290 research outputs found
Status Configurations, Military Service and Higher Education
The U.S. Armed Forces offer educational and training benefits as incentives for service. This study investigates the influence of status configurations on military enlistment and their link to greater educational opportunity. Three statuses (socioeconomic status of origin, cognitive ability and academic performance) have particular relevance for life course options. We hypothesize that young men with inconsistent statuses are more likely to enlist than men with consistent status profiles, and that military service improves access to college for certain configurations. Analyses of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) show (1. that several status configurations markedly increased the likelihood of military enlistment and (2. within status configurations, recruits were generally more likely to enroll in higher education than nonveterans, with associate degrees being more likely
Young adult identities and their pathways: A developmental and life course model.
Developmental and life course studies of young adult identities have focused on two dimensions, subjective age and psychosocial maturity. This study examines the developmental synchrony of these two processes. In a longitudinal sample of young adults from Add Health (18 to 22), a person-centered analysis of indicators of these dimensions identified four identity profiles. Two depict early and late patterns of identity; the others represent contrasting types of discordance, âpseudo-adultâ, subjective age more advanced than maturation level and âanticipatoryâ, with subjective age less advanced than maturational level. The profiles vary by gender, socioeconomic status, and race-ethnicity as well as by adolescent (ages12â16) pubertal maturation, psychosocial adjustment, and family context. These results provide support for a more holistic, interdisciplinary understanding of adult identity, and show that young adult identities in the Add Health sample follow differentiated paths into the adult years, with largely unknown consequences for the subsequent life course
Household Structure and Children's Educational Attainment: A Perspective on Coresidence with Grandparents
Children from alternative households complete fewer years of schooling. Yet little is known about the implications of coresidence with grandparents for educational attainment. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 10,083), this study found that extended households with two biological parents were not detrimental to high school completion or college enrollment. Although coresidence with grandparents did not compensate for not living with two biological parents, it seemed to be beneficial for the educational attainment of youth from single-mother households. In contrast, skipped-generation households were associated with a persistent disadvantage for educational attainment. Limited socioeconomic resources partially accounted for the adverse effects of alternative households, whereas parenting quality did not explain these effects. Interactions of gender by household structure suggested that stepfather households could have negative consequences for high school completion and college enrollment only for girls
World War II Mobilization in Menâs Work Lives: Continuity or Disruption for the Middle Class?
The labor needs of World War II fueled a growing demand for both military and war industry personnel. This longitudinal study investigates mobilization into these competing activities and their work life effects among men from the middle class. Hazard estimates show significant differences in wartime activities across occupations, apart from other deferment criteria. By warâs end, critical employment, in contrast to military service, is positively associated with supervisory responsibility for younger men and with occupation change. This empoloyment does not predict postwar career advancement up to the 1970s. By comparison, men who were officers had a âpipelineâ to advancement after the war, whereas other service men fared worse than nonveterans
Informal Mentors and Education: Complementary or Compensatory Resources?
Few studies have examined the impact that mentoring (i.e., developing a special relationship with a non-parental adult) has on educational achievement and attainment in the general population. In addition, prior research has yet to clarify the extent to which mentoring relationships reduce inequality by enabling disadvantaged youth to compensate for a lack of social resources or promote inequality by serving as a complementary resource for advantaged youth. Results from a nationally representative sample of youth show (1) a powerful net influence of mentors on the educational success of youth and (2) how social background, parental, peer, and personal resources condition the formation and effectiveness of mentoring relationships. The findings uncover an interesting paradoxâthat informal mentors may simultaneously represent compensatory and complementary resources. Youth with many resources are more likely than other young people to have mentors, but those with few resources are likely to benefit more from having a mentorâparticularly teacher mentorsâin their lives
An investigation of family SES-based inequalities in depressive symptoms from early adolescence to emerging adulthood
Using the life course cumulative advantage/disadvantage (CAD) perspective, this study examines the influence of early family SES on trajectories of depressive symptoms spanning from early adolescence to early adulthood, as well as variations in SES-based inequality in depressive symptoms trajectories over this period. This study looks at direct influences of family SES and SES-age interactions (exposure-dependent CAD mechanisms), as well as indirect influences through SES-linked youth experiences (path-dependent CAD mechanisms) to explain variations in SES-based inequality. Data was derived from the Add Health study- a national longitudinal survey of 14,000 adolescents. Results showed large and significant effects of early family SES and associated factors on depressive symptoms in early adolescence, but diminishing effects in middle and late adolescence, supporting the hypothesis of equalization in adolescent health across levels of SES. Disparities in depression reemerged as adolescents entered adulthood, supporting the view that SES-based health equalization is only a temporary process. These findings also strengthen the concept of life course CAD processes, stemming from family characteristics, coming into play later in life. Early family SES was directly and indirectly related to a set of transition-related risks and challenges during emerging adulthood, to which young adults from families of higher SES responded more effectively than those of lower SES. This paper discusses theoretical and methodological implications of the findings
Does Adolescent Family Structure Predict Military Enlistment? A Comparison of PostâHigh School Activities
This paper investigates the link between adolescent family structure and the likelihood of military enlistment in young adulthood, as compared to alternative post-high school activities. We use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and multinomial logistic regression analyses to compare the odds of military enlistment with college attendance or labor force involvement. We find that alternative family structures predict enlistment relative to college attendance. Living in a single-parent household during adolescence increased odds of military enlistment, but the effect is accounted for by socioeconomic status and early feelings of social isolation. Living with a stepparent or with neither biological parent more than doubles the odds of enlistment, independent of socioeconomic status, characteristics of parent-child relationships, or feelings of social isolation. Although college attendance is widely promoted as a valued post-high school activity, military service may offer a route to independence and a greater sense of belonging
Expanding the reflexive space: resilient young adults, institutional cultures, and cognitive schemas
For many U.S. young adults, being resilient to stressful events hinges on making meaning of such events and thereby minimizing their negative emotional impact. Yet why are some better able to do this than others? In this study, which uses an innovative outlier sampling strategy and linked survey and interview data, we argue that one important factor is connection to institutional cultures associated with higher education, religion/spirituality, and the military. Such cultures provide material for the development of cognitive schemas that can be adopted and applied to their stressful experiences, which include narratives of social progress, divine providence, and selfâdiscipline. Using a metaphor adapted from the pragmatist philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce, we argue the resulting schemas have the effect of âexpanding the spaceâ of reflexive thought, providing new cognitive material for interpreting stress and supporting resilience. Finally, we argue this framing improves in several ways on the concept of meaning making often used in stress process research.Accepted manuscrip
Men's Appraisals of Their Military Experiences in World War II: A 40-Year Perspective
Using data on veterans from the longitudinal Harvard Study of Adult Development (N=241), we focused on subjective aspects of military service. We examined how veterans of World War II appraised specific dimensions of military service directly after the war and over 40 years later, as well as the role of military service in their life course. In addition to examining change in appraisals, we examined how postwar appraisals of service mediated the effects of objective aspects of service, and how postwar psychological adjustment and health mediated the effects of postwar appraisals, on later-life appraisals. Menâs appraisals at both time points were generally, but not highly, positive, and revealed remarkable consistency over four decades. Postwar appraisals strongly predicted later-life appraisals and mediated the effects of objective service variables. The effects of postwar appraisals were not carried forward through psychological adjustment or midlife health. Better adjustment, however, was negatively related to later-life appraisals. Results reinforce the idea that how men perceive their military experiences may be more important in predicting outcomes than the experiences themselves. Results are discussed in light of the sample characteristics, the historical context of World War II, and the complexities of appraisal and retrospection
Serving God and Country? Religious Involvement and Military Service Among Young Adult Men
Despite important connections between religion and military action throughout world history, scholars have seldom explored the association between religiosity and military enlistment. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we used a person-oriented analysis to categorize young men according to patterns of adolescent religious involvement. Youth indentified as âhighly religious evangelicalâ are more likely to enlist in the military compared to their âhighly religious non-evangelicalâ and ânon-religiousâ counterparts; however, these findings hold only for those young men without college experience. These findings are discussed along with study limitations and promising directions for future research
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