Exploring the Life Course: Transitions and Timing in a Hmong Cohort
Author(s):
Hutchison, Ray
Format:
Journal article
Publisher:
1995.
Language:
English
Abstract:
While population-based & individual-based research models suggest an institutionalized life course (an orderly sequence of transitions over the life course) & define patterns that deviate from this sequence as disorderly & nonnormative, recent research has emphasized the heterogeneity of transition patterns & questioned whether modal transition patterns are relevant for the study of ethnic subgroups. Detailed studies of ethnic populations allow assessment of the generalizability of models developed from surveys of the general population; comparisons among ethnic groups may also indicate the degree to which theories that explain demographic patterns & minority status for one group are applicable to other ethnic subgroups. For example, while adolescence & early adulthood is characterized by a lack of direction & drift from one job to another for noncollege & unmarried youth, for Hmong respondents the early adult years are characterized by involvement in family formation & entry into work careers. Here, panel data from the Youth Development Study, supplemented by qualitative data from interviews with parents, were used to track a cohort of male (M) & female (F) high school students from their freshman year through the senior year of college. Hmong students report higher educational aspirations & higher educational expectations than other students; although most F respondents were married & had given birth to one or more children by their senior year of high school, they graduated at a higher rate than non-Hmong students & continued postsecondary education at a rate comparable to that of other students. M students graduated at rates higher than those of non-Hmong Ms, & were more likely to continue postsecondary education than other students. Early marriage & childbearing do not have the negative impact on F educational expectations & careers found in other population groups, & the sequencing of M roles (families will not allow daughters to marry Ms who do not have jobs to support a family) may encourage Ms to continue their educational careers. The implications of these findings for the life course are considered.