An Integrated Heuristic for Validation in Sequence Analysis

Piccarreta, Raffaella; Struffolino, Emanuela

doi:10.31235/osf.io/v7mj8

“…Note that the ASW does not consider individual sequences that are outliers to all clusters but only those that are equally similar to several of the identified clusters, and therefore might overstate the true cluster structure (Struffolino and Piccarreta 2019).…”

Section: Cluster Identification In Different Data Scenariosmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Typically, researchers explore the robustness of sequence typologies by applying different cost specifications when calculating dissimilarities between sequences (Aisenbrey and Fasang 2017), or evaluating cluster solutions with different numbers of clusters (Piccarreta and Struffolino 2019). Recently, studies started to exclude poorly classified sequences from clusters based on low silhouette values when clusters are used as dependent or independent variables in further regression-based analyses (Jalovaara and Fasang 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Typologies in Sequence Analysis: Practical Guidelines for Identifying Robust Cluster Solutions

Andrade,

Fasang,

Helske

et al. 2023

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0

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Sequence analysis in the social sciences heavily relies on cluster techniques to identify typologies. Clustering techniques and statistical cluster cut-off criteria for selecting the optimal number of clusters have greatly improved. In contrast, we lack a systematic assessment of how data features, such as the sequence sample size, the number of time points in the sequences, and the number of distinct states in the sequence alphabet might systematically impact the identification of sequence typologies. Drawing on both simulated data from mixture Markov models and real data from the German Family Panel survey, we provide best-practice guidelines for applied researchers to gauge whether their data is sufficient for extracting robust sequence typologies, if they empirically exist. Sequence typologies are most robust for samples with at least 500 sequences, sequence lengths greater than 10 time points, and state alphabets that have at least as many states as the “true” number of clusters.

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“…Using this strategy, I identify four clusters for women and three clusters for men as optimal. A battery of partitioning quality indicators across different clustering solutions are presented in Figure A1 (Studer, 2013;Piccarreta and Struffolino, 2019), including the average Silhouette width (ASW), the point biserial correlation (PBC), and the Hubert's C (HC). Taken together, I argue that women's four-cluster and men's five-cluster solutions using the HAM algorithm in a PAM+Ward procedure have high validity representing the major career typology in Taiwan.…”

Section: Analytical Strategy Variables and Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Work and fertility in Taiwan: how do women’s and men’s career sequences associate with fertility outcomes?

Hsu

¹

2022

Longitudinal and Life Course Studies

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There has been much debate over the micro-level relationship between employment situations and fertility in Europe and Northern America. However, related research in East Asia is scant, although countries in this region have some of the lowest fertility rates in the world. Moreover, most studies analyse the employment–fertility relationship from a static perspective and only for women, which underemphasises life course dynamics and gender heterogeneity of employment careers and their fertility implications. Drawing on retrospective data from the 2017 Taiwan Social Change Survey (TSCS), this study explores women’s and men’s career trajectories between ages 18 and 40 in Taiwan using sequence cluster analyses. It also examines how career variations associate with different timing and quantum of birth. Empirical results show that economically inactive women experience faster motherhood transitions and have more children by age 40 than women with stable full-time careers. For men, having an unstable career associates with slower fatherhood transitions and a lower number of children. For both genders, self-employed people are the earliest in parenthood transitions and have the highest number of children by midlife. Our findings demonstrate sharp gender contrasts in employment careers and their diversified fertility implications in low-fertility Taiwan. Key messages <ul><li>Using sequence analysis, this study illustrates the gendered career pathways in Taiwan and their associations to various fertility timing and quantum.</li> <li>For women, having a stable employment career in full-time positions relates to a delayed motherhood transition and lower fertility.</li> <li>For men, having an unstable career associates with a later fatherhood transition, postponed parity progressions and lower fertility.</li> <li>For both genders, self-employed Taiwanese are the earliest in parenthood transitions and have the highest number of children by midlife.</li></ul>

show abstract

“…Using this strategy, I identify four clusters for women and three clusters for men as optimal. A battery of partitioning quality indicators across different clustering solutions are presented in Figure A1 (Piccarreta & Struffolino, 2019;Studer, 2013), including the Average Silhouette Width (ASW), the Point Biserial Correlation (PBC), and the Hubert's C (HC). Taken together, I argue that women's four-cluster and men's five-cluster solutions using the HAM algorithm in a PAM+Ward procedure have high validity representing the major career typology in Taiwan.…”

Section: Analytical Strategy Variables and Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Work and fertility in Taiwan: How women’s and men’s career sequences associate with fertility outcomes?

Hsu¹

2021

Preprint

0

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There has been much debate over the micro-level relationship between employment situations and fertility in Europe and Northern America. However, related research in East Asia is scant, although countries in this region have some of the lowest fertility rates in the world. Moreover, most studies analyze the employment-fertility relationship from a static perspective and only for women, which underemphasizes life-course dynamics and gender heterogeneity of employment careers and their fertility implications. Drawing on retrospective data from the 2017 Taiwan Social Change Survey (TSCS), this study explores women’s and men’s career trajectories between ages 18 and 40 in Taiwan using sequence cluster analyses. It also examines how career variations associate with different timing and quantum of birth. Empirical results show that economically inactive women experience faster motherhood transitions and have more children by age 40 than women with stable full-time careers. For men, having an unstable career associates with slower fatherhood transitions and a lower number of children. For both genders, self-employed people are the earliest in parenthood transitions and have the highest number of children by midlife. Our findings demonstrate sharp gender contrasts in employment careers and their diversified fertility implications in low-fertility Taiwan

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An Integrated Heuristic for Validation in Sequence Analysis

Cited by 3 publications

References 21 publications

Typologies in Sequence Analysis: Practical Guidelines for Identifying Robust Cluster Solutions

Typologies in Sequence Analysis: Practical Guidelines for Identifying Robust Cluster Solutions

Work and fertility in Taiwan: how do women’s and men’s career sequences associate with fertility outcomes?

Work and fertility in Taiwan: How women’s and men’s career sequences associate with fertility outcomes?

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