We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
As we have repeatedly stressed, the variability in the life course of early childbearers was tremendous. Some mothers had a history of welfare dependence while others managed to escape it; some married before the birth of the child, some soon after, and some never; some mothers obtained additional schooling, and others dropped out; some had many children, while others had few. By examining the occurrence, timing, and sequencing of these early events in the mother's life course, we were able to explain subsequent patterns of economic achievement and fertility in Chapter 3. This chapter examines whether these same life-course events also explain children's outcomes. Understanding the life course of a single individual is complex, and the interrelation of multiple life courses is even more so. The diversity of the mother's experience will result in vastly different childrearing environments, which, in turn, influence children's behavior. Four aspects of the maternal life course will be given special scrutiny in this chapter: marital history, schooling, fertility, and changing economic resources.
Maternal life course and children's environment
Economic resources will determine much of the variability in children's environments. Material well-being may influence a variety of contextual conditions: safety of the neighborhood, residence in a particular neighborhood, attendance at a particular school, interaction with a particular peer group, access to cultural opportunities, availability of informal networks of other adults, and importance of the street culture in determining behavior.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
