The impact of parental employment and unemployment on children and young people

Over recent decades there have been dramatic changes in the employment patterns of men and women, with particularly significant increases in employment rates among mothers. Government policy has also increasingly given attention to encouraging parents, particularly lone mothers, into work, with a f...

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Main Author: Cusworth, Linda
Format: Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2007
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/10317/
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author Cusworth, Linda
author_facet Cusworth, Linda
author_sort Cusworth, Linda
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Over recent decades there have been dramatic changes in the employment patterns of men and women, with particularly significant increases in employment rates among mothers. Government policy has also increasingly given attention to encouraging parents, particularly lone mothers, into work, with a focus on paid work as a defence against poverty. These trends and policy changes affect the everyday lives of both parents and children, and give rise to questions about the potential impact that parental employment patterns have on children and young people. The main aim of this thesis was to investigate any relationships between patterns of parental employment and young people's educational and emotional well-being. Using data from the British Household Panel Survey and its associated Youth Panel, logistic regression techniques were used to assess the association between parental employment patterns and a number of outcomes. A forms of capital (Bourdieu, 1983) approach was adopted to contextualise and explain the relationships between parental employment patterns and outcomes for young people. The main conclusions are that parental employment and unemployment impact upon young people's outcomes in a number of ways, with different mechanisms observed for different outcomes. Young people living in a currently workless household were more likely to have poorer educational outcomes (truancy, leaving school at age 16), operating through the impact on family socio-economic circumstances (financial capital). Maternal part-time employment appeared to offer young people some protection against poor emotional well-being, operating through a mechanism of social capital. The influence of parental employment patterns on the formation of educational attitudes and expectations appeared to operate through a mechanism of cultural norms and expectations (cultural capital). Understanding the impact of parental employment patterns on outcomes for adolescents, using this recent data source, offers a key contribution to the literature and to policy debates.
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spelling nottingham-103172025-02-28T11:07:51Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/10317/ The impact of parental employment and unemployment on children and young people Cusworth, Linda Over recent decades there have been dramatic changes in the employment patterns of men and women, with particularly significant increases in employment rates among mothers. Government policy has also increasingly given attention to encouraging parents, particularly lone mothers, into work, with a focus on paid work as a defence against poverty. These trends and policy changes affect the everyday lives of both parents and children, and give rise to questions about the potential impact that parental employment patterns have on children and young people. The main aim of this thesis was to investigate any relationships between patterns of parental employment and young people's educational and emotional well-being. Using data from the British Household Panel Survey and its associated Youth Panel, logistic regression techniques were used to assess the association between parental employment patterns and a number of outcomes. A forms of capital (Bourdieu, 1983) approach was adopted to contextualise and explain the relationships between parental employment patterns and outcomes for young people. The main conclusions are that parental employment and unemployment impact upon young people's outcomes in a number of ways, with different mechanisms observed for different outcomes. Young people living in a currently workless household were more likely to have poorer educational outcomes (truancy, leaving school at age 16), operating through the impact on family socio-economic circumstances (financial capital). Maternal part-time employment appeared to offer young people some protection against poor emotional well-being, operating through a mechanism of social capital. The influence of parental employment patterns on the formation of educational attitudes and expectations appeared to operate through a mechanism of cultural norms and expectations (cultural capital). Understanding the impact of parental employment patterns on outcomes for adolescents, using this recent data source, offers a key contribution to the literature and to policy debates. 2007 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en arr https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/10317/1/phd-final.pdf Cusworth, Linda (2007) The impact of parental employment and unemployment on children and young people. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. parents children parental employment outcomes well-being
spellingShingle parents children parental employment outcomes well-being
Cusworth, Linda
The impact of parental employment and unemployment on children and young people
title The impact of parental employment and unemployment on children and young people
title_full The impact of parental employment and unemployment on children and young people
title_fullStr The impact of parental employment and unemployment on children and young people
title_full_unstemmed The impact of parental employment and unemployment on children and young people
title_short The impact of parental employment and unemployment on children and young people
title_sort impact of parental employment and unemployment on children and young people
topic parents children parental employment outcomes well-being
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/10317/