Though the diversification of pathways through higher education is widely recognized, little is known about longer-term patterns of undergraduate participation and attainment. I used sequence analysis to examine college-going across early and middle adulthood in nationally-representative data. Clustering of sequence data revealed four latent…

Over half of the children in the U.S. experience adversity early in childhood. These experiences, along with conditions in their families and neighborhoods, have profound developmental effects. The bioecological model of development includes these proximal contexts in a theory of development that incorporates the threats and supports present in…

Research on family background and educational success focuses almost exclusively on two generations: parents and children. This study argues that the extended family contributes significantly to the total effect of family background on educational success. Analyses using the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study show that, net of family factors shared by…

Current research on stepfamily well-being often overlooks the perspective of children, and deals primarily with factors as reported by the adults involved. The authors examine a number of family role characteristics, parental subsystem characteristics, and resources that might influence how children perceive the quality of their stepfamily…

Mixed-race or multiethnic youth are at risk for mental and physical health problems. We used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997 to compare family characteristics of adolescents of a mixed-race or multiethnic background with those of a monoracial or monoethnic background. Mixed-race or multiethnic youth reported feeling less…

Personal religiosity has been identified as a protective factor against juvenile delinquency. However, the influence of familial religiosity on delinquent behavior is less known. This study addresses this gap by investigating how family participation in organizational religious activities is related to delinquent involvement in early adolescence.…

Objective: To examine the association between frequency of family dinners (FFD) and selected problem behaviors for adolescents after adjusting for family connectedness, parental awareness, other family activities, and other potentially confounding factors. Methods: Data are drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997. The primary…

Objectives: This study seeks to examine the relationship between foster care and outcomes using multiple comparison methods to account for factors that put foster youth at risk independent of care. Methods: Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, matching, propensity scoring, and comparisons to the general population are used to…

Prospective study examines consequences of marital disruption for children's behavior problems and academic achievement. Results show no statistically significant effects of marital disruption on girls' behavior problems or reading achievement. Negative effects of family disruption on boys' behavior problems are not reduced when prior family…

Drew on data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to compare impact of family processes on delinquency in Latino, White, and African American youth. Found that parent attachment, supervision, and involvement predicted delinquency for whites. Supervision was the only significant family influence for Latinos, and attachment to parents was…

This report supplements data acquired from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), a continuing survey of 12,600 individuals interviewed annually since 1979, when they were 14 to 22 years of age. Specifically, the report presents data acquired through a 1990 supplemental survey of the female participants' children. A total of 1,116…

Employing for analysis a set of secondary data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, the present study sought signs of theoretical support for this emphasis on family preservation. Specifically, the research examined the effects on childhood delinquency of the following variables: family stability; parenting style; parental supervision;…