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Dissertation_Wenxuan Huang.pdf (1.65 MB)

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Leisure to Explore or Failure to Launch? A Cohort Comparison of the Transition to Adulthood between Late Baby Boomers and Early Millennials

Huang, Wenxuan
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1625766523882636

Abstract Details

2021, Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, Sociology.
The heterogeneity of the timing and order of achieving the “big five” markers of the transition to adulthood is often treated as a taken-for-granted feature of emerging adulthood, reflecting a tendency of “leisure to explore” between adolescence and adulthood. With the central assumption of emphasizing how individuals take greater control of personal biographies in postmodern societies, the individualization thesis has also received wide acknowledgment in conceptualizing the changing patterns of the life course, especially when accounting for the growing heterogeneity in the pathways to adulthood. The first substantive chapter of this dissertation identifies an individualization-heterogeneity nexus in the current life course research on the transition to adulthood. It interrogates the conceptual pitfalls that distract researchers from understanding the real source of heterogeneity observed in the pathways to adulthood. The illustrative example shows that educational attainment stratifies the level of heterogeneity in school-to-work and family formation trajectories, which challenges the notion that individualized choice-making leads to the de-standardization of transition patterns. The two empirical chapters examine how structural inequality shapes early work-family trajectories and reveal how “failure to launch” pervades in an age of expanding precarity in the youth labor market. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979 & 1997), the first empirical study compares the work-family trajectories between Late Baby Boomers and Early Millennials. By employing multichannel sequence analysis, this study identified seven distinct transition patterns reflecting mutual reinforcement of domain-specific dis/advantages. The cohort comparison suggests that Early Millennials are more likely than Late Baby Boomers to enter work-family trajectories characterized by labor market precarity, and there is no declining relevance of stratifying mechanisms such as gender and family background. The second empirical study documents the extent to which the two non-college-bound groups, i.e., high school graduates and GED recipients, are disconnected from the labor market throughout the entire early career among Early Millennials. It also identifies a substantial HS-GED gap in the labor market connection associated with multiple risk factors initially related to high school dropout. In sum, this dissertation conceptually clarifies and empirically tests how precarity drives the observed heterogeneity in the transition to adulthood.
Jessica Kelley (Committee Chair)
187 p.
Sociology
life course, transition to adulthood, cohort comparison, sequence analysis

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Huang, W. (2021). Leisure to Explore or Failure to Launch? A Cohort Comparison of the Transition to Adulthood between Late Baby Boomers and Early Millennials [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1625766523882636

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Huang, Wenxuan . Leisure to Explore or Failure to Launch? A Cohort Comparison of the Transition to Adulthood between Late Baby Boomers and Early Millennials. 2021. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1625766523882636.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Huang, Wenxuan . "Leisure to Explore or Failure to Launch? A Cohort Comparison of the Transition to Adulthood between Late Baby Boomers and Early Millennials." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1625766523882636

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

case1625766523882636
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This open access ETD is published by Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies and OhioLINK.
Release 3.2.12