The impact of a major historical event on child and youth development has been of great interest in the study of the life course. This study is focused on assessing the causal effect of the Great Recession on youth disconnection from school and work. Building on the insights offered by the age-period-cohort research, econometric methods, and…

The heterogeneity of the timing and order of achieving the "big five" markers of the transition to adulthood is often treated as a taken-for-granted feature of emerging adulthood, reflecting a tendency of "leisure to explore" between adolescence and adulthood. With the central assumption of emphasizing how individuals take…

This longitudinal study tested the contribution of age and marital status at first birth to depressive symptomatology in early adulthood. Findings indicated that unmarried teenage childbearers displayed higher levels of depressive symptoms than women who first gave birth as married adults. The psychological health of married teenage mothers in…

Data from national sample of 3- to 16-year-olds show that lower test scores and increased behavior problems of children of younger mothers resulted from family background rather than maternal age. For nonfirstborns, maternal age at first birth, not at child's birth, influenced test scores. Disadvantage of children born to younger mothers was…