Adolescent social marginalization and psychological distress across the transition to adulthood

Adolescence is a developmentally rich stage of the life course during which young people lay the foundation for future adjustment, functioning, health, and well-being. Adolescents experience profound changes to their brains and bodies, individuate from their parents, traverse the complex social systems of U.S. high schools, and ascribe increased importance to their relationships with peers. The confluence of these changes means that young people who become socially marginalized or disconnected from peers in high school face psychological distress in the short term. Moreover, the implications of adolescent marginalization for mental health may reverberate and cascade across the transition to adulthood, jeopardizing trajectories of psychological well-being. In this spirit, this dissertation asks: will adolescent social marginalization leave permanent scars on mental health, and if so, for whom? To explore these questions, I draw on a developmental life course framework and apply structural equation modeling techniques to longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health; n = 10,869). Results from my analyses revealed that adolescence is a sensitive period of the life course during which marginalization from peers triggers problematic mental health trajectories into adulthood regardless of post-high school experiences and despite accessing social resources in high school that would otherwise buffer youth from unhealthy psychological trajectories. These patterns were more distinct among girls than boys. Additionally, trajectories of distress were closely connected with trajectories of binge drinking among marginalized youth in general, and particularly among boys. The bi-directionality of these trajectories suggests that the social ups and downs of high school affect adjustment, functioning, and behaviors well into adulthood. Overall, this dissertation informs theoretical understanding of risk and resilience by pointing to adolescence as a sensitive developmental moment during which social risks are particularly influential on long-term trajectories of health and well-being.Sociolog

Educational attainment and the clustering of health-related behavior among U.S. young adults

We documented health-related behavior clustering among US young adults and assessed the extent to which educational attainment was associated with the identified clusters. Using data from Wave IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), we performed latent class analysis on 8 health-related behaviors (n = 14,338), documenting clustering of behavior separately by gender. Subsequently, we used multinomial logistic regression and estimated associations between educational attainment and the health-related behavior clusters. Twenty-eight percent of young women grouped into the most favorable health behavior cluster, while 22 percent grouped into a very high-risk cluster. A larger percentage of young men (40 percent) grouped into the highest risk cluster. Individuals with educational attainment at the college and advanced degree levels exhibited much lower risk of being in the unhealthy behavioral clusters than individuals with lower educational attainment, net of a range of confounders. Substantial fractions of US young adults, particularly those with less than college degrees, exhibit unhealthy behavior profiles. Efforts to improve health among young adults should focus particular attention on the clustering of poor health-related behavior, especially among individuals who have less than a college degree

Gender and Health Behavior Clustering among U.S. Young Adults

U.S. trends in population health suggest alarming disparities among young adults who are less healthy across most measureable domains than their counterparts in other high-income countries; these international comparisons are particularly troubling for women. To deepen our understanding of gender disparities in health and underlying behavioral contributions, we document gender-specific clusters of health behavior among U.S. young adults using nationally representative data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. We find high levels of poor health behavior, but especially among men; 40 percent of men clustered into a group characterized by unhealthy behavior (e.g., poor diet, no exercise, substance use), compared to only 22 percent of women. Additionally, women tend to age out of unhealthy behaviors in young adulthood more than men. Further, we uncover gender differences in the extent to which sociodemographic position and adolescent contexts inform health behavior clustering. For example, college education was more protective for men, whereas marital status was equally protective across gender. Parental drinking mattered for health behavior clustering among men, whereas peer drinking mattered for clustering among women. We discuss these results in the context of declining female advantage in U.S. health and changing young adult social and health contexts

Moving up, feeling down : socioemotional distress during the transition to college

textThe transition from high school into college is a critical period in the life course, reflecting past history and forecasting future prospects. How this transition unfolds can influence who persists in college and who does not, as it is a time of socioemotional vulnerability as well as a foundation of the highly cumulative path through higher education. The aim of this study was to look at variation in emotional adjustment during the transition from high school into college and how relates to the match/mismatch of academic context and pathways from high school to college as well as parental support. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), latent growth curve and growth mixture modeling were used to estimate trajectories of emotional distress and identify basic categories of trajectories among college goers. Aspects of high school and college context and performance variables—as well as combination among them—were then used to predict the types of trajectories individual college students followed. The results revealed significant heterogeneity in how college-goers fared emotionally, with some experiencing increased depressive symptomatology and others experiences declines. Those who appeared to fare the worst emotionally during the transition to college had consistently low academic demands from high school into college and lacked support social support from their parents.Sociolog

Moving up, feeling down: Socioemotional health during the transition into college

Moving from high school to college is a critical juncture in socioemotional health, and how young people fare likely depends on their academic settings and experiences. To examine variation in trajectories of depressive symptomatology among a sample of US youth who transition from high school into college, this study applied growth mixture modeling to data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, which revealed multiple patterns of symptomatology over time that ranged from healthy to unhealthy. Adolescents appeared to have the healthiest trajectories when they experienced consistently competitive academic settings in high school and college. Overall, transitioning into college was a period of socioemotional vulnerability for some and wellbeing for others, but challenging curricula and contexts across this transition could differentiate between the two

Educational attainment and the clustering of health-related behavior among U.S. young adults

We documented health-related behavior clustering among US young adults and assessed the extent to which educational attainment was associated with the identified clusters. Using data from Wave IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), we performed latent class analysis on 8 health-related behaviors (n = 14,338), documenting clustering of behavior separately by gender. Subsequently, we used multinomial logistic regression and estimated associations between educational attainment and the health-related behavior clusters. Twenty-eight percent of young women grouped into the most favorable health behavior cluster, while 22 percent grouped into a very high-risk cluster. A larger percentage of young men (40 percent) grouped into the highest risk cluster. Individuals with educational attainment at the college and advanced degree levels exhibited much lower risk of being in the unhealthy behavioral clusters than individuals with lower educational attainment, net of a range of confounders. Substantial fractions of US young adults, particularly those with less than college degrees, exhibit unhealthy behavior profiles. Efforts to improve health among young adults should focus particular attention on the clustering of poor health-related behavior, especially among individuals who have less than a college degree