Search Results
Title: Differential Participation In and Returns to Education Over the Life Course
Resulting in 1 citation.
| 1. |
Hamil-Luker, Jenifer |
|
Differential Participation In and Returns to Education Over the Life Course Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2003 Cohort(s): Mature Women, NLSY79, Young Women Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning Keyword(s): Education, Adult; Educational Attainment; GED/General Educational Diploma/General Equivalency Degree/General Educational Development; High School Completion/Graduates; Life Course; Training, Occupational; Training, Off-the-Job; Training, On-the-Job; Wage Growth; Welfare This dissertation assesses trends in adult education and maps learning across the life course for three cohorts from the National Longitudinal Surveys born between 1923 and 1965. Highlighting the cumulative age-, cohort-, and period-related effects of learning over time, I study how different forms of adult education influence trajectories of wage growth, public assistance receipt, and physical health among women and the undereducated. Analysis chapters examine three main questions. First, how does the skewed distribution of who participates in adult education contribute to social inequality within cohorts? Second, how does adult education alter life course patterns initiated by earlier experiences? Finally, how does the trajectory-altering (or concretizing) effect of education vary across birth cohorts? In the first analysis chapter, I examine differential participation in and wage returns to occupational training among NLS Young Women and NLSY79 Women as they aged from their early twenties and thirties into their early thirties and forties. Among NLS Women, only those who engaged in on-the-job training experienced real wage growth between 1977 and 1987. Participation in on-the-job training, but not off-the-job training, reduced the earnings gap by educational background. In contrast, continuing investments in training, whether on or off the job, increased earnings inequality within education levels between 1988 and 1998 for the more recent cohort. In the second analysis chapter, I map trajectories of public assistance receipt between 1984 and 1998 among a sample of high school dropouts from the NLSY79. I find that dropouts who complete a GED decrease their risk of welfare receipt across young and middle adulthood. Among welfare recipients, obtaining a GED within four years of dropping out of high school increases the probability of a permanent exit from public assistance. In the final analysis chapter, I examine how the relationship between education and health changes over time by following two cohorts of women between 1967 and 1995. Longitudinal analyses show that health advantages of high educational attainment and disadvantages of low educational attainment diverge with age. Women in both cohorts who continue formal learning in middle and older ages reduce their chances of declining health over the decades. |
|
|
Bibliography Citation
Hamil-Luker, Jenifer. Differential Participation In and Returns to Education Over the Life Course. Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2003. |