We integrate literature on gender and adolescent friendships to examine the association between adolescent dating violence victimization (ADVV) and relationship dissolution. In particular, we test whether ADVV increases the hazard of relationship dissolution among adolescent romances, and whether a number of friendship dynamics alter the…

To provide a comprehensive view of the unique contexts shaping adolescent development in the U.S., we utilized latent class analysis (LCA) with indicators of risk and protection across multiple domains (family, peers, school, neighborhood) and examined how latent class membership predicted heavy episodic drinking, illicit substance use, and…

Previous research finds adolescent work hours to be associated with increased alcohol use. Most studies, however, fail to account for possible selection effects that lead youth to both work and substance use. Using data from the first two waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 12,620), a fixed effects regression method…

Existing research rarely considers important ethnic subgroup variations in violent behaviors among Latino youth. Thus, their risk for severe violent behaviors is not well understood in light of the immense ethnic and generational diversity of the Latino population in the United States. Grounded in social control theory and cultural analyses of…

I investigate the differences between Hispanic high school graduates, both male and female, who chose not to attend college, who chose to initially enroll into a two-year college, or who chose to initially enroll into a four-year college or university. The 1994-1995 National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health was used to determine how family…

The authors used data from the Add Health study to estimate the effects of parents' marital status and relationship distress on daughters' early family formation transitions. Outcomes included traditional transitions (marriage and marital births) and nontraditional transitions (cohabitation and nonmarital births). Relationship distress among…

This study examines whether the effects of single-mother families (SMFs) on adolescent problem behavior are buffered by supportive mothering and the involvement of nonresident fathers and whether the effectiveness of these two buffers varies by ethnicity. Based on the data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the authors find…

The question of whether family structure consequences on school achievement are the same across racial and ethnic groups is examined using longitudinal data on 10,606 teens from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Based on life course theory, this article uses indicators of the family structure trajectory, such as family…