Many developmental theories have not been sufficiently evaluated using designs that control for unobserved familial confounds. Our long-term goal is to determine the causal structure underlying associations between early environmental conditions and later psychosocial and health outcomes. Our overall objective in this study was to further evaluate…

Studies of early-career teachers in the 1970s-1990s find that one-quarter to one-half of teachers who left the classroom eventually returned and that returning was associated with teachers' gender and their child-rearing responsibilities. However, much has changed in the last forty years. Women are more likely to continue to participate in the…

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…

The main aim of this article is to investigate whether there is a significant long-term association between bullying at school and drug use later in life. A meta-analysis is presented based on results from major prospective longitudinal studies with available unadjusted and adjusted effect sizes. Results are based on thorough systematic searches…

While research consistently finds positive earnings returns to educational attainment, there is little evidence on postsecondary education's impact on other employment-related outcomes. Yet nonpecuniary returns to schooling are particularly important in the United States, where fringe benefits are typically tied to employment and there is a great…

This study examines a range of GED recipients' life course contexts and experiences and their relationship with long-term outcomes. Using descriptive comparisons, bivariate tests, and propensity-score matched regression models to analyze data from rounds 1-15 of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997, analyses aim to examine: (1)…

Few studies have examined the relation between maternal caloric intake during pregnancy and growth in child academic achievement while controlling for important confounding influences. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, the current study examined the effects of reduced prenatal caloric intake on growth in scores on the…

Why do men in the United States today complete less schooling than women? One reason may be gender differences in early self-regulation and prosocial behaviors. Scholars have found that boys' early behavioral disadvantage predicts their lower average academic achievement during elementary school. In this study, I examine longer-term effects: Do…

Often in sociology, researchers are confronted with nonnormal variables whose joint distribution they wish to explore. Yet, assumptions of common measures of dependence can fail or estimating such dependence is computationally intensive. This article presents the copula method for modeling the joint distribution of two random variables, including…

This article shows that the traditional narrative of Black-White high school graduation gaps is inverted among economically disadvantaged female students. Two nationally representative surveys and statewide administrative data demonstrate that low-income White females graduate at rates 5 to 6 percentage points lower than Black peers despite having…

Longitudinal data from the children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) were used to assess how well measures of short-term and working memory and attention in early childhood predicted longitudinal growth trajectories in mathematics and reading comprehension. Analyses also examined whether changes in memory and attention were more…

Data on psychological influences of financial behaviors has not been well addressed in student populations, which is concerning given the high levels of general and financial stress experienced by college students. The findings of this study indicate that college students with an external locus of control exhibit the worst financial behaviors.…

This study investigated the relation between building human capital of former dropouts and their occupational standing and the interaction effects with individual characteristics. By applying the growth curve model, this study highlighted the factors that lead high school dropouts to enhance their occupational standing. An increment in the work…

While a large literature examines the factors that lead teachers to leave teaching, few studies have examined what factors affect teachers' decisions to reenter the profession. Drawing on research on the role of family characteristics in predicting teacher work behavior, we examine predictors of reentry. We employ survival analysis of time to…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediation effects of children's cognitive and noncognitive traits on the relationship between dropout mothers' traits and their children's educational expectations and to examine the interaction effects of dropout mothers' General Education Development (GED) on children's traits and educational…