Projects

Project Three: Gendered Pathways to Adulthood

Principal Investigator: Wendy Sigle-Rushton (LSE)
Principal Investigator: John Hobcraft (York)
Principal Investigator: Kathleen Kiernan (York)

Aims
The main aims of the project are : (1) to describe the extent to which economic, psychological, and socio-demographic outcomes in adulthood, both positive and negative, differ by gender, and whether differences by gender have altered over time; (2) to document whether the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage operates in different ways for women and for men and examine whether these transmission mechanisms have remained stable or have changed across cohorts; (3) to analyse the way in which the early assumption of gendered, adult roles - including early parenthood, early partnership formation, and early school leaving - relates to longer term adult well-being; (4) to compare and contrast the childhood precursors to adolescent and adult (dis)advantage as they differ by gender; (5) to examine the intergenerational transmission of gender roles within the family as they relate to the distribution of paid and unpaid work, and analyse whether or not different patterns are associated with greater or lesser family stability.

Background
There is a wealth of empirical evidence demonstrating important links between child and adolescent experiences and adult outcomes. For example, children with poor academic test scores and behavioural problems are more likely to be socially excluded as adults, suggesting that pathways of resilience or disadvantage begin early on for many children. In addition, evidence suggests that early parenthood and poor educational outcomes form an important transitional link between childhood disadvantage and future social exclusion ( Hobcraft, 2000; Hobcraft and Kiernan, 2001).

To address the consequences of childhood disadvantage, key questions arise in relation to the timing and the nature of childhood experiences, both of which may have important interactions with gender (Ermisch and Francesconi, 2001). For example, developmental theories have posited that income poverty has the most deleterious consequences for young children (Duncan, Yeung, Brooks-Gunn and Smith, 1998). Yet if boys and girls respond differently to childhood stresses, this raises the possibility that different responses may lead to gendered outcomes in adulthood. Finally, with the changes in gender roles and norms that have occurred in recent decades, it is unclear whether gendered pathways to adulthood have remained stable or become more similar as women have taken on more traditionally male roles and responsibilities.

This project will seek to answer the following key research questions: How do women and men differ in their adult economic, psychological, and socio-demographic characteristics? Have gender differentials in adult well-being changed over time? Are there gender differences in the precursors of adult disadvantage and have these changed with changes in the social construction of feminine and masculine roles? Does the early assumption of adult roles impair success and operate as an important gateway to subsequent disadvantage and do these gateways differ for women and men? Have the consequences of early life transitions become more severe, for men particularly, as a consequence of shortages in low skill jobs? Can differences in the intra-family distribution of paid and unpaid work explain differences in the risk of partnership dissolution and poverty?

This Project seeks to further our understanding of the childhood and adolescent risk factors that are associated with subsequent disadvantage (or success) by focusing on gendered differences in childhood risk factors - what we term "gendered pathways". Using data from the National Child Development Study and the British Cohort Study, we will be able to use a life course approach to explore a wide range of adult outcomes including employment, poverty, psychological adjustment, health, and social integration. By comparing data from two cohorts, one born in 1958 and the other in 1970, we assess whether gendered pathways have remained persistent over time or whether they have converged, or differentially evolved, over time.

To analyse the link between childhood precursors and the timing of important transitions, the project will rely on survival methods that explicitly model when and whether an event occurred. In addition, a non-parametric, propensity score technique will be used to explore potentially endogenous transitions during adolescence such as early parenthood or leaving home. This technique allows the creation of treatment and control groups where 'treatment' is an endogenous variable of interest such as early parenthood. Those who experienced young parenthood would be matched with a control case that did not experience treatment but is otherwise similar on a variety of pre-treatment factors. Matched groups are compared to assess whether differences in later outcomes can be explained by selection into the treatment group as opposed to having experienced the treatment (Smith, 1997). This provides crucial information on whether early adult transitions are gateways to disadvantage or another step in a path that began long before. There are clear policy implications regarding the timing of appropriate interventions.

Project Contact
Dr Wendy Sigle-Rushton
Department of Social Policy
London School of Economics and Political Science
Houghton Street
London
WC2 2AE
w.sigle-rushton@lse.ac.uk
+44 (0)20 7955 7358