This paper reports findings from a 47-year longitudinal study of Ontario high school students, the “Class of ’73,” first surveyed in Grade 12 in 1973 and followed into their early to mid-sixties in 2019–21. Drawing on analyses in The Story of a Generation: Life Course Pathways of the Class of ’73 (University of Toronto Press) and guided by a life course framework, the study examines how social structure and personal agency intersect as this late baby boom cohort moves through education, work, family life, and retirement amid far-reaching social and economic change. Seven waves of data collection combine large-scale surveys and in-depth qualitative interviews, with sustained efforts to trace the original sample across more than four decades.
The presentation focuses on Phase 7, addressing social, economic, and educational conditions that shape transitions from school to work; educational attainment and intergenerational mobility, including rising educational levels among participants’ children; working lives and later life employment in the context of deindustrialization, technological change, and public sector restructuring; family formation, parenting, intergenerational support, and caregiving; and retirement pathways, health, subjective well being, and regret. Findings show enduring yet mutable effects of class, gender, and region; substantial upward mobility, especially among children of immigrants; and strong continuity in the centrality of family relationships for life satisfaction. The paper concludes by comparing the Class of ’73 with international longitudinal studies of baby boomers and by drawing implications for life-course and aging research in rapidly changing societies, including those in Asia.

Authors:
Paul Anisef, York University, Canada
Erica Thompson, McMaster University, Canada

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Paul Anisef is Professor Emeritus in Sociology at York University in Toronto, Ontario. His research interests include: accessibility to higher education, the transition from school to Work, the adaptation of immigrant youth, life course research.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-anisef-7a300713

Connect on ResearchGate
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Paul-Anisef

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