Mastery involves a sense of having control over one's surroundings and an ability to accomplish meaningful goals and determine important meaningful outcomes across situations. Mastery is a dynamic, learned resource that has implications for mental health. Although mastery is known to be influenced by exposure to family members (i.e., parental…

Undergraduate college-going is now undertaken well into adulthood, but knowledge about what leads individuals to enroll derives nearly entirely from the study of the "traditionally-aged". I examine whether and how predictors of enrollment vary as individuals progress through the life-course using nationally representative data from the…

Differentiation of intelligence refers to changes in the structure of intelligence that depend on individuals' level of general cognitive ability (ability differentiation hypothesis) or age (developmental differentiation hypothesis). The present article aimed to investigate ability differentiation, developmental differentiation, and their…

Teaching is often assumed to be a relatively stressful occupation and occupational stress among teachers has been linked to poor mental health, attrition from the profession, and decreased effectiveness in the classroom. Despite widespread concern about teachers' mental health, however, little empirical evidence exists on long-run trends in…

Vocational education is formal education about work, and vocational programs of study typically target a narrow subset of middle-income occupations. In this chapter, we trace vocational education from competing 20th century education philosophies to its varied structures throughout the 21st century world. We then review the body of economic…

Research on family contexts and adolescent sexual risk behavior has largely neglected relational aspects of sexual risk, such as having sex with strangers. The present study uses the NLSY97 to examine associations between sexually active adolescents' sex with strangers and parental monitoring, support, strictness, and household structure. More…

Respondents, in "A Mistaken Account of the Age-Crime Curve: Response to Males and Brown," dispute our finding that virtually all of the discrepancy in violent crime rates between adolescents/emerging adults versus older adults is explained not by young age per se but by higher poverty levels among the young. Our rejoinder argues that…

We investigated how family characteristics and experiences during early adolescence predicted timing of sexual initiation. In addition, we investigated adolescent sex and race/ethnicity as potential moderating factors. As part of the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-1979 (CNLSY-79), 799 adolescents aged 12 to 15 years provided…

This research investigates if ethical behaviors and personal finances are related using a large scale U.S. random survey called the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97). Fifteen indicators covering both ethical and unethical behaviors are compared to net worth for people in their 20s and 30s, who are called Generation Y. Breaking…

The NLSY97 data were used to explore the patterns of developmental trajectories of body weight in adolescence and how they affected the likelihood of college completion in young adulthood among 2,275 youths aged 13 and 14 in Wave 1. A strong weight trajectory gradient was found for rates of college completion. The study further explored the role…

This study examines ecological level correlates of adverse peer relationships among early adolescents (ages 12-14). Data analysis was conducted using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). The sample was drawn from the mother-child data set, which included youth who in 2002 or 2004 were living with their mothers and enrolled in school.…

One of the most consistent findings in developmental criminology is the "age-crime curve"--the observation that criminal behavior increases in adolescence and decreases in adulthood. Recently, Brown and Males (Justice Policy J 8:1-30, 2011) conducted an analysis of aggregate arrest, poverty, and population data from California and…

Although voluminous research has linked nonresident fatherhood to riskier sexual behavior in adolescence, including earlier sexual debut, neither the causality of that link nor the mechanism accounting for it has been well-established. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979--the Young Adult Survey (CNLSY-YA), the present…

This study uses a developmental perspective and focuses on examining whether the impact of adolescent dating is age-sensitive. Dating at earlier ages is hypothesized to have a stronger effect on adolescent criminal behavior or substance use, but the effect would be weaker as one ages. The data obtained from the National Longitudinal Survey of…

Age patterns of secondary certification and college entry differ in complex and surprising ways for traditional graduates and GED recipients. Although GED recipients are less likely to enter college in their late teens, they catch up to traditional graduates in their 20s. Results show that adjusting for differences in the age trajectories of…