School-to-Career and Post-Secondary Education: Evidence from the Philadelphia Educational Longitudinal Study

We study a set of programs implemented in Philadelphia high schools that focus on boosting post-secondary enrollment. These programs are less career oriented than traditional school-to-work programs, but are consistent with the broadening of the goals of school-to-work to emphasize post-secondary education. The Philadelphia Longitudinal Educational Study (PELS) data set that we examine contains an unusually large amount of information on individuals prior to placement in STC programs. We use the detailed information in the PELS to study the process of selection into these programs and to examine their impact on a set of mainly schooling-related outcomes during and after high school, although we also consider their impact on non-academic outcomes. The data point to positive effects of these programs on high school graduation and on both academic and non-academic awards in high school, and similar negative effects on dropping out of high school. The results also suggest positive effects on aspirations for higher education and on college attendance. In addition, there is some evidence that these programs are more effective in increasing college attendance and aspirations among at-risk youths.

Diverging Development: The Not-So-Invisible Hand of Social Class in the United States

The advantages and disadvantages associated with social class position build up over time, creating huge developmental differences in the course of growing up. This chapter discusses how development is shaped by social class position and, how the processes associated with class position are either mitigated or amplified over the early part of the life course. By early adulthood, gaping disparities exist between children growing up in disadvantaged and advantaged families. I discuss how these trajectories pose special problems for less advantaged youth making the transition to adulthood due to the need for resources to pay for higher education

Cause for Alarm? Understanding Recent Trends in Teenage Childbearing

Teen pregnancy is back in the news. After 15 years of decline, the trend in teen birth rates ticked upward in 2006. Coupled with the ongoing media spotlight on the popular film Juno and the pregnancy of Britney Spears’ younger sister, we’re once again wringing our collective hands over kids having kids. But are these concerns really warranted? To what extent does teen pregnancy lead to mothers’ and children’s long-term poverty? Have policies adopted to deter early childbearing been effective in discouraging teens from having children before they are ready to shoulder the responsibilities of parenthood? To answer these questions, it’s necessary to put the issue in proper historical context, and to cast a sober eye on existing policies that were employed to keep rates of teenage childbearing low

Dealing With Dads: The Changing Roles of Fathers

One of the first lessons taught in sociology in the 1960s was that marriage was a universal or nearly universal institution. A cultural mechanism for regulating the potentially conflicting claims and obligations of parenthood, marriage simultaneously grants paternity rights to fathers and their families while ensuring social recognition and economic support for childbearers and their offspring. Marriage provides an added benefit for children by connecting them to a wider network of adults who have a stake in their long-term development (Malinowski, 1930; Davis, 1939)

Coming of Age in a Changing Family System

The assumption that adolescent experience is shaped in important ways by family experience is widely embraced by developmentalists. While researchers appreciate the family\u27s powerful impact on children\u27s success in negotiating the period of adolescence, how that passage is linked to specific features of family structure and dynamics has not been adequately studied. Complicating the examination of this process are the profound changes that have been occurring in the family over the past several decades

History and Current Status of Divorce in the United States

This article explores the remarkable shift in marriage and divorce practices that has occurred in the last third of this century in the United States. Initially, information is presented on trends in divorce and remarriage; commonalities and differences between family patterns in the United States and in other industrialized nations are discussed. The author then identifies some of the factors that have transformed marriage practices in the United States and describes how changes in these practices have altered the family experiences of children. Finally, the author suggests trends in family patterns that might occur in the near future and discusses various policy initiatives and how they may influence the future of the family