indicate that access to information and knowledge played an important role in changing abortion attitudes across a spectrum of support or opposition. For those who indicated becoming more opposed to abortion over time, experiencing parenthood was an important trigger for change and family/religious upbringing were key to shaping attitudes. For those who became more supportive of abortion over time, empathy for women was an important trigger for change and disagreeing with or distancing oneself from family/religious upbringing were key to shaping their attitudes. If attitudinal change occurs, becoming more supportive of abortion over the life-course is more common than becoming more opposed, however there are some nuances across age and gender. Understanding the different factors that influence attitudinal change regarding abortion has important implications for public opinion research and possible ramifications for abortion legality.

Sibling relationships are a significant part of family dynamics, and sibling violence may be manifested in these relationships. Sibling violence has rarely been examined in the domestic violence literature on sub-Saharan Africa, so little is known about its prevalence or consequences. This study used a life course perspective to examine the effects of sibling violence on Ghanaian women’s intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization and perpetration in adulthood. Data were collected from about 1700 ever-married Ghanaian women aged 18 years and above between May and August 2022. Logit models were used to explore retrospective accounts of women’s experience of various types of sibling violence in childhood and their later victimization and/or perpetration of IPV. Results showed sibling violence was prevalent in our sample: 58.1% experienced sibling emotional violence, 32% experienced physical violence, and 27.9% experienced sexual violence. Our findings generally supported the life course perspective. Women with experiences of sibling physical, sexual, and emotional violence were significantly more likely to perpetrate physical, sexual, and emotional IPV in adulthood. Similarly, women with experiences of sibling violence were more likely to report IPV victimization in later years. Domestic violence interventions should pay attention to sibling relationships in children’s early years.