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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大衰退对美国成年人教育追求的影响。


众所周知，经济衰退会引发传统教育入学率的上升。当前的研究利用美国生活纵向研究 (LSAL; N=1,556) 的 30 年纵向数据来研究大衰退之前以及大衰退期间青春期的个人特征和经历，以了解为什么有些人选择寻求新的教育或培训以应对经济衰退，而其他人则没有。青春期指标包括自尊、控制点、毅力、数学成绩和科学成绩的测量，收集时间为 1987 年至 1993 年。经济衰退前的指标包括教育水平、职业和婚姻状况，收集于2007年。经济衰退影响的指标收集于2014年，包括是否失业、工作时间是否减少、是否存在困难等。支付租金/抵押贷款。二元逻辑回归确定了青春期的持续性、经济衰退前的教育水平、报告的工作时间减少和经济衰退期间支付租金/抵押贷款的困难与经济衰退期间接受新教育的可能性相关。一项后续分析调查了为应对经济衰退而追求额外教育/培训是否预测了 2017 年就业的可能性。结果表明，在经济衰退期间获得新的教育与后来的就业状况相关，但其重要性和方向效果取决于经济衰退前的教育水平。除了对未来方向的建议之外，还讨论了这种纵向生命历程分析的含义。