Karen Robson is a Associate Fellow on the Marie Curie Excellence Team.
She joined the project in August of 2007. |
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Current Research Activities
Karen is currently examining the predictors and outcomes of young people and young adults who are not in employment, education, or training (NEETs). This group of economically inactive young adults has received much attention in the UK media in recent years. The problem in other European countries, however, is not so pronounced. By using longitudinal panel data, she wishes to examine how NEET status differs by country according to various individual and family characteristics. She is using the European Household Community Panel data to examine this question retroactively, as well as the newer data available in the European Union Statistics on Income Living Conditions (EU SILC).
Karen is also using the Youth Panel in the British Household Panel Study to investigate a number of research questions. The first is how family structure changes impact on mental well-being in young people and how this is moderated by family social capital (relationships between the child and parent). As well, she is examining how leisure activities and changes in leisure activities are associated with mental well-being. She is also looking at the association between likelihood of attending higher education (based on class background), focusing on those individuals least likely to attend based on their background characteristics, and later-life socioeconomic and mental health outcomes.
Karen is also working with Dorren Mc Mahon on investigating the different forms of capital (i.e. economic, social, and cultural) and how these impact upon student achievement differentially by country, using the PISA data and focusing on Western Europe data. She will soon be working on a similar project with Peter Robert, examining how these forms of capital impact differentially in Eastern European countries.
At the moment, Karen is also finishing up two books. The first is The Stata Survival Manual, with David Pevalin (University of Essex), which will be published by Open University Press at the end of 2008. The second is an edited volume with Chris Sanders (York University, Canada) which is a collection of articles on using quantitative techniques to operationalise Pierre Bourdieu’s theories. The volume, entitled Quantifying Theory: Bourdieu, will be published by Springer in the beginning of 2009.
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