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Author: Smith, Susan Elizabeth
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Smith, Susan Elizabeth |
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Public Policies and Economic Hardship: Determining Where Individual Decisions Confront Structural Barriers Ph.D. Dissertation, The University Of Chicago, 1998 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning Keyword(s): Behavior; Childbearing, Adolescent; Disadvantaged, Economically; Economics of Gender; Ethnic Groups/Ethnicity; Event History; Exits; Family Background and Culture; High School Dropouts; Life Course; Marriage; Mobility; Mobility, Economic; Modeling; Modeling, Probit; Parenthood; Poverty; Racial Differences; Welfare This dissertation examines the relative importance of life course events and family background on young women's prospects for remaining or becoming economically disadvantaged. Using a broad theory of economic mobility, and controlling for family background, the relative power of children's behaviors in explaining variation in their adult poverty odds is tested. Of particular interest is how ethnicity combines with other events to predict poverty odds. Despite obvious differences between white, African American, and Latino women in their experiences with teen parenthood, marriage, and welfare receipt, research often fail to properly specify the interaction between ethnicity and other causal variables. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (the NLSY), this research studied the life courses of 4766 women for fifteen years--from the age of 14 to 28 years. The sample was a stratified, probability sample of young people in the United States. Models used event history, logistic, and probit models to estimate odds of teen births, high school exits, and marriage. The role of welfare receipt in preceding or mitigating events was also considered. A large set of family background and personal characteristics were controlled. The study's major finding was that dropping out of high school had a much more negative and enduring impact on adult poverty odds than did early childbearing. The life chances of high school dropouts were significantly constrained. Still, dropouts who were also teen parents were no worse off than those who delayed childbearing. Leaving high school or having a child before the age of 16 had a much more dramatic effect on life chances than an event occurring in the later teen years. Finally, regardless of their behavior or family background, African American girls were poor more often and for longer periods of time than white and Latino girls. Three policy implications come from these findings. First, the United States needs to develop a comprehensive set of family policies, including supplementing low-income wages and guaranteeing child support. Second, children need to be encouraged to stay in school. And third, serious effort must be made to break down racial barriers. |
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Bibliography Citation
Smith, Susan Elizabeth. Public Policies and Economic Hardship: Determining Where Individual Decisions Confront Structural Barriers. Ph.D. Dissertation, The University Of Chicago, 1998. |