Labor market participation among young adults: an event history analysis
Johnson, R.J.; Herring, C.
Youth and Society 21(1): 3-31
1989
ISSN/ISBN: 0044-118X PMID: 12316383 DOI: 10.1177/0044118x89021001001Document Number: 370073
This study models culture of poverty explanations, earlier experiences that tend to restrict opportunities, demographic effects representing differential rates of participation by social groups, and health and marijuana use variables indicating the influence of individual life- style differences as predictors of the rate of labor market entry, promotion, and dismissal among subjects from early adolescence to young adulthood. The data are drawn from the 1st and 4th waves of a 4-wave panel of half the 1971 Houston, Texas, Independent School District 7th grade born in 1958. The findings indicate that those who believe most in the efficacy of alternatives to conventional social and economic institutions and those who expect to benefit least are most likely to have higher rates of participation. This higher rate of participation is significantly greater for earlier years and contradicts predictions of a culture of poverty theory. 1 opportunity-structure variable, poor grades, significantly increases the rate of entry into the labor market primarily because it represents the inability of individuals to pursue advanced education prior to labor market entry. Education reduces overall rates of labor market entry for a young adult cohort by delaying labor market entry. The strong relationship between drug use and unemployment may be due to motivation, impaired ability, probability of failure, or increased time to use drugs. The findings also indicate that females are more capable overall of performing their jobs and getting along with co-workers but are less likely to be promoted. Finally, those who have been sanctioned or disadvantaged within the institutions that define and enforce the norms of the economic opportunity structure are significantly more likely to enter the labor market earlier and continue to have higher rates of negative experiences, such as dismissal, within those institutions.