Journal article

Parental joblessness and the moderating role of a university degree on the school-to-work transition in Australia and the United States

Matthew Curry, Irma Mooi-Reci, Mark Wooden

Social Science Research | Elsevier | Published : 2019

Abstract

Does parental joblessness delay young adults’ school-to-work transitions? If so, can a university degree moderate this relationship? We examine these questions using a representative sample of young adults who lived with their parents prior to entering the labor market in Australia (N = 2152) and the U.S. (N = 811) during the period 2001–2015. Results from Cox proportional hazards models demonstrate that parental joblessness (the proportion of time spent living in a household where no parent was employed) is associated with slower school-to-work transitions in both the U.S. and Australia. University degree attainment mitigates much of this negative relationship in Australia, suggesting that ..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council


Awarded by National Institutes of Health


Awarded by National Science Foundation


Funding Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Australian Research Council (DP160101063). This paper uses unit record data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. The HILDA Survey Project was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services and managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (Melbourne Institute). The collection of PSID data used in this study was partly supported by the National Institutes of Health under grant number R01 HD069609 and the National Science Foundation under award number 1157698. Previous versions of this paper were presented at the Melbourne Institute (7/25/17), the DSS (9/22/17), the Australian Sociological Association meeting (11/28/17), and the Population Association of America meeting (4/26/18). The authors would like to thank the participants and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback and suggestions.