Browsing by Subject "elämänkulku"

The goal of the latest pension reform in Finland is to extend working life, secure the financial sustainability of the pension system in a situation where the population's average life expectancy grows. In Finland, there are still few studies on active workers after the retirement age, although continued career in the final phase of work is a growing phenomenon and the need for support for older workers is increasing. The purpose of the thesis is not to provide an exhaustive answer to the research question, but to highlight some common factors that have a positive impact on continued work in the retirement age. The thesis is a review of literature, whose basic theoretical frame of reference is Levinson's (1979) theory of human life stages and phases, i.e. everyone goes through the same life stages, however, individually and at their own pace. Aging and approaching retirement age is a life stage where human life is seen and evaluated both backwards and forwards. This also includes thoughts and decisions about retirement and, alternatively, continued working life. Six articles were chosen for the literature review around the theme of continued working life beyond the retirement age, which aims to find answers to the research question through basic criteria such as gender, education, health, working conditions and finances. In today's society, human capacity is more important than human chronological age. Good health promotes willingness to continue working longer. The high education was related to continued work regardless of gender. The working conditions and the working group's attitude towards older workers, as well as their own work management, have affected the plans to continue working. The economic situation is often seen as very important for the income, but not as a actual inspiration for a continued working life. Society's legal framework, interaction with other people and groups affects decision-making at retirement and career extension. Only by examining those who are currently prolonging their career after their official retirement age can we find lasting solutions for an extended working life in society.

A former warehouse and shelter for the homeless was occupied in Helsinki in 1979. The place became known as Lepakkoluola (‘Batcave’) and served as a central space for the Helsinki music, art and other youth culture scenes. For the following two decades, the space hosted a variety of culture. Some of the participants of the space’s early years grew with the space and developed lives and careers in the production of youth and other culture. Their life courses were constructed via their own agency without the help of particular training or other societal institutions. This thesis asks how participation in youth cultural practices has formed into a life-long career in culture. The so-called concept of DIY (‘do-it-yourself’) career is a recent opening in the research of youth culture and subcultures. Through this concept, the thesis reflects a growing academic interest in how youth culture participation relates to ageing. The central method of the study is life course analysis and its five principles: agency, accumulation, timing, linked lives and the historical time and place. The work treats the data produced by interviews as oral history, which emphasises the interviewees own experience of the events they relate. The data has been deconstructed and reconstructed with the help of grounded theory’s tools for coding, categorisation and explication. The primary data for this study is seven interviews by five interviewees. The secondary data is provided by two books books in which the voices of participants in Lepakkoluola and Radio City are heard. The study reveals that a DIY career is made up of four consequential life-course stages. The first stage, or ‘first contact’, happens during childhood and adolescence when the person becomes acquainted with youth culture and possibly with youth cultural practices. The second, or ‘immersion’, happens in emerging adulthood as the person begins to increasingly participate in youth culture while at the same time looking for their place in society. The third stage, or ‘realisation’ happens when the person gets a – more or less – fully-fledged and stable form of employment in the production of youth culture. In the fourth stage, ‘maintenance’, the person continues and maintains their life course based on the earlier stages.

Adolescence is characterized by a substantial rise in the prevalence of depressive disorder. While in adulthood lower socioeconomic position predicts a greater risk of depression, studies have found inconsistent evidence for social differentials in depression in adolescence and early adulthood. Numerous studies have documented that low childhood socioeconomic position predicts a higher risk of later depression, but less research has been conducted to investigate how the individual’s own educational track is associated with depression in adolescence and early adulthood. This thesis investigates whether the risk of depression varies by childhood socioeconomic position and personal educational track. Adopting the life-course perspective, this study examines how childhood socioeconomic position and own educational track combine to predict depression in late adolescence and early adulthood. A social pathway model anticipates that a low childhood socioeconomic position increases the risk of a low personal educational track which in turn increases the risk of later depression. Furthermore, the resource substitution model hypothesizes that the protective effect of a higher educational track is greater for those from more disadvantaged backgrounds substituting for the lacking childhood resources. Gender-specific determinants of depression are also examined. This thesis used annually updated individual-level register data EKSY014, which consisted of a 20-per-cent random sample of 0–14-year-olds living in private households in Finland at the end of year 2000. The study population of this study was restricted to individuals born in 1986–1990 (n=60,829), and they were followed over two educational transitory stages, firstly at age 17–19, and secondly at age 20–23 years. Depression was identified from health care registers maintained by The National Institute for Health and Welfare and The Social Insurance Institution of Finland. Survival analysis using Cox proportional hazards models was conducted to estimate the relative and combined effects of childhood socioeconomic position and educational track on the hazard of depression. According to the results, both low childhood socioeconomic position and lower personal educational track are associated with an increased risk of depression in late adolescence and early adulthood. School discontinuation and prolonged upper secondary schooling and also a vocational track among women predict a greater risk of depression compared to academic track. Educational track mediates the association between low childhood socioeconomic position and the risk of depression but is also independently associated with the risk. Early mental disorders also play a significant role in the process by influencing post-comprehensive tracking. The results further suggest that a higher educational track does not provide as effective protection against depression for 17–19-year-old adolescents if the individual lacks familial resources, but is more important for adolescents with higher socioeconomic backgrounds. Educational track does not moderate the effect of childhood socioeconomic position on depression among 20–23-year-olds. The results of this study fit in with the pathway conceptualization of the life-course approach. Educational track constitutes a social pathway mediating the effect of low childhood socioeconomic position on the risk of depression in adolescence and early adulthood. However, not all differences in risk by educational track are explained by childhood socioeconomic position but a lower educational track poses a risk on mental health independent of childhood resources. The findings do not support the resource substitution hypothesis among adolescents and young adults. In total, the findings demonstrate that early segregation of educational trajectories comes with differential chances for mental health.

Tässä maisteritutkielmassa tarkastelen ikääntyneiden naisten kokemuksia köyhyydestä ja kuinka he ovat kokeneet selviytyvänsä köyhänä arjessaan elämänkulun aikana. Aihe on tärkeä, sillä ikääntyneiden ja erityisesti naisten köyhyys on lisääntynyt. Lisäksi köyhyystutkimus on keskittynyt hyvin pitkälti tilastoihin, eikä todellisia omakohtaisia kokemuksia ole liiemmin tarkasteltu. Tutkielman näkökulmana on ikääntyneiden naisten elämänkulku, jota tarkastelen heidän itsensä kirjoittamien kertomusten kautta. Tutkielmani teoreettinen lähestymistapa kiinnittyy sosiaaliseen konstruktionismiin, jonka mukaan sosiaalinen todellisuus rakentuu vuorovaikutuskäytäntöjen kautta sekä fenomenologis-hermeneuttiseen tutkimusperinteeseen tutkielmassa tarkasteltavien kokemuksille annettujen merkitysten myötä. Tutkielman teoreettinen tausta pohjautuu aikaisempiin tutkimuksiin köyhyyden kokemuksista, ikääntyneistä sekä elämänkulun näkökulmasta. Aineistona olen käyttänyt sekundaarisia aineistoja; Arkipäivän kokemuksia köyhyydestä –kirjoituskilpailu 2006 ja Arkipäivän kokemuksia köyhyydestä seuranta-aineisto 2012, joiden käyttöoikeuden olen saanut Tietoarkisto Ailasta. Tutkimusaineisto muodostuu 13 ikääntyneen naisen kertomuksesta kummaltakin vuodelta. Aineisto on analysoitu sisällönanalyysin avulla. Ikääntyneiden naisten elämänkulun tarkastelun olen jakanut elämänvaiheiden lapsuus ja nuoruus sekä aikuisuus ja vanhuus mukaisesti. Ikääntyneet naiset ovat kokeneet köyhyyttä ja eriarvoisuutta läpi elämänsä. Lapsuuden ja nuoruuden kokemukset köyhyydestä liittyivät voimakkaasti sodan jälkeiseen puutteeseen ja työn tekemisen uurastukseen. Aikuisuus näyttäytyi pienituloisena elämisenä, jossa äkilliset elämäntilanteiden muutokset saattoivat ajaa taloudellisen tilanteen raiteiltaan. Vanhuudessa elämä jatkuu niukkuudessa ja selviytyminen vaatii sinnittelyä sekä tarkkaa taloudenpitoa. Ikääntymisen myötä köyhyyden kokemuksiin liitettiin elämässä kannatteleviakin kokemuksia muun muassa luonnon merkityksen, harrastusten tai lähisukulaisten osalta. Vaikka köyhyys ja taloudellisesti niukka elämäntilanne koettiin vaikeana, myös elämän seesteisyyteen oltiin tyytyväisiä. Tutkielman tuloksia on mahdollista käyttää ikääntyneiden hyvinvoinnin ja selviytymisen tukemisen suunnittelussa sekä kokemuksen äänenä osana sosiaalipoliittista päätöksentekoa.