The role of social position and depressive symptoms in adolescence for life-course trajectories of education and work: a cohort study

Abstract

BackgroundWhile a vast amount of studies confirm the social reproduction of class and status from one generation to the next, less is known about the role of health in the child generation for these processes. Research has shown that particularly mental distress in adolescence is important for future life chances. This study aimed to examine the importance of parental socioeconomic position and depressive symptoms in youth for life-course trajectories of education and labour market attachment among men and women.MethodsBased on four waves of questionnaire data from the Northern Swedish Cohort (n = 1,001), consisting of individuals born in 1965, three steps of gender-separate analyses were undertaken. First, the individual trajectories of education and labour market attachment from age 18 to 42 were mapped through sequence analysis. Second, cluster analysis was used to identify typical trajectories. Third, two indicators of parental socioeconomic position – occupational class and employment status – and depressive symptoms at age 16 were used in multinomial regression analyses to predict adult life-course trajectories.ResultsFour typical trajectories were identified for men, of which three were characterised by stable employment and various lengths of education, and the fourth reflected a more unstable situation. Among women, five trajectories emerged, characterised by more instability compared to men. Low parental occupational class and unemployment were significantly associated with a higher risk of ending up in less advantaged trajectories for men while, for women, this was only the case for occupational class. Youth levels of depressive symptoms did not significantly differ across the trajectories.ConclusionsThis study found support for the intergenerational reproduction of social position, particularly when measured in terms of parental occupational class. Youth depressive symptoms did not show clear differences across types of trajectories, subsequently impeding such symptoms to trigger any selection processes. While this could be a consequence of the specific framework of the current study, it may also suggest that depressive symptoms in youth are not a root cause for the more complex processes through which how social position develops across life. The possible impact of welfare and labour market policies is discussed.

Socioeconomic and health-related childhood and adolescence predictors of entry into paid employment

“…20 The observed association between poor socioeconomic factors and early start of the working career is in agreement with prior literature. 21 The consequences of this early employment can be negative, for example, lower quality of life and risk of heavy drinking have been reported among teens who are employed during term time. 19,20 However, our additional analysis suggests that poor socioeconomic circumstances relate to age at entry into employment particularly for those who later obtain high education, which suggests that the first employment occurs before or while attending high school and higher education.…”

“…were not associated with unstable labour attachment over time. 21 The discrepancy between studies may derive from different measures used for mental health; the more severe indicators such as psychiatric diagnosis being more likely associated with adverse employment outcomes. Moreover, missing data on the symptoms of mental health problems may have attenuated our findings, if those with more severe problems did not respond to the YSR questionnaire.…”

Avaliação do programa jovem aprendiz a partir de um estudo quase-experimental

“…Essa inserção antecipada no mundo do trabalho refl ete, portanto, uma reprodução social da pobreza, amplamente discutida na literatura nacional e estrangeira como um fenômeno intergeracional (Landstedt, Brydsten, Hammarström, Virtanen, & Almquist, 2016;Naiff, 2014). Em vários países, o segmento juvenil com problemas socioeconômicos se insere no mercado de trabalho de forma antecipada, visando sua própria sustentação e a de sua família (Pais, 2016).…”

Broken Tribe: The importance of social connection in depression

“…These also affect risks for depressive symptoms, while various forms of social support provide protection against depressive symptoms. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Historical Social Environments Information on social structure in ancient hunter-gatherer groups is lacking, but studies of contemporary hunter gatherer groups demonstrate cooperative behaviours such as food sharing, alloparenting, fluid social networks and shared living with a number of related and unrelated people. 15 Prosocial behaviour was beneficial in several ways, including the ability to buffer unpredictable environments and the promotion of information exchange where frequent interactions allowed innovations to flourish.…”