University of Groningen
Linkages between family background, family formation and disadvantage in young adulthood
Mooyaart, Jarl Eduard
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Publication date: 2019
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Mooyaart, J. E. (2019). Linkages between family background, family formation and disadvantage in young adulthood. Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.
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Linkages between family background,
family formation and disadvantage
in young adulthood
Proefschrift
ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
op gezag van de
rector magnificus prof. dr. E. Sterken
en volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties.
De openbare verdediging zal plaatsvinden op
woensdag 24 april 2019 om 12.45 uur
door
Jarl Eduard Mooyaart
geboren op 29 januari 1989
te Gouda
Promotores
Prof. dr. A.C. Liefbroer
Prof. dr. F.C. Billari
Beoordelingscommissie
Prof. dr. C.H. Mulder
Prof. dr. M. Kalmijn
Prof. dr. A. Berrington
Dedicated to my great-grandfather
dr. G.P. Frets
Honorary member of the
Publisher:
Koninklijke Van der Most BV
Europaweg 7
8181 BG Heerde
The Netherlands
5
Acknowledgements
Looking back at where I was before this PhD and where I am now, it feels like a complete
metamorphosis. Although doing a PhD on the transition to adulthood, while being in the middle
of it myself, was quite confronting at times, I am very grateful for all this PhD has brought me.
Also where it brought me, as this PhD has brought me to conferences in places that I will never
forget, from San Diego to Lausanne.
After graduating with a master’s degree, I was not sure whether I would ever be offered
a PhD and whether I could do it. I want to thank the jongvolwassenen groep for helping me
grow as a person, helping me be more confident about myself. I want to thank my former
jobcoach Sabina Noordegraaff for her understanding and her help with arranging my first job
at Nidi. Yet, there is only one person really responsible for me obtaining my PhD degree, my
first supervisor, Aat Liefbroer. I will always be grateful for the chance you have given me to
prove my capabilities as a researcher and ultimately offering me the PhD position. Not only
did you help me develop as a researcher, you also are responsible for me getting me involved
with other prominent researchers. You arranged that Francesco Billari would be my second
supervisor and you also let me work together with Matthias Studer and yourself on a research
paper. Starting with the first, I want to thank you, Francesco, for your inspiring ideas, helping
me take my research to the next level. I also want to thank you for arranging my research stay
at Nuffield College, giving me the Oxford experience. As for Matthias, I want to thank you for
making me feel more confident as a sequence analysis researcher and for involving me in the
sequence analysis community, which two times led to great conferences at amazing locat ions
(I never get used to the beauty of Swiss lakes).
The environment at Nidi is also one of the reasons that has made my PhD a great
memory. I want to thank all the members of the families and generations theme group and the
6
CONOPP team. It was a pleasure working with all of you. A special thanks to Anne Gauthier.
You have been like a mentor for me, helping me getting teaching experience, helping me with
applications, and ultimately helping me getting my position here at McGill University. I want
to thank all my office mates, a special shoutout to Maria Eismann, Vesela Petricheva and
Damiano Uccheddu for being amazing colleagues and office mates and the last one for also
being a great paranymph. There are many more names I could include here, from academic
colleagues to supporting staff, but let me just thank you all, for the great conversations, and
wonderful times at outings and Christmas celebrations.
As if I was not lucky enough already with my supervisors, colleagues and collaborators,
I was also lucky to be supported by a jobcoach throughout my period at Nidi. Thank you
Patricia Koelewijn for basically being job and life coach in one. You were always there when
I needed your help, even when I was in Oxford, which means a lot to me.
I would not take my own research seriously if I would not thank my family, especially
my parents, brother and sister. Thank you for all that you have done to help me get where I am
now. I am very grateful. I also want to thank my grandmother Joke Frets-Van Buuren, who
sadly passed away during my PhD. Thank you for always believing in me. You have shown in
your life what diligence, persistence and courage is, by completing a PhD as a woman and
mother in the 1950s. Your example helped me get through the difficult times in my PhD.
Being allowed to do a PhD was a dream coming true, but during my PhD an even bigger
dream came true. I was ever so lucky to meet a wonderful girl named Jin. I could not be more
grateful for everything that you have given me, which is more than words can describe. A PhD
degree is great, but you mean the world to me.
Jarl Mooyaart
7
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION
... 11
1.1 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ... 15
1.1.1 The link between socio-economic background and family formation ... 15
1.1.2 The link between socio-economic background and family formation change ... 19
1.1.3 Consequences of family formation on wellbeing ... 24
1.2 METHODOLOGY ... 27
1.3 CHAPTERS OUTLINE... 29
REFERENCES ... 31
2. THE INFLUENCE OF PARENTAL EDUCATION ON TIMING AND TYPE
OF UNION FORMATION: CHANGES OVER THE LIFE COURSE AND OVER
TIME IN THE NETHERLANDS
... 41
2.1 INTRODUCTION ... 42
2.2 THEORY ... 44
2.2.1 Parental Education and the Timing of Union Formation ... 44
2.2.2 Parental Education and the Choice Between Marriage and Cohabitation ... 46
2.2.3 Variability in the Influence of Parental Education ... 48
2.3 DATA & METHODS ... 52
2.3.1 Data ... 52
2.3.2 Measures ... 53
2.4 RESULTS ... 61
2.5 SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION ... 68
REFERENCES... 73
APPENDIX ... 83
3. THE CHANGING RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIO-ECONOMIC
BACKGROUND AND FAMILY FORMATION IN FOUR EUROPEAN
COUNTRIES
... 95
3.1 INTRODUCTION ... 96
3.2 BACKGROUND ... 98
3.2.1 Structuring the family formation process ... 98
3.2.2 Socio-economic background and the family formation process ... 99
3.2.3 Change over time ... 102
3.3 DATA & METHODS ... 105
8
3.3.2 Analytical strategy ... 107
3.4 RESULTS ... 109
3.4.1 Family formation pathways ... 109
3.4.2 Results by country ... 110
3.5 DISCUSSION ... 123
REFERENCES ... 127
APPENDIX ... 135
4. BORN TO BE RICH? THE INFLUENCE OF FAMILY BACKGROUND AND
LIFE-COURSE PATHWAYS ON THE INCOME TRAJECTORIES OF YOUNG
ADULTS
...139
4.1 INTRODUCTION ... 140
4.2 BACKGROUND ... 144
4.2.1 Family background ... 144
4.2.2 Emerging adulthood ... 146
4.2.3 Income development in young adulthood ... 150
4.2.4 Gender ... 151
4.3 DATA AND METHODS ... 152
4.3.1 Data ... 152
4.3.2 Family background measures ... 153
4.3.3 Pathways during emerging adulthood: sequences, distance, and clustering ... 154
4.3.4 Grade of Membership ... 156
4.3.5 Income trajectories during young adulthood: growth-curve modeling ... 158
4.4 RESULTS ... 159
4.4.1 Family background ... 159
4.4.2 Men ... 164
4.4.3 Women ... 174
4.4.4 Comparisons with categorical indicators of pathways ... 183
4.5 SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION ... 184
REFERENCES ... 190
APPENDIX ... 201
5. BECOMING OBESE IN YOUNG ADULTHOOD: THE ROLE OF
CAREER-FAMILY PATHWAYS IN THE TRANSITION TO ADULTHOOD FOR MEN AND
WOMEN
...217
5.1 INTRODUCTION ... 218
5.2 DATA & METHODS ... 222
5.2.1 Data ... 222
9
5.2.3 Multichannel analysis of career-family sequences ... 223
5.2.4 Family background and control variables ... 226
5.2.5 Analytical strategy ... 227
5.3 RESULTS ... 228
5.3.1 Descriptive results on the transition to adulthood ... 228
5.3.2 Multivariate analysis ... 233
5.4 DISCUSSION ... 237
REFERENCES ... 239
6. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
...247
6.1 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS ... 248
6.2 DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS ... 256
6.2.1 The lasting influence of parental socio-economic status on family formation ... 256
6.2.2 The role of family formation in the intergenerational transmission of (dis)advantage ... 259
6.2.3 The importance of life courses and how to capture them ... 265
6.3 LIMITATIONS ... 269
6.4 FUTURE RESEARCH ... 271
REFERENCES ... 274
