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Journal of Happiness Studies

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29-11-2017 | Research Paper

How Does Life Satisfaction Change During the Transition from School to Work? A Study of Ninth and Tenth-Grade School-Leavers in Germany

Authors: Matthias Siembab, Nico Stawarz

Published in: Journal of Happiness Studies | Issue 1/2019

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Abstract

We analyze how life satisfaction changes when adolescents leave school and enter the German vocational and educational training (VET) system. We draw on data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS, Starting Cohort 4) and apply fixed effect regression models. Our findings suggest that leaving school and entering the VET system is associated with an increase in life satisfaction—regardless of the occupational status (i.e., whether the individual is in dual or school-based vocational training or in a vocational preparation program). Moreover, our results provide evidence that adolescents are “happy” to leave school; that having high self-esteem leads to a smaller increase in life satisfaction, and that reaching or failing one’s educational aspirations does not explain changes in life satisfaction.

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This paper uses data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS): Starting Grade 9, doi:https://doi.org/10.5157/NEPS:SC4:6.0.0. From 2008 to 2013, NEPS data were collected as part of the Framework Program for the Promotion of Empirical Educational Research funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Since 2014, NEPS has been conducted under the direction of the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) at the University of Bamberg in cooperation with a nationwide network.

We estimated models that show only small and non-significant changes of life satisfaction for the states military service (B = 0.06, SE = 0.500, p = 0.900), employment (B = − 0.12, SE = 0.289, p = 0.674), and unemployment (B = 0.01, SE = 0.271, p = 0.960).

We also analyzed the dropout process. The results show that individuals with higher life satisfaction have a lower dropout probability. However, the effect (B = −0.06, SE = 0.009, p < 0.001) is quite small, so that our result should not be biased.

For 9th-graders this was the aspiration from grade 9 and for 10th-graders, from grade 10.

Note that since the effects in the FE model are based on a within-comparison, the value 0 refers to the life satisfaction before individuals reached or failed their aspiration. Therefore, the effect cannot be interpreted as a comparison between individuals who reached their aspiration and those who failed them. Rather the effect shows the change in life satisfaction for individuals who achieved or failed their aspiration.

We also generated categories with other split points (2.5 and 3.5), with similar results.

The effect of x, however, could be biased by time-varying unobserved heterogeneity.

We have no cohort effects due to the sampling design of Starting Cohort 4.

Since the gaps between the life satisfaction measurements varies (12 months between the first three waves and 24 months between waves 3 and 5), we also included splines on a monthly basis in the model (e.g., Singer and Willett 2003, p. 138ff.). These models lead to similar results.

We also used the grade point average of the last school certificate, with similar results.

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Title: How Does Life Satisfaction Change During the Transition from School to Work? A Study of Ninth and Tenth-Grade School-Leavers in Germany
Authors: Matthias Siembab
Nico Stawarz
Publication date: 29-11-2017
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Published in: Journal of Happiness Studies / Issue 1/2019
Print ISSN: 1389-4978
Electronic ISSN: 1573-7780
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-017-9945-z

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