Pathways to adulthood among young people in Northeast at the turn of the 20th to the 21st century

Abstract

The literature on youth has identified a diversification in the ways of being young and transitioning to adulthood. In Brazil, structural inequalities play an important role in shaping this process. This article analyzes changes in these transitions between 1991 and 2010 in the Northeast, a region that continues to exhibit greater vulnerabilities than other parts of the country in terms of economic conditions, education, and labor market integration. The study evaluates the postponement, prolongation, and diversification of transition modalities, as well as their possible relationships with inequalities related to gender, race/color, household situation, and income level. An entropy analysis of synthetic cohorts is applied to microdata from the 1991 and 2010 Demographic Censuses. The results show that increased time dedicated to schooling leads to more homogeneous transitions at early ages, while in young adulthood there is a trend toward diversification in modes of social integration. This de-standardization affects the duration of the transition process, but in ways that vary depending on socioeconomic conditions. Furthermore, the contribution of occupational status to increasing heterogeneity is highlighted, emphasizing the role of uncertainty in the biographical trajectories of young people in the region.

Keywords:
Transition to adulthood; Inequalities; Work; Education; Northeast