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Objectives: To quantify the junior-to-senior successful transition rate in sprint swimming events in elite European performers.Design: Retrospective analysis of publicly available competition data collected between 2004 and 2019.Methods: The yearly performance of 6631 European swimmers (females = 41.8% of the sample) competing in 50 and 100 m freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly were included in the analysis. The junior-to-senior transition rate was determined as the number of elite junior athletes who maintained their elite status in adulthood. To investigate how the definition of elite may affect the calculation of the transition rate, we operationally defined elite athletes as those ranked in the all-time top 10, 25, 50, and 100 in their category. We also calculated the correlation between junior and senior performances.Results: The average transition rates ranged, depending on the age of reference, from 10 to 26% in males and from 23 to 33% in females. The transition rate for the top 100 junior swimmers was greater than that for the top 10 swimmers. In general, swimmers who swam 50 m showed a slightly lower transition rate compared with those that swam 100 m. Depending on the age of reference, low-to-moderate correlations were observed between junior and senior peak performances.Conclusions: Most elite junior athletes did not maintain the elite level in adulthood. Except for athletes in the last year of the junior category (18 years for males and 17 years for females), junior performances were poorly correlated with senior performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using register data from Statistics Netherlands (2009–2019), this paper examines whether the first employment contract is related to early career outcomes for a cohort of young workers who entered the Dutch labour market in the period from late 2009–2013. Instead of looking at the timing of isolated transitions between employment states, 6-year-long trajectories are considered to identify differences in early career paths. Applying a Mixture Hidden Markov Model, eight distinct states of employment quality characterized by different contract types and incomes are identified. Transitions between these employment states reveal four early career patterns that differ according to their upward and downward mobility. Our results show that entering the labour market with a permanent contract does not necessarily lead to immediate wage growth, but provides a safeguard against volatile careers with frequent transitions in and out of employment. While entering the labour market with a fixed-term contract facilitates upward mobility, on-call and temporary agency work early in the career may negatively affect long-term labour market integration. • Studying the dynamics of employment careers requires a longitudinal perspective. • Four early career patterns with varying degrees of upward and downward mobility can be identified. • Fixed-term contracts promote upward mobility in the Netherlands. • Temporary agency and on-call work are associated with unstable career paths and limited wage growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The study presented in this article focused on the instable career paths of older workers. The study, which is based on the life course approach, had two objectives: 1) identify the main variables which, through their interactions, characterized end-of-career paths; 2) piece together, from the beginning of the career onward, the sequence of key events, transitions, and turning points in the career trajectories that preceded these paths. The results, based on an analysis of in-depth interviews with 32 Canadian workers 45years and older, showed that these participants'' particular career path was characterized by considerable interdependent precariousness whose effects accumulated and intensified as the workers aged. The results also show that this career path was preceded by two distinct career trajectories: one named “fragmented,” which was punctuated by discontinuity and breaks of all kinds, and the other called “severed,” which was characterized by the sudden loss of a career job. Finally, the link between the end-of-career path seen here and the trajectories that preceded it sheds at least some light on the processes that can lead to an instable end-of-career path. These processes were condensed in our discussion into two distinct career biographies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper we consider the potential of autobiographical narratives for accessing ‘storied knowledge’ in research around geographies of health voluntarism. We firstly consider what is meant by elicited autobiography and how the narrative approach has been used in research more broadly. Drawing on fieldwork undertaken in Manchester, UK and Auckland, New Zealand we then demonstrate how this approach has helped us to map out and unpack the career journeys of mental health activists working within and across the voluntary and statutory sectors. Through our autobiographical narratives we illustrate how this approach has enabled us to elicit important insights into the triggers and trajectories underpinning mental health activism and how events and moments in time have provided critical junctures in these trajectories. We consider places as sites of significance in activist career paths; and as central to the researcher-participant gestalt within which the autobiography is elicited and recounted. The autobiographical process, we suggest, offers reflective insights into mental health activism that might not otherwise be gained using more conventional methodologies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper we consider the potential of autobiographical narratives for accessing ‘storied knowledge’ in research around geographies of health voluntarism. We firstly consider what is meant by elicited autobiography and how the narrative approach has been used in research more broadly. Drawing on fieldwork undertaken in Manchester, UK and Auckland, New Zealand we then demonstrate how this approach has helped us to map out and unpack the career journeys of mental health activists working within and across the voluntary and statutory sectors. Through our autobiographical narratives we illustrate how this approach has enabled us to elicit important insights into the triggers and trajectories underpinning mental health activism and how events and moments in time have provided critical junctures in these trajectories. We consider places as sites of significance in activist career paths; and as central to the researcher-participant gestalt within which the autobiography is elicited and recounted. The autobiographical process, we suggest, offers reflective insights into mental health activism that might not otherwise be gained using more conventional methodologies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This article reports research concerning life narratives of Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) pioneers in Britain. Nine pioneers were identified using a snowballing sampling technique. Participants were asked about the training and experiential influences on their career trajectory, first via a questionnaire. Each individual was then encouraged to narrate their story in their own way. Some did so in writing and others were interviewed by telephone. Validity of the narratives was enhanced by circulating the written account for comments, and by cross-checking references with each other within individual accounts. Narratives were analysed thematically, giving rise to the following categories: isolation; dance, affect and symbolisation; serendipity and choice; beginner''s mind (a childlike attitude) and the search for theory. The following conclusions are made: the phenomenon of pioneering DMT in Britain was historically and culturally situated; career trajectories can be conceptualised as “falling forwards”; an attitude of exploration with tacit, embodied knowledge must be balanced alongside the thrust towards expertise and external evidence. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Sequence analysis offers a holistic approach on the consequences of temporary jobs. • Cumulative wages allow assessing long-term disadvantages of temporary jobs. • Transitions from temporary jobs to permanent jobs rather common in early career. • Still long-term cumulative wage gaps for former temporary workers are visible. • Yearly increasing cumulative wage gaps even after transitions to permanent jobs. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP, 1994–2017), we investigate how 10-year career sequences, which can be grouped into distinct career patterns, relate to cumulative labor market income. We utilize propensity score matching to compare standard career sequences, consisting of continuous full-time permanent work, to stepping stone career sequences, characterized by initial periods of temporary employment and subsequent permanent employment. We thus investigate if temporary workers are compensated for initial wage penalties in their later career. This life course approach reveals a more holistic picture about the consequences of temporary employment than previous studies, which mostly focus on the effect of single transitions and on wages at single time points. The results show that among labor market entrants the standard permanent employment career is the most prevalent one but that stepping stone careers are also common. Nonetheless, individuals who start their career in temporary employment and then transition to permanent jobs face long-term cumulative wage disadvantages of -51,461.2 Euro (-14.07 %) compared to individuals with standard permanent careers. Furthermore, over the 10 years we study, we find an increasing cumulative wage gap even after the transitions to permanent jobs take place. This last finding suggests that compared to individuals with standard careers, former temporary workers do not experience a compensating higher wage growth in their later careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]