Suchergebnisse

We consider the problem of the visualization of life courses represented as sequences. We describe the state of the art and introduce new plots which improve the graphical display of sequences unveiling their most salient features. Our proposal is based upon the application of smoothing techniques, reducing if not completely removing individual noises. The advantages of our plots are illustrated using data from the Panel study of Social Integration in the Netherlands.

We investigate the link between personality traits (PTs) and fertility, accounting for the possible interplay with other key life course events. Using data from German Socio-Economic Panel survey, we build sequence-type representations of fertility, union and job careers between the ages of 20 and 40. We rely on multichannel sequence analysis (MSA) and on the Partitioning around Medoids algorithm to cluster individuals with similar experiences, and relate clusters to PTs via multinomial regression. We also develop a procedure to apply standard and MSA to truncated trajectories. This enables inclusion of individuals whose trajectories were otherwise observed for a limited age span, notably belonging to younger cohorts. We show that PTs relate to these (portions of) life-course trajectories, of which fertility is only one outcome.