Life Courses in Europe: Early Life Events and Later Life Outcomes

This project is based on the retrospective survey SHARELIFE, which in 2008/09 collected data on the life histories of Europeans aged 50 and over. The analyses deal with childhood circumstances and their impact on family developments, occupational careers, and health status in the later course of life. A further aim is to examine life course patterns along the dimensions of family, work and health, taking due account of how contextual conditions in Europe influence such patterns. An overview of research possibilities is given in Börsch-Supan, Axel; Brandt, Martina; Schröder, Mathis (2013): SHARELIFE – One Century of Life Histories in Europe, Advances in Life Course Research, 18, 1 1-5. and Hank, Karsten; Brandt, Martina (2014): Health, Families, and Work in Later Life: A Review of Current Research and Perspectives, Analyse und Kritik, Lucius & Lucius, forthcoming The first subproject on "successful aging" explores how early life events come to bear on later well-being, health and social commitment, thereby showing that living conditions in childhood (including socio-economic background, health or school performance) persist throughout life and significantly influence the entire aging process. Government interventions to promote healthy and active aging must thus set in as early as possible – at best, during childhood. This has been published in Social Science & Medicine (2012, joint with Christian Deindl and Karsten Hank) and the Journal of Population Ageing (2013, joint with Christian Deindl and Karsten Hank). The second part illuminates the so-called scarring effects of unemployment, to be published in the Journal of Social Policy. Here again, findings show that early unemployment entails more frequent jobless spells over the entire course of later life, regardless of an individual’s personality traits and his or her social environment. This no doubt has repercussions on family life and marriage stability – a further aspect to be investigated in the near future. Part three which is still in progress focusses on the links between partnership dissolution and unemployment incidences across the life course - which might result in a "downward spiral" or cumulative inequality, also considering health as a mediating factor. Cooperation takes place with Christian Deindl and Karsten Hank, University of Cologne, and is planned with Thorsten Kneip and Fabio Franzese at MEA.