UNDERSTANDING FAMILY STABILITY AND THE INTERGENERATIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF WORK ACROSS PLACE

University Of New Hampshire, Durham NH

Investigators

Abstract

This project suggests a twofold approach to better understanding specific dimensions of family stability among those vulnerable to financial and nonfinancial hardships. First, the earlier qualitative studies will be expanded by exploring how people living in two rural New England sites (one with decades of high child poverty, the other without) navigate the challenges and opportunities that are specific to life in nonmetropolitan counties. Second, stemming from the early research for the first project, a quantitative study will be conducted that explores the impact of parents' stable employment on the likelihood that their children work full time when in young adulthood. The first study includes existing data from previous studies and qualitative data from focus groups conducted in local communities. Focus groups will be held with rural social service providers and the families they serve. Transcripts from these focus groups and interviews will be coded and analyzed to identify key themes. The second study will use data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). Components from the PSID will be linked to build an intergenerational file that connects measures of parents' employment with those of their children. Further, geocoded PSID data will be used to analyze how the community context (for example, county differences in poverty and urbanicity) may moderate the intergenerational effects of stable employment across generations.