Schooling, time-use and life transitions
As a study of childhood poverty over time, Young Lives is able to look at the changing ways in which boys and girls spend their time as they grow up as well as their experiences of school, work and caring for others in their family, and how these influence children’s pathways from early childhood into adulthood. This theme addresses three broad areas of analysis: children’s roles, responsibilities and how they spend their time; their learning in formal and informal contexts, and their transitions to adulthood.
Children learn and develop knowledge, social understanding and cultural identity through a wide range of activities. Young Lives understands the process of learning in its broadest sense, recognising that boys and girls develop skills and capabilities through their roles and responsibilities at home and in the community, as well as at school. Thus negotiating a balance between family expectations, school, work, play, leisure and other valued activities is a feature of most children’s experience.
As Young Lives children move through adolescence into adulthood, we will be able to investigate which processes have been most important for them in acquiring key life skills both important for their future work and community and household roles. In particular we will be able to examine the relevance of both school and informal learning mechanisms which are important in equipping children for their lives ahead.
We are particularly interested in the ways in which children’s participation in work and school intersect with poverty and inequalities, and with processes of modernisation, and we are able to address these policy-relevant issues from a longitudinal perspective, examining the multiple transitions from early childhood into adulthood, as well as intergenerational processes.
The key questions we are looking at cover:
- What role does school play in breaking the cycle of poverty?
- What is the significance of work in the lives of children and young people?
- How does poverty affect how children and young people use their time, and how does their time-use affect poverty?
- What are the most important skill acquisition processes for children and young people as they prepare for their adult lives?
- What factors shape the major transitions boys and girls experience from infancy to adulthood, and what are the outcomes?