Although it does not explicitly imply the principle of linked lives, the analysis of longitudinal impacts allows to tackle the causes of certain events in the past and their subsequent effects on the life course of individuals. This effect can happen in the same life sphere or between life spheres of a human being. The analysis of this impact allows us to capture how life events can represent (re)structuring or turning points in the life course. It also highlights the effect of the interaction between individual and supra-individual characteristics, and accumulation of advantages and disadvantages throughout life, as well as the relationship between agency and structure (Bernardi et al., 2018).
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Examples:
The effect of entering the labor market or of other key moments in romantic/ intimate relationships on leaving the parental home.
Although it develops with age, 1st employment significantly increases the probability of an individual leaving the parental home (Rossingnon et al., 2018), showing the impact of the labor market entry on the transition to adulthood, associated consequently with “leaving the nest”.
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Moreover, the ending of a love relationship can function as a potential turning point in the life course, especially, for more educated/qualified women in correlation to leaving the parental home for situations of residential autonomy, as well as, although under explored, early leaving due to homosexual orientation or gender identity features (Nico, 2016).
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The accumulation and mobilization of capital in youth transitions.
Entering higher education can influence the formation and enlargement of informal social networks with future consequences for access to resources and opportunities through the accumulation and deployment of social capital (support, especially emotional, through strong ties between friends and support, emotional and economic, from family ties – bonding and the instrumentalization of more tenuous/sporadic and institutional relationships – bridging) contributing to instrumental or subjective validation of the personal networks and to social (re)structure as well (Neves et al., 2019: 103-104).
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The cumulative disadvantages of an early pregnancy.
One of the effects that an “early” pregnancy, especially in single-parenting situations, can have on women is dropping out of school, consequently resulting on their exclusion from the labor market by the reduced employability capacity instigated by their lower qualifications, often ending up in low-income jobs and structuring processes of accumulation of disadvantages (Jaerhrling et al., 2014 in Struffolino et al., 2018: 5).
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Extended effects of school-to-work transition and the socioeconomic context of job opportunities.
According to Wolber’s (2016) study, another example is the impact of attained education on future employability upon entering the labor market, in interaction with the market’s oscillations, especially in periods of recession with high unemployment rates.
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Methodology and abstract:
Seeking to discover the cause of certain events in the present and later life of the individuals, life course research has mainly focused on longitudinal databases or in compilations of information through cohort, that is, that they extend over time by collecting information in continuous waves and potentiating the analyses of longitudinal impacts.
Even tough life course research in in its majority supported by quantitative methodologies,
In the quest for finding patterns of causality, spill-over effects or even turning points, research is often supported by qualitative methodologies in which the perception and subjectivity of the respondents under analysis is essential to pinpoint the longitudinal and biographical impacts of certain events. In other words, longitudinal impacts are the consequences of events at the individual level, influenced by the context, leading to repercussions later in the same social sphere and/or spread to others, and which are mainly subsequent of the effects of the interaction between intra-individual, individual and supra-individual attributes in the contexts of existence of individuals over their life courses, as well as the effects of accumulation of social advantages and disadvantages throughout life.
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References:
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Bernardi, L., Huinink, J., & Settersten Jr, R. A. (2018). The life course cube: A tool for studying lives, Advances in Life Course Research.
Rossignon, F., Studer, M., Gauthier, J. A., & Le Goff, J. M. (2018), “Sequence history analysis (SHA): Estimating the effect of past trajectories on an upcoming event” em Sequence Analysis and Related ApproachesSpringer, Cham, 83 -100.
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Nico, Magda (2016), “Romantic turning points and patterns of leaving home: contributions from qualitative research in a southern European country”, European Societies, 18 (4), 389-409.
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Neves, B. B., Dias de Carvalho, D., Serra, F., Torres, A., & Fraga, S. (2019), “Social Capital in Transition (s) to Early Adulthood: A Longitudinal and Mixed-Methods Approach”, Journal of Adolescent Research, 34(1), 85-112.
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Jaehrling, K., Kalina, T., & Mesaros, L. (2014), “A paradox of activation strategies: Why increasing labour market participation among single mothers failed to bring down poverty rates”, Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, 22(1), 86–110 em Struffolino, E., Bernardi, L., & Larenza, O. (2018). Lone Parenthood and Employment Trajectories: A Longitudinal Mixed-Method Study. LIVES Working Papers, 1-32.
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Wolbers, M. H. (2016) “A generation lost?: Prolonged effects of labour market entry in times of high unemployment in the Netherlands”, Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 46, 51-59.
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Text by Marco Carreira (2019)