Transition to adult life in Brazil: comparative analysis between 1970 and 2000

Abstract

The transition to adult life is a key phase in young person’s life. It is a phase marked by important changes in status, such as the passage from student to worker, from dependent member of a household to the head of a family, from single to married person and from child to parent. By applying a new methodology which measures changes in the structure of a person’s life course, developed by researchers associated with IUSSP, the transition to adult life in Brazil in two different periods, 1970 and 2000, was compared. The subjects were classified according to per capita household income, household situation and gender. In synthesis, the technique - known as analysis of entropy of status combinations of synthetic cohorts - consists of constructing indexes that combine the proportion of persons of a given age who attend school, have a job, and have or have not set up a family. Based on the findings, it is possible to identify when the transition to adult life begins and ends, and when it reaches a peak. The graphic resource makes it possible to visualize that, starting from the ages closest to childhood (when most people are located in a very characteristic status combination: student, does not work, is dependent on the household, without conjugal experience and without children), toward adolescence/youth, at some point the entropy index increases significantly. This represents a change in status and is an indication of the beginning of the passage to adult life. This article explores the inequalities in temporal milestones and in the length of the transition to adult life of young people of different income levels, according to gender.