Marta Facchini

Website, CV: https://martafacchini.github.io/about/

Marta Facchini is a postdoctoral researcher at the INVEST Research Flagship Centre de l'Univversité de Turku.

Sujet de thèse - Dissertation Title

Uncertain Development: Exploring the effect of Parents' Employment Uncertainty on their Children's Development - An Analysis of Patterns and Mechanisms

Supervisors: Carlo Barone and Lidia Panico

Source of Funding: Doctoral Grant ANR - NORFACE ERA-NET, Life Course Dynamics of Educational Tracking (2018-2021).

PhD Defense, Sciences Po, Wednesday 13th December 2023.
Jury: Carina Mood (Stockholm University), Pablo Gracia (Trinity College Dublin), Arianne Pailhé (INED), Pia Schober (Universität Tübingen), Carlo Barone and Lidia Panico (Supervisors, Sciences Po - CRIS).

Project (Abstract):

Early childhood is a critical period for the reproduction of social inequality. While a growing literature is exploring the influence of parental socioeconomic background, less is known about the effect of precarious jobs.

This thesis employs counterfactual mediation to analyze how household employment uncertainty (HEU), i.e., temporary jobs and unemployment, affects child development before entry into formal education. This allows us to focus on the first stages of the development of primary effects, i.e., how family socioeconomic background affects school performance, and offer novel insights into the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage.
Leveraging data from the French Longitudinal Study of Children (ELFE), this study shows that HEU is associated with a higher probability of unplanned pregnancy and poorer newborn health. The effect is mediated through income and smoking during pregnancy. Moreover, the accumulation and persistence over time of HEU are associated with lower child cognitive skills at age two and three and a half. While results for socio-emotional adjustment are less robust, child physical health appears to not be correlated with HEU, hinting at the potential mitigating role of a comprehensive healthcare system. In alignment with the Family Investment and the Family Stress Models, income and parental investment in stimulating activities mediate the effect on cognitive skills, whereas parental stress mediates the effect on socio-emotional adjustment. The mediation appears to be driven by mothers.

In summary, employment uncertainty appears to be a relevant component of family background and can amplify the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage, through its effect on income, parental investment and stress, particularly with regard to mothers.

Publications

• 2023 (with Schindler, S., Bar-Haim, E., Barone, C. et al.), "Educational tracking and social inequalities in long-term labor market outcomes: Six countries in comparison", International Journal of Comparative Sociology, online first, 10th February. Available on Sage Journals (Open Access)
• 2021 (with Moris Triventi and Carlo Barone), "Upper secondary tracks and student competencies: A selection or a causal effect? Evidence from the Italian case", Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, vol. 76, 100626, December. Available online on Science Direct
• 2021 (with Carlo Barone and Moris Triventi), "Social origins, tracking and occupational attainment in Italy", Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, vol. 12, n° 3, p. 441-462. Paper available on Ingenta Connect
• 2021 (with Claudia Traini et al.), Educational tracking and long-term outcomes by social origin: Seven countries in comparison, Dial Working Paper Series (Dynammics of Inequality Across the Lifecourse: structures and process), 02/2021. Available online
• 2021 (with Moris Triventi and Loris Vergolini), "Do Grants Improve the Outcomes of University Students in a Challenging Context? Evidence from a Matching Approch", Higher Education, vol. 81, p. 917-934. Paper available on Springer Journals - or Preprint version (SocArXiv, 5th April 2019)

Communications - Presentations

• 2023 (with Lidia Panico & Carlo Barone), "How Does Parents' Employment Uncertainty Affect Children Early Skills Development? Patterns and Mechanisms in France", XX ISA World Congress od Sociology, Melbourne, June 26.
• 2023, "How Does Parental Employment Uncertainty Affect Children’s Early Skills Development? Patterns and Mechanisms in France", Poster, PAA - Population Association of America Annual Meeting, New Orleans, April.
• 2022 (with Lidia Panico & Carlo Barone), "How is household employment uncertainty connected to children early skills development and well-being? Patterns and mechanisms in France", ISA RC28 Spring meeting "Social Stratification and Social Policy for a Post-Covid19 World", London School of Economics, April.
• 2022 (with Lidia Panico & Carlo Barone), "Parental Employment Uncertainty and Children Early Skills Development and Well-Being", European Population Conference, European Association for Population Studies, University of Groningen, June.

enseignements - teaching

• "Inferential and Causal Statistics", Master level, Ecole normale supérieure - Paris, Spring 2023
• "Inferential and Causal Statistics - R lab", Master level, Ecole normale supérieure - Paris,  Spring 2023