Job displacement among single mothers: effects on children's outcomes in young adulthood

Effects of parental job loss on psychotropic drug use in children: Long-term effects, timing, and cumulative exposure

Intra-family crossover effects triggered by job losses have received growing attention across scientific disciplines, but existing research has reached discrepant conclusions concerning if, and if so how, parental job losses affect child mental health. Drawing on sociological models of stress and life course epidemiology, we ask if parental job losses have long-term effects on child mental health, and if these effects are conditional on the timing of, or the cumulative exposure to, job losses. We use intergenerationally linked Swedish register data combined with entropy balance and structural nested mean models for the analyses. The data allow us to track 400,000 children over 14 years and thereby test different life-course models of cross-over effects. We identify involuntary job losses using information on workplace closures, thus reducing the risk of confounding. Results show that paternal but not maternal job loss significantly increases the risk of psychotropic drug use among children, that the average effects are modest in size (less than 4% in relative terms), that they may persist for up to five years, and that they are driven by children aged 6-10 years. Moreover, cumulative exposure to multiple job losses are more harmful than zero or one job loss.

The psychosocial impact on single mothers' well-being - A literature review

In India, single-parent families are proliferating. In particular, women are taking the lead in assuming the role. They are the most vulnerable of all the disadvantaged groups. Due to an absence of financial and social support, single mothers endure a great deal of emotional strain. So, the aim of the study is to investigate the various psychosocial factors that influence the well-being of single mothers. Additionally, this research seeks to assess the coping strategies employed by single mothers. This article reviews 80 studies on psychosocial concerns faced by single mothers, focusing on mental health, challenges, and social support. It cites 71 publications from 80 sources from Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed, between 1980 and 2023. The study used keywords as a search strategy such as "single mother," "mental health," "challenges," and "social support." The results showed that the absence of financial resources, education, and social support had a negative impact on the emotional and social well-being of single mothers. Children of single mothers are more likely to struggle with addictions like alcoholism, tobacco use, delinquency, hazardous sexual behavior, and even suicidal thoughts due to dysfunctional parenting. As a result, single mothers use their religious convictions, support networks, and social networks as coping mechanisms. The study implies that premarital counseling and health education are essential for young couples to prevent family disintegration in the event of divorce and separation. To provide assistance and improve the overall quality of life for this vulnerable population, collaboration between government and nongovernment organizations is necessary.

Differential sensitivity to adversity by income: Evidence from a study of Bereavement

Adverse life events are often understood as having negative consequences for mental health via objective hardships, which are worse for persons with less income. But adversity can also affect mental health via more subjective mechanisms, and here, it is possible that persons with higher income will exhibit greater psychological sensitivity to negative events, for various reasons. Drawing on multiple sociological literatures, this article theorizes potential mechanisms of increasing sensitivity with income. The proposition of differential sensitivity is tested using the strategic case of spousal and parental bereavement among older US adults. The analyses find consistent evidence of increasing sensitivity of depressive symptoms with income. A series of robustness checks indicate that findings are not due to endogenous or antecedent selection. Further, exploratory analyses of mechanisms suggest that higher sensitivity among the affluent was driven by greater expectations and better relationship quality with the deceased. These findings problematize the conceptualization and assessment of human suffering in economically stratified societies.

The timing of parental unemployment and children's academic achievement

In this study, I investigate the potential impact of parental unemployment on the academic achievement of children, with a particular focus on the child's age at the time of parental unemployment. While previous research has concentrated on isolated occurrences of unemployment, my study expands on this literature by examining the complete employment history of the parent over the child's life course and exploring how the effects of unemployment may vary based on similar past experiences. To achieve this, I combine population-wide data from the Danish administrative register with the results of mandatory Danish language tests administered in public schools since 2010 to determine whether parental unemployment affects academic performance at ages nine and fifteen. Using inverse probability treatment weighting of marginal structural models, I account for non-random unemployment occurrences and time-variant confounders that may partially mediate the effects of unemployment. My findings demonstrate that parental unemployment can have both persistent and immediate negative effects on children's academic achievement. Although no age period clearly emerges as especially sensitive to the impact of unemployment, the proximity of the unemployment event to the outcome measurement consistently results in a small negative effect on academic achievement. Additionally, the timing of unemployment appears to affect children's academic performance differently based on whether the mother or father experienced unemployment.

Recent Developments in Causal Inference and Machine Learning

This article reviews recent advances in causal inference relevant to sociology. We focus on a selective subset of contributions aligning with four broad topics: causal effect identification and estimation in general, causal effect heterogeneity, causal effect mediation, and temporal and spatial interference. We describe how machine learning, as an estimation strategy, can be effectively combined with causal inference, which has been traditionally concerned with identification. The incorporation of machine learning in causal inference enables researchers to better address potential biases in estimating causal effects and uncover heterogeneous causal effects. Uncovering sources of effect heterogeneity is key for generalizing to populations beyond those under study. While sociology has long emphasized the importance of causal mechanisms, historical and life-cycle variation, and social contexts involving network interactions, recent conceptual and computational advances facilitate more principled estimation of causal effects under these settings. We encourage sociologists to incorporate these insights into their empirical research.

Parental nonemployment in childhood and children's health later in life

While the effects of joblessness on the health of the non-employed are well-documented, its long-term spillover consequences on the health of their relatives, especially children, remain poorly understood. This research explores the long-term associations of parental nonemployment spells experienced during early, mid and late childhood on children's mental and physical health. The analysis exploits data drawn from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS), linking detailed parental socioeconomic information with their children between the years 1993 and 2013. This paper employs a Correlated Random Effects (CRE) probit model that allows accounting for unobserved heterogeneity as well as a non-linear Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) random effects estimator accounting in addition for the dependency structure of the data. Results indicate that experiencing parental nonemployment during early and late childhood has a negative association on the children's likelihood of suffering from long-standing illnesses later in life, while experiencing parental nonemployment during middle childhood negatively affects the young adult's mental health. Moreover, experiencing parental nonemployment during late childhood increases the probability of both reporting poor or fair self-assessed health and the likelihood of consuming prescribed medicines in early adulthood. However, there seems to be a considerable effect heterogeneity by family socioeconomic status, parents' gender, and frequencies of parental nonemployment spells. Current adulthood circumstances, such as level of educational attainment, job situation and household demographics, are used to explore the potential mechanisms affecting results. These findings may help policymakers shape appropriate responses to mitigate the psychological and physical burden derived from parental nonemployment, especially among already disadvantaged households.

Telehealth information and communication technology access for family caregivers of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and mental health needs

BACKGROUND

Telehealth is increasingly used to deliver mental health services. However, the potential benefits of telehealth for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and mental health needs (IDD-MH) may not be fully realized. This study addresses gaps in knowledge about access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) for individuals with IDD-MH from the perspective of their family caregivers.

OBJECTIVE

What factors are associated with access to ICTs among family caregivers of people with IDD-MH who use START services?

METHODS

Retrospective analysis of cross-sectional interview data gathered for START use at the onset of COVID-19. START is a crisis prevention and intervention evidence-based model for people with IDD-MH implemented across the USA. To assess needs during COVID-19, START coordinators conducted interviews with 1455 family caregivers between March and July 2020. A multinomial regression model examined correlates of ICT access, as indicated by an index (poor, limited, and optimal access). Correlates included the level of IDD, age, gender, race, ethnicity, rural setting of the person with IDD-MH, and caregiver status.

RESULTS

Age (ages 23-30 years) and sole caregiver status were significantly associated with limited access (both p ≤ .001). Age (ages 23-30 years and ≥31 years, p < .001), race (Black or African American, p = .001), ethnicity (Hispanic, p = .004), and sole caregiver status (p < .001) were significantly associated with poor access.

CONCLUSIONS

Disparities existed in ICT access for adults, specific racial/ethnic groups, and sole caregiver households. Healthcare policy related to telehealth must consider how ICT access can be equitable for all users with IDD-MH.

Maternal depression and adolescent optimism

The life course perspective posits that parents' and children's lives are linked through shared experiences and interdependent contexts such as the household. In this paper, we draw on the life course perspective to examine the relationship between maternal depression and adolescent optimism, an important trait that reflects adolescents' positive expectations for the future, and how features of the family context explain this association. We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 3013), taking advantage of the study's longitudinal measures of maternal depression that span a 15-year period. First, we find that current maternal depression is negatively associated with optimism among adolescents. Second, we find that the family environment and parent-child relationships, but not economic wellbeing, explain the association between maternal depression and adolescent optimism. These findings inform our understanding of how parent and adolescent wellbeing are linked and, importantly, how the family environment conditions how adolescents envision their futures.

The Role of Kinship in Racial Differences in Exposure to Unemployment

Most studies on unemployment have assessed its individual-level costs. However, beyond its effects on individuals, unemployment incurs costs for their immediate families and extended kin. Close kin provide the majority of social support for unemployed adults. Applying demographic and statistical techniques to official statistics and using COVID-19 survey data on kinship and labor force experience, we assess the unemployment level and exposure to unemployment in the United States from a kinship perspective. The results indicate dramatic racial disparities in the number of unemployed kin and the number of kin affected by an unemployed person. Specifically, during the pandemic-induced recession, Black Americans had 1.7 unemployed people in their extended family compared with 1.2 among Whites. Further, every job loss in a Black extended family affected approximately 23 related members of the family through kinship ties, compared with approximately 20 among Whites. The racial gap in the number of unemployed kin is evident in all age-groups and escalates with age. This study's findings highlight the need to understand unemployment and its demographic implications, which are stratified by race.

Industrial automation and intergenerational income mobility in the United States

This article examines how the automation of jobs has shaped spatial patterns of intergenerational income mobility in the United States over the past three decades. Using data on the spread of industrial robots across 722 local labor markets, we find significantly lower rates of upward mobility in areas more exposed to automation. The erosion of mobility chances is rooted in childhood environments and is particularly evident among males growing up in low-income households. These findings reveal how recent technological advances have contributed to the unequal patterns of economic opportunity in the United States today.

Unequal effects of disruptive events

Disruptive events have significant consequences for the individuals and families who experience them, but these effects do not occur equally across the population. While some groups are strongly affected, others experience few consequences. We review recent findings on inequality in the effects of disruptive events. We consider heterogeneity based on socioeconomic resources, race/ethnicity, the likelihood of experiencing disruption, and contextual factors such as the normativity of the event in particular social settings. We focus on micro-level events affecting specific individuals and families, including divorce, job loss, home loss and eviction, health shocks and deaths, and violence and incarceration, but also refer to macro-level events such as recession and natural disasters. We describe patterns of variation that suggest a process of resource disparities and cumulative disadvantage versus those that reflect the impact of non-normative and unexpected shocks. Finally, we review methodological considerations when examining variation in the effect of disruptive events.

Uncovering Sociological Effect Heterogeneity Using Tree-Based Machine Learning

Individuals do not respond uniformly to treatments, such as events or interventions. Sociologists routinely partition samples into subgroups to explore how the effects of treatments vary by selected covariates, such as race and gender, on the basis of theoretical priors. Data-driven discoveries are also routine, yet the analyses by which sociologists typically go about them are often problematic and seldom move us beyond our biases to explore new meaningful subgroups. Emerging machine learning methods based on decision trees allow researchers to explore sources of variation that they may not have previously considered or envisaged. In this article, the authors use tree-based machine learning, that is, causal trees, to recursively partition the sample to uncover sources of effect heterogeneity. Assessing a central topic in social inequality, college effects on wages, the authors compare what is learned from covariate and propensity score-based partitioning approaches with recursive partitioning based on causal trees. Decision trees, although superseded by forests for estimation, can be used to uncover subpopulations responsive to treatments. Using observational data, the authors expand on the existing causal tree literature by applying leaf-specific effect estimation strategies to adjust for observed confounding, including inverse propensity weighting, nearest neighbor matching, and doubly robust causal forests. We also assess localized balance metrics and sensitivity analyses to address the possibility of differential imbalance and unobserved confounding. The authors encourage researchers to follow similar data exploration practices in their work on variation in sociological effects and offer a straightforward framework by which to do so.

Family Income Level, Variability, and Trend as Predictors of Child Achievement and Behavior

Recent decades have seen increases in the variability of family income, tepid income growth rates for all but the richest families, and widening income inequality. These trends are concerning for child well-being, given the importance of income to parental investments and parenting practices. Growing evidence suggests that a high level of change is disruptive to family processes and that chronic stress affects physiology as well as psychology. This study used the Panel Study of Income Dynamics Child Development Supplement to estimate associations between three dimensions of childhood income dynamics-level, variability, and trend-and child achievement and behavior. After income level was controlled for, income variability during childhood was not associated with child achievement or behavior, but an increasing five-year trend in income-to-needs was modestly beneficial to behavior measures. Subgroup analysis suggests some adverse effects of income variability and trend on reading and behavior for non-White children but no clear patterns by child's age or family income or wealth levels.

Destination as a process: Sibling similarity in early socioeconomic trajectories

This paper proposes a process-oriented life course perspective on intergenerational mobility by comparing the early socioeconomic trajectories of siblings to those of unrelated persons. Based on rich Finnish register data (N = 21,744), the findings show that social origin affects not only final outcomes at given points in the life course but also longitudinal socioeconomic trajectories from ages 17-35 in early adulthood. We contribute to previous literature in three ways. First, we show that there is a pronounced similarity in the early socioeconomic trajectories of siblings. This similarity is stronger for same-sex siblings and stronger for brothers than for sisters. Second, we show that sibling similarity in full trajectories cannot be reduced to similarity in outcomes, i.e., siblings are not only more similar in the final outcomes that they obtain but also in the pathways that lead them to these outcomes. Third, our findings support that sibling similarity follows a U-shaped pattern by social class, i.e., similarity is especially strong in disadvantaged trajectories, weak among middle-class young adults, and increases again within the most advantaged trajectories. We conclude that measures of social mobility that concentrate on final outcomes are at risk of underestimating the association between social origin and destination because social inequalities are formed across the life course, not just at the end of specific life phases.

Parental divorce is not uniformly disruptive to children's educational attainment

Children whose parents divorce tend to have worse educational outcomes than children whose parents stay married. However, not all children respond identically to their parents divorcing. We focus on how the impact of parental divorce on children's education varies by how likely or unlikely divorce was for those parents. We find a significant negative effect of parental divorce on educational attainment, particularly college attendance and completion, among children whose parents were unlikely to divorce. Families expecting marital stability, unprepared for disruption, may experience considerable adjustment difficulties when divorce occurs, leading to negative outcomes for children. By contrast, we find no effect of parental divorce among children whose parents were likely to divorce. Children of high-risk marriages, who face many social disadvantages over childhood irrespective of parental marital status, may anticipate or otherwise accommodate to the dissolution of their parents' marriage. Our results suggest that family disruption does not uniformly disrupt children's attainment.

Why Does Parental Divorce Lower Children's Educational Attainment? A Causal Mediation Analysis

Mechanisms explaining the negative effects of parental divorce on children's attainment have long been conjectured and assessed. Yet few studies of parental divorce have carefully attended to the assumptions and methods necessary to estimate causal mediation effects. Applying a causal framework to linked U.S. panel data, we assess the degree to which parental divorce limits children's education among whites and nonwhites and whether observed lower levels of educational attainment are explained by postdivorce family conditions and children's skills. Our analyses yield three key findings. First, the negative effect of divorce on educational attainment, particularly college, is substantial for white children; by contrast, divorce does not lower the educational attainment of nonwhite children. Second, declines in family income explain as much as one- to two-thirds of the negative effect of parental divorce on white children's education. Family instability also helps explain the effect, particularly when divorce occurs in early childhood. Children's psychosocial skills explain about one-fifth of the effect, whereas children's cognitive skills play a minimal role. Third, among nonwhites, the minimal total effect on education is explained by the offsetting influence of postdivorce declines in family income and stability alongside increases in children's psychosocial and cognitive skills.

Predicting Layoff among Fragile Families

The loss of a job is the loss of a major social and economic role and is associated with long-term negative economic and psychological consequences for workers and families. Modeling the causal effects of a social process like layoff with observational data depends crucially on the degree to which the model accounts for the characteristics that predict loss. We report analyses predicting layoff in the Fragile Families data as part of the Fragile Families Challenge. Our model, grounded in empirical social science research on layoff, did not perform substantially worse than the best-performing model using data science techniques. This result is not fully unforeseen, given that layoff functions as a relatively exogenous shock. Future work using the results of the Challenge should attend to whether small improvements in prediction models, like those we observe across models of layoff, nevertheless significantly increase the validity of subsequent models for causal inference.

Ecological Instability and Children's Classroom Behavior in Kindergarten

We engage the concept of ecological instability to assess whether children's exposure to frequent change in multiple contexts is associated with teacher reports of students' overall behavior, externalizing behavior, and approach to learning during kindergarten. We operationalize multiple dimensions of children's exposure to repeated change-including the frequency, concurrency, chronicity, timing, and types of changes children experience-in a nationally representative longitudinal cohort of U.S.-born children (Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, N ~ 4,750). We focus on early childhood, a period of substantial flux in children's family and neighborhood contexts. Predicted behavior scores differ by approximately one-fifth of a standard deviation for children who experienced high or chronic exposure to ecological change compared with those who experienced little or no change. These findings emphasize the distinctiveness of multidomain ecological instability as a risk factor for healthy development that should be conceptualized differently from the broader concept of normative levels of change in early childhood environments.

Parental Unemployment and Offspring Psychotropic Medication Purchases: A Longitudinal Fixed-Effects Analysis of 138,644 Adolescents

Parental unemployment is associated with worse adolescent mental health, but prior evidence has primarily been based on cross-sectional studies subject to reverse causality and confounding. We assessed the association between parental unemployment and changes in adolescent psychotropic medication purchases, with longitudinal individual-level fixed-effects models that controlled for time-invariant confounding. We used data from a large, register-based panel of Finnish adolescents aged 13-20 years in 1987-2012 (n = 138,644) that included annual measurements of mothers' and fathers' employment and offspring psychotropic medication purchases. We assessed changes in the probability of adolescent psychotropic medication purchases in the years before, during, and after the first episode of parental unemployment. There was no association between mother's unemployment and offspring psychotropic purchases in the fixed-effects models, suggesting this association is largely driven by unmeasured confounding and selection. By contrast, father's unemployment led to a significant 15%-20% increase in the probability of purchasing psychotropic medication among adolescents even after extensive controls for observed and unobserved confounding. This change takes at least 1 year to emerge, but it is long-lasting; thus, policies are needed that mitigate the harm of father's unemployment on offspring's mental well-being.

Maternal employment stability in early childhood: Links with child behavior and cognitive skills

Although many studies have investigated links between maternal employment and children's wellbeing, less research has considered whether the stability of maternal employment is linked with child outcomes. Using unique employment calendar data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 2,011), an urban birth cohort study of largely low-income families, this paper investigates whether the stability of maternal employment in early childhood (birth to age 5) is linked with child behavior and cognitive skills at ages 5 and 9. Employment stability (continuous employment over all 5 years, low levels of job churning, longer job tenure) was linked with less child externalizing behavior, but there was little evidence to suggest stability was particularly important for PPVT and Woodcock-Johnson scores. Rather, for PPVT and Woodcock-Johnson scores, an increase in maternal employment in early childhood more generally was associated with higher scores. (PsycINFO Database Record

Do Immigrants Suffer More From Job Loss? Unemployment and Subjective Well-being in Germany

This study asks whether immigrants suffer more from unemployment than German natives. Differences between these groups in pre-unemployment characteristics, the type of the transition into unemployment, and the consequences of this transition suggest that factors intensifying the negative impact of unemployment on subjective well-being are more concentrated in immigrants than in natives. Based on longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (1990-2014; N = 34,767 persons aged 20 to 64; N = 210,930 person-years), we used fixed-effects models to trace within-person change in subjective well-being across the transition from employment into unemployment and over several years of continued unemployment. Results showed that immigrants' average declines in subjective well-being exceeded those of natives. Further analyses revealed gender interactions. Among women, declines were smaller and similar among immigrants and natives. Among men, declines were larger and differed between immigrants and natives. Immigrant men showed the largest declines, amounting to one standard deviation of within-person change over time in subjective well-being. Normative, social, and economic factors did not explain these disproportionate declines. We discuss alternative explanations for why immigrant men are most vulnerable to the adverse effects of unemployment in Germany.

Job Displacement and First Birth Over the Business Cycle

In this article, we investigate the impact of job displacement on women's first-birth rates as well as the variation in this effect over the business cycle. We use mass layoffs to estimate the causal effects of involuntary job loss on fertility in the short and medium term, up to five years after displacement. Our analysis is based on rich administrative data from Germany, with an observation period spanning more than 20 years. We apply inverse probability weighting (IPW) to flexibly control for the observed differences between women who were and were not displaced. To account for the differences in the composition of the women who were displaced in a downturn and the women who were displaced in an upswing, we use a double weighting estimator. Results show that the extent to which job displacement has adverse effects on fertility depends on the business cycle. The first-birth rates were much lower for women who were displaced in an economic downturn than for those who lost a job in an economic upturn. This result cannot be explained by changes in the observed characteristics of the displaced women over the business cycle.

THE ECONOMIC AND CAREER EFFECTS OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT ON WORKING WOMEN

Many working women will experience sexual harassment at some point in their careers. While some report this harassment, many leave their jobs to escape the harassing environment. This mixed-methods study examines whether sexual harassment and subsequent career disruption affect women's careers. Using in-depth interviews and longitudinal survey data from the Youth Development Study, we examine the effect of sexual harassment for women in the early career. We find that sexual harassment increases financial stress, largely by precipitating job change, and can significantly alter women's career attainment.

Diverging Mobility Trajectories: Grandparent Effects on Educational Attainment in One- and Two-Parent Families in the United States

In recent years, sociological research investigating grandparent effects in three-generation social mobility has proliferated, mostly focusing on the question of whether grandparents have a direct effect on their grandchildren's social attainment. This study hypothesizes that prior research has overlooked family structure as an important factor that moderates grandparents' direct effects. Capitalizing on a counterfactual causal framework and multigenerational data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, this study examines the direct effect of grandparents' years of education on grandchildren's years of educational attainment and heterogeneity in the effects associated with family structure. The results show that for both African Americans and whites, grandparent effects are the strongest for grandchildren who grew up in two-parent families, followed by those in single-parent families with divorced parents. The weakest effects were marked in single-parent families with unmarried parents. These findings suggest that the increasing diversity of family forms has led to diverging social mobility trajectories for families across generations.

Does Racial Isolation in School Lead to Long-Term Disadvantages? Labor Market Consequences of High School Racial Composition

School racial composition has modest effects on test score gaps, but evidence of a longer-term impact is scarce. Perpetuation theory suggests that blacks who attend schools with higher proportions of white classmates may have better job outcomes. Multilevel analyses of two national longitudinal surveys reveal no effects of high school racial composition on occupational status, employment, or annual earnings for blacks or whites. For other minority groups, attending schools with more whites impedes occupational advancement. For all groups, however, school racial composition predicts workplace racial composition: Whites who attend high schools with higher proportions of white students have higher proportions of white coworkers, while nonwhites who attend schools with higher proportions of whites have fewer same-race coworkers. The findings are modest in size but robust to alternative specifications, and sensitivity analyses support a causal interpretation for same-race coworkers. These results support perpetuation theory for workplace composition but not for stratification outcomes.

The Far-Reaching Impact of Job Loss and Unemployment

Job loss is an involuntary disruptive life event with a far-reaching impact on workers' life trajectories. Its incidence among growing segments of the workforce, alongside the recent era of severe economic upheaval, has increased attention to the effects of job loss and unemployment. As a relatively exogenous labor market shock, the study of displacement enables robust estimates of associations between socioeconomic circumstances and life outcomes. Research suggests that displacement is associated with subsequent unemployment, long-term earnings losses, and lower job quality; declines in psychological and physical well-being; loss of psychosocial assets; social withdrawal; family disruption; and lower levels of children's attainment and well-being. While reemployment mitigates some of the negative effects of job loss, it does not eliminate them. Contexts of widespread unemployment, although associated with larger economic losses, lessen the social-psychological impact of job loss. Future research should attend more fully to how the economic and social-psychological effects of displacement intersect and extend beyond displaced workers themselves.