Economic downturns are known to spark periods of increased enrolment in traditional educational pursuits. The current study leverages 30-year longitudinal data from the Longitudinal Study of American Life (LSAL; N=1,556) to examine individual characteristics and experiences in adolescence, just prior to the Great Recession, and during it, to understand why some individuals chose to pursue new education or training in response to the recession whereas others did not. Indicators from adolescence include measures of self-esteem, locus of control, persistence, achievement in mathematics and achievement in science and were collected from 1987 to 1993. inclusive. Pre-recession indicators include level of education, occupational and marital status and were collected in 2007. Indicators of the impact of the recession were collected retrospectively in 2014 and include whether a job was lost, whether work hours were reduced, and whether there was difficulty making rent/mortgage payments. Binary logistic regression identified persistence in adolescence, pre-recession education level, reporting reduced hours and difficulty paying rent/mortgage during the recession as associated with the likelihood of pursuing new education during the recession. A follow-up analysis investigated whether the pursuit of additional education/training in response to the recession predicted the likelihood of being employed in 2017. Results indicate that obtaining new education during the recession was associated with later employment status, but the significance and direction of the effect depends on pre-recession education level. Implications of this longitudinal, life course analysis are discussed in addition to recommendation for future directions.

中文翻译：

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大萧条对美国成年教育追求的影响。

众所周知，经济不景气引发了传统教育追求中入学人数增加的时期。本研究利用美国生命纵向研究（LSAL; N = 1,556）的30年纵向数据来检验大衰退前的青春期个体特征和经历，并在此期间了解为什么有些人选择为应对经济衰退而接受新的教育或培训，而其他国家则没有。青春期的指标包括自尊，控制源，持久性，数学成绩和科学成绩的量度，这些指标收集于1987年至1993年之间。经济衰退前的指标包括教育程度，职业和婚姻状况，并于2007年收集。经济衰退的影响指标在2014年进行了回顾性收集，包括是否失业，是否减少工作时间以及是否难以支付房租/抵押贷款。二元逻辑回归分析确定了青春期的持续性，衰退前的教育水平，并报告了经济衰退期间减少的工时和支付房租/抵押的困难与经济衰退期间寻求新教育的可能性有关。一项后续分析调查了为应对经济衰退而寻求额外的教育/培训是否可以预测在2017年受雇的可能性。结果表明，在经济衰退期间获得新的教育与以后的就业状况有关，但其意义和方向效果取决于衰退前的教育水平。