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.

Social change and the family: Comparative perspectives from the west, China, and South Asia

This paper examines the influence of social and economic change on family structure and relationships: How do such economic and social transformations as industrialization, urbanization, demographic change, the expansion of education, and the long-term growth of income influence the family? We take a comparative and historical approach, reviewing the experiences of three major sociocultural regions: the West, China, and South Asia. Many of the changes that have occurred in family life have been remarkably similar in the three settings—the separation of the workplace from the home, increased training of children in nonfamilial institutions, the development of living arrangements outside the family household, increased access of children to financial and other productive resources, and increased participation by children in the selection of a mate. While the similarities of family change in diverse cultural settings are striking, specific aspects of change have varied across settings because of significant pre-existing differences in family structure, residential patterns of marriage, autonomy of children, and the role of marriage within kinship systems.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45661/1/11206_2005_Article_BF01124383.pd

Philadelphia Family Management Study, 1991-2001

This longitudinal study was undertaken to explore how disadvantaged families respond to and manage risk and opportunity in their communities. Of special interest to the research team was the question of whether families alter their children's life chances by successfully adapting their parenting styles to the dangerous and restrictive conditions of living in the inner city. Also, this study addresses how the social organization of the neighborhood - or the absence of organization - leads parents to adopt different techniques of managing their children during adolescence. A sample of 489 children between the ages of 11 and 14 and their parents were interviewed. The families lived in predominately White or African American poor and working-class neighborhoods in Philadelphia. The interviews consisted of a wide range of topics including perceptions of community, parental strategies for managing risks and opportunities, and measures from both parents and children of how the youth were faring. The study gathered enough families from each of the five different neighborhoods which were racially and economically contrasting to develop aggregate community measures of features of social organization (such as the degree of cohesiveness, the perceived level of social control, the amount of exchange, and social trust), availability and access to resources, size and composition of informal networks, and perceived dangers and opportunities

How marital dissolution affects children: Variations by age and sex.

This study estimated the effects of a marital dissolution on several measures of children's well-being at two points in time using a nationally representative sample of 1,197 children. On the basis of reports from parents, teachers, and the children themselves, the outcome measures tap aspects of problem behavior, psychological distress, and academic performance. Regression estimates suggest that marital dissolution has pervasive and long-lasting effects in all three areas. In magnitude, the effects are slightly smaller than sex differences but larger than those for many other demographic variables. There is no evidence that dissolution effects are larger for boys than for girls. In fact, those differences that are significant show larger effects for girls. There is, however, evidence that effects are larger for children who are very young at the time of the dissolution

Remarriage After Divorce: A Longitudinal Analysis of Well Being, 1979

This study is a follow-up of Spanier (1977) "Adjustment to Separation and Divorce," also archived at the center (Log# 00738). The purpose of the follow-up was to investigate the changing patterns of remarriage and to examine the possibility that the form and functioning of first and second marriages might be different. One hundred eighty-one of the original 205 respondents participated in the follow-up. The sample is white with a range of social classes. Sixty-two of the participants had remarried by the time of the second interview, and their spouses were interviewed as well. Structured interviews were conducted by the Institute for Survey Research (ISR) of Temple University, covering the following topics: background information on current relationship, children living in the household, parenting and the division of responsibilities for child rearing, visitation of children not living in the household, attitudes toward stepchildren, plans for more children, relationship with former and current spouse, social network, plans for and attitudes about remarriage, physical and mental health, and economics. Many of the questions are directly comparable to those in the original data collection

Connecting Entrance and Departure: The Transition to Ninth Grade and High School Dropout

The descriptive data for this urban school system indicate that the modal dropout grade is ninth grade, even though students may have been enrolled in high school for three or even four years. Credit-wise, the largest proportion of dropouts are barely out of the starting gate in high school

Connecting Entrance and Departure: The Transition to Ninth Grade and High School Dropout

The descriptive data for this urban school system indicate that the modal dropout grade is ninth grade, even though students may have been enrolled in high school for three or even four years. Credit-wise, the largest proportion of dropouts are barely out of the starting gate in high school

Do We Invest Less Time in Children? Trends in Parental Time in Selected Industrialized Countries Since the 1960's

This paper examines trends in parental time in selected industrialized countries since the 1960s using time-use survey data. Despite the time pressures to which today’s families are confronted, parents appear to be devoting more time to children than they did some 40 years ago. Results also suggest a decrease in the differences between fathers and mothers in time devoted to children. Mothers continue to devote more time to childcare than fathers, but the gender gap has been reduced. These results are observed in several countries and therefore suggest a large global trend towards an increase in parental time investment with their children.