Section 2: Literature review

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• 2.1 Taking time off and the transition to adulthood
• 2.2 Who delays the transition to post-secondary education?

2.1 Taking time off and the transition to adulthood

There are two modes of thought regarding delaying post-secondary attendance following high school completion: it is either beneficial or harmful. On the one hand, proponents of the benefits of a delay expound the virtues of self-discovery through lived experiences. The idea here is that youth, and society in general, will benefit from young adults taking time away from their studies to learn about themselves and the world around them (Ahlgren 2006; Braiker 2004; Pope 2004). Hypothetically, young adults will become better citizens from having had experiences outside of the secondary and post-secondary education systems. In fact, several of the most common factors cited for taking time off are focused around 'the desire to take a break from formal education,' 'to gain a broader horizon on life,' 'to experience different people, cultures and places,' 'to gain personal life skills,' and 'to make a contribution to society' (Jones 2004). On the other hand, evidence illustrating a negative aspect of taking time away from formal schooling shows lower PSE graduation rates (Bozick and DeLuca 2005) and lower returns to earnings (Light 1995). Taking time off between the secondary and post-secondary system may also disrupt the 'normative' path to adulthood, which in the past meant that youth would finish school, start a career, marry and then have children (Hogan 1978). However, we know that the pattern and process of becoming an adult are intertwined with education and that status and role changes do not happen independently or in an orderly fashion (Marini 1987; Rindfuss, Swicegood and Rosenfeld 1987; Rindfuss 1991; Shanahan 2000).

Assessing whether taking time away from formal education is beneficial or harmful is beyond the scope of this paper. Instead, this report focuses on identifying the characteristics of those who are more or less likely to delay their transition. With this in mind, the review of the literature that follows will focus on studies that report on the factors that delay or speed up the transition to the post-secondary education system, augmented by literature related to factors affecting high school completion and PSE attendance.

2.2 Who delays the transition to post-secondary education?

In general, few papers deal specifically with the timing to first PSE experience. As a result, literature related more generally to high school completion and eventual PSE participation proves invaluable as it can help illuminate the factors that are interconnected with the issue of timing. Influential factors on the timing of first PSE experience can be summarized into five main areas: (1) demographic characteristics, (2) geographic location, (3) family of origin, (4) academic performance and commitment to education, and (5) potential barriers. This latter category pertains to barriers related to finishing high school as well as starting PSE.

2.2.1 Demographic factors and education

At the most basic level, educational outcomes vary by several demographic characteristics. Gender for example is an important indicator affecting educational attainment. Women outnumber men at universities (Clark 2000; Zeman, Knighton and Bussière 2004) and they are more likely than men to finish university (Buchmann and DiPrete 2006; Frenette and Zeman 2007; Parsons and McMullen 2009). In terms of pace to PSE after high school graduation, Bozick and DeLuca (2005) found that males delay about two months more on average than females. Similarly, in Canada, compared to males, larger shares of female high school graduates went to PSE within four months of graduating from high school (Hango 2008) or within twelve months (Tomkowicz and Bushnik 2003).

Various cultural factors are also important for educational attainment. In terms of immigrant status, we know that, on average, children of immigrants both achieve (Boyd 2002), as well as aspire to achieve (Taylor and Krahn 2005) higher levels of education than their Canadian born counterparts. Yet, we have limited evidence on the pace with which children of immigrants enter PSE following high school graduation. Hango and de Broucker (2007) provide some descriptive evidence to suggest that young adults born outside of Canada may be more represented among the group going directly to PSE who eventually receive a university degree.

Being of Aboriginal descent has a strong association with low levels of education (Tait 1999), a fact that continues to be a contributing factor to low levels of earnings for this group of Canadians (Walters, White and Maxim 2004). Moreover, in the United States, Native Americans were found to have the longest average delay time between high school and PSE, at just over twelve months (Bozick and DeLuca 2005). In Canada, Aboriginal youth were more likely to delay attending PSE by over four months, when compared to high school dropouts (Hango and de Broucker 2007).

Another important cultural indicator is mother tongue. Given historical influences related to the French- and English-speaking populations of Canada, as well as the influence of recent immigrant groups not having a mother tongue of either official language, this is a necessary factor to consider in any analysis of education in Canada. Francophones are more likely to go directly to PSE following high school graduation, regardless of how a gap is defined (Hango and de Broucker 2007; Tomkowicz and Bushnik 2003). The language effect, as we will see below during discussion of provincial differences, is strongly related to the institutional structure of education in Quebec. Meanwhile, given the strong link with recent immigration trends and the fact that recent immigrants have parents with higher education levels and greater educational aspirations for their offspring, youth whose first language is something other than English or French also appear to be more likely to go directly to PSE than to delay (Tomkowicz and Bushnik 2003); however, this may be confined to youth whose mother tongue is neither English nor French who eventually obtain a university degree (Hango and de Broucker 2007).

The institutional structure of education systems varies across Canadian provinces. For example, in Quebec's CEGEP system, youth typically have 11 years of primary and secondary school, followed by up to four years at a CEGEP, which is a required step for further study at university. Furthermore, until 2002/2003, Ontario students typically graduated after 13 years of elementary/secondary education. As a result of these differences, the percentage of young adults with a college education is much higher in Quebec than in other provinces. Evidence from Tomkowicz and Bushnik (2003) support this claim by finding that 77% of Quebec high school students went to PSE within one year after high school, while only 62% of youth from Ontario followed the same path. They also found that, on average, fairly high proportions of youth in the Atlantic provinces, especially in Nova Scotia, went on to PSE directly from high school, whereas the proportion of youth from Western Canada going directly to PSE was smaller. Size of community also matters for educational attainment; rural youth typically have lower levels of education (Cartwright and Allen 2002) and also tend to delay enrolling in PSE slightly longer than their urban counterparts (Bozick and DeLuca 2005).

2.2.2 Family effects on education

The influence that family of origin has on the lives of adolescents and young adults, while weakening from earlier in childhood, is nonetheless still considerable. Especially important, given the strong link between family of origin and academic achievement is the 'human capital' of the parents. The offspring of parents with higher levels of educational attainment typically obtain high levels of education as well (Breen and Jonsson 2005; Frenette 2007; Finnie, Mueller, Sweetman and Usher 2008). Finnie and colleagues (2008) recently suggested that parental education may be an even more pertinent factor affecting post-secondary attendance than family income. Similarly, a measure that is often used as a proxy for the diminishing effect of parental resources is number of siblings. Generally speaking, the greater the number of siblings, the fewer the resources, either time or money, available to each child; the result is often a lower level of educational attainment among those children (Blake 1989; Downey 1995). Evidence from the United States and the United Kingdom shows that youth from higher socioeconomic backgrounds are less likely to delay the start of PSE compared to youth from families of lower socioeconomic status (Bozick and DeLuca 2005; Jones 2004). A similar relationship is found in Canada, especially for young adults who complete university degrees (Hango and de Broucker 2007).

However, the impact of parental socioeconomic status on educational outcomes is weakened if parents and their children do not communicate regularly or generally have a poor relationship. Past research has found that a greater degree of parental involvement leads to a greater degree of educational success (Fan and Chen 2001; Hango 2007; Ho Sui-Chu and Williams 1996; McNeal 1999). Moreover, the educational expectations parents place on their children can have very lasting effects for their overall educational attainment (Sandefur, Meier and Campbell 2006). Hango and de Broucker (2007) found a strong relationship between parental expectations and youth not delaying the start of PSE, especially if their educational pathway culminated in a university degree.

2.2.3 Academic performance and educational commitment

One of the most important predictors of later educational success is marks in high school; the higher their marks in high school, the more likely students are to graduate from high school as well as attend a post-secondary institution (Hango and de Broucker 2007). Moreover, high school graduates with high average marks also tend to go to PSE within twelve months of completing high school (Tomkowicz and Bushnik 2003). At the same time, youth who have high academic test scores go to PSE twice as quickly, on average, as youth with low test scores (Bozick and DeLuca 2005). Equally important for future educational outcomes are the youth's educational aspirations. Typically, teens who aspire to achieve high levels of education succeed in obtaining advanced educational degrees (Hagan, MacMillan and Wheaton 1996).

Greater educational commitment should indicate, all else being equal, that a student is serious about his/her educational career. Tomkowicz and Bushnik (2003) found that youth who were very engaged in school went to PSE directly in much higher proportions than youth who were not very engaged. Truancy, meanwhile, is a measure that can be considered to indicate less commitment to education, as well as increased behavioural problems (Hallfors, Vevea, Iritani, Cho, Khatapoush, and Saxe 2002). Students who frequently skip school also typically have a greater risk of not completing high school (Fredricks, Blumenfeld and Paris 2004) which ultimately affects attending a post-secondary institution. In contrast, a greater commitment to education is often associated with a higher frequency of participating in extracurricular activities, especially those organized by the school. For instance, several studies have shown that extracurricular school activities are associated with higher test scores (Cooper, Valentine, Nye and Lindsay 1999), as well as overall academic performance (Broh 2002; Gerber 1996; Zaff, Moore, Papillo and Williams 2003). Participation in extracurricular activities was also found to be linked with greater educational attainment (Eccles and Barber 1999) and with a reduced risk of dropping out of high school (Mahoney and Cairns 1997).

2.2.4 Potential barriers to education

Factors that can act as barriers to education are numerous. Some involve issues related to time use. For example, some activities make it more difficult for high school students to complete homework and study outside of school hours (Shanahan and Flaherty 2001). One such activity that can take youth away from studies outside of school is working in paid jobs. For the most part, working during high school has been found to have generally negative impacts on education (Marsh and Kleitman 2005), but it depends on the amount of work. For example, working many hours at a paid job has been linked to a greater risk of dropping out (Sunter 1993; Bushnik 2003), while low to moderate hours may actually be beneficial (Ruhm 1997; Bushnik 2003). Working in high school has also been linked with delaying PSE attendance. For example, a greater proportion of youth who delay the start of PSE worked at least 20 hours a week during their last year of high school (Tomkowicz and Bushnik 2003). At the same time, Hango and de Broucker (2007) found that teens who worked over twenty hours a week while in high school were over 30% more likely than teens who did not work to delay their post-secondary attendance.

As noted above, a great deal of research finds that extracurricular activities are linked with beneficial educational outcomes. However, the majority of this research focuses almost exclusively on activities that are organized by the school. It has been suggested that "school-based extracurricular activities provide adolescents with a highly structured leisure environment" (Darling 2005: 493). However, what effect do those activities that are not organized by the school have on adolescent educational outcomes? We know that the least beneficial types of extracurricular activities typically involve unstructured and unsupervised time away from school (Eccles, Barber, Stone and Hunt 2003). Broh (2002) for instance found that, on the one hand, interscholastic sports that were more selective and required more commitment from teens were associated with higher math and reading scores. On the other hand, she found that intramural sports that require less commitment and dedication led to lower math and reading scores. Additionally, participating in vocational clubs was also associated with lower math scores. Similarly, Chambers and Schreiber (2004) conceptualized television viewing as a 'non-academic non-organized' activity and found that it lowered girls' academic achievement.

The detrimental impact of having a birth too early in the life course is well documented (see Furstenberg 2003). Moreover, the factors which influence educational attainment and the risk of becoming a parent are often thought to be jointly determined (Baizán and Martín-García 2006). As a result, the factors affecting the risk of an early birth may also be affecting educational attainment. Thus, having a child may remove the young adult from the education system, at least in the short-term, and while many do return, their overall educational level is often greatly affected (Clark, Dechman, French and MacCallum 1991).

The influence of peers increases as youth reach young adulthood, especially in terms of educational aspirations and behaviour more generally (Ryan 2000; Brooks 2003). Moreover, adolescents also tend to perceive their future in concordance with their peers (Kandel and Lesser 1969; Seltzer and Waterman 1996). As a result, young adults who are surrounded by friends who place low or no value on pursuing higher education may also forgo attending PSE or at least delay the transition (Tomkowicz and Bushnik 2003).

Moving during adolescence, especially changing high schools, can have a detrimental impact on high school graduation (South, Haynie and Bose 2007), as well as on academic test scores and behaviour (Pribesh and Downey 1999; Swanson and Schneider 1999). The effects may be exacerbated as a result of a disruption of important relationships between the family and other influential people (such as teachers and other parents) or what Coleman (1988) refers to as a loss of inter-generational closure. Moving may also be considered to be an increased source of stress or strain, which may affect youth behaviour and educational outcomes (Haveman, Wolfe and Spaulding 1991; Stack 1994). Others, however, blame the negative impact of changing high schools on the fact that the social networks of mobile adolescents tend to have lower expectations concerning their future education than those of non-mobile adolescents (South, Haynie and Bose 2007).

As already discussed, numerous barriers limit the degree to which young adults attend post-secondary institutions; some are related to the family of origin and others to the individual characteristics of the high school student. Still others are related to the cost of attending PSE (Finnie et al 2008). The cost of PSE continues to rise and the financial situation of parents can play an important role in whether or not high school graduates are able to afford to go to PSE (Frenette 2007; Knighton and Mirza 2002). Moreover, a lack of finances is cited by some youth as a barrier impeding their educational aspirations (Bowlby and McMullen 2002). At the same time, wanting to work (Bowlby and McMullen 2002) and caring for children (Furstenberg 2003) are also significant barriers to achieving educational goals. Lastly, given the importance of academic grades, it is not surprising that many high school students feel that their poor academic grade-point average will negatively affect their educational goals (Bowlby and McMullen 2002). One way in which poor marks may hamper educational goals is by delaying the transition to PSE (Hango and de Broucker 2007; Tomkowicz and Bushnik 2003).