Table 1.
Sample characteristics (N=9382), by age and gender.
| Demographic characteristics | 20–24 yrs |
25–29 yrs |
30–34 yrs |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | Female | Male | Female | Male | Female | |
| N | 1541 | 1607 | 1383 | 1524 | 1583 | 1744 |
| Employment status (%) | ||||||
| Employed | 79.04 | 67.95 | 86.33 | 67.45 | 88.06 | 64.91 |
| Unemployed | 6.81 | 5.35 | 3.69 | 3.87 | 2.65 | 2.12 |
| PT looking FT | 5.97 | 8.45 | 4.19 | 4.33 | 3.03 | 2.58 |
| NILF MA | 4.28 | 7.84 | 3.47 | 8.20 | 1.64 | 1.32 |
| NILF | 3.89 | 10.39 | 2.31 | 16.14 | 2.84 | 20.53 |
| Marital status (%) | ||||||
| Married | 29.53 | 40.26 | 54.01 | 63.06 | 70.88 | 52.96 |
| Never married | 70.34 | 59.12 | 43.24 | 30.58 | 7.20 | 10.09 |
| Divorced/Separated/Widowed | .13 | .62 | 2.75 | 6.36 | 21.92 | 17.49 |
| Education (%) | ||||||
| Did not finish Year 12 | 21.22 | 18.42 | 17.57 | 19.62 | 19.27 | 24.60 |
| Dependent children (%) | ||||||
| Have dependent children | 7.95 | 17.00 | 27.74 | 43.39 | 56.25 | 67.82 |
| Physical health and mental health measures | ||||||
| Physical health | 7.06 | 7.91 | 6.87 | 9.04 | 8.04 | 8.90 |
| SF12 (mean & SD) | (18.03) | (16.05) | (16.80) | (16.80) | (16.70) | (15.74) |
| Depression (%) | ||||||
| High score (MHI-5) | 11.09 | 12.85 | 10.11 | 10.28 | 7.81 | 11.48 |
| Socio-economic and psychosocial measures | ||||||
| Financial hardship (%) | ||||||
| 1 or more marker of hardship | 38.19 | 41.76 | 35.13 | 38.52 | 31.03 | 30.43 |
| Mastery (%) | ||||||
| Low sense of mastery (Pearlin's scale) | 32.08 | 33.09 | 32.69 | 31.43 | 33.88 | 33.01 |
| Social support | 27.55 | 26.34 | 28.14 | 25.76 | 28.74 | 26.07 |
| (mean & SD) | (9.85) | (9.90) | (8.93) | (9.93) | (9.76) | (9.67) |