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Recent methodological advances have allowed empirical research on adolescence to do better justice to theoretical models. Organized by a life course framework, this review covers the state of contemporary research on adolescents' physical, psychological, interpersonal, and institutional pathways; how these pathways connect within primary ecological contexts; and how they relate to broader patterns of societal stratification and historical change. Looking forward, it also emphasizes three future challenges/opportunities, including efforts to illuminate biosocial processes, link adolescence to other life stages, and account for the influence of major social changes (e.g., the new media).

Modern Republican gains in the South culminating in the 1994 GOP congressional landslide have sparked renewed interest in the possibility that we are in a realigning era. Statewide opinion polls from a key southern state over a sixteen‐year time frame illustrate considerable change in the public's partisan identifications, especially among white conservatives. Republican gains may also be prompted by positive public reactions to GOP presidents and a governor and negative reactions to their Democratic counterparts. Yet adroit actions by pragmatic white Democratic officeholders and emerging Republican factionalism have hindered further GOP gains in state offices, illustrating the continuing relevance of dealignment as people vote for the candidate instead of the party.

AbstractToday's transition to adulthood in the United States is complex and drawn out. Current economic and social conditions favor young workers who have completed post‐secondary education, resulting in many young adults delaying exiting the family home, marriage, and parenthood. The role of parental support (both affective and instrumental) in navigating this period of development is becoming increasingly important and plays a substantial role in reproducing inequality across generations. Informed by the life course perspective, this review provides readers with a basic understanding of what types of support parents provide, when it is expected and received, and finally, how it is related to attainment and the quality of the parent–child relationship throughout young adulthood. We conclude with a discussion of how class differences in intergenerational support intersect with institutional factors to enhance the reproduction of inequality and how the new demands for parental support throughout young adulthood is more than many families can provide.

In the United States, athletics is a major part of adolescents' lives during high school. Using longitudinal data on 703 respondents from the Youth Development Study, we examine whether sports participation in adolescence predicts a diverse array of civic behaviors and orientations as young adults. Our study centers on a test of two theories. Socialization theory suggests that sports participation, like other youth activities, will increase the likelihood of prosocial outcomes. In contrast, selection theory predicts that once background factors are considered, the significant effects of youth athletics on civic outcomes will be eliminated. Bivariate models indicate small, statistically significant effects of participation on most outcomes. Multivariate analyses incorporating a range of factors prior to athletic participation tend to support selection theory. The results suggest that most of the bivariate associations are attributable to other factors that influence who participates in athletics during adolescence.

Building on the success of the 2003 Handbook of the Life Course, this second volume identifies future directions for life course research and policy. The introductory essay and the chapters that make up the five sections of this book show consensus on strategic "next steps" in life course studies. These next steps are explored in detail in each section: Section I, on life course theory, provides fresh perspectives on well-established topics, including cohorts, life stages, and legal and regulatory contexts. It challenges life course scholars to move beyond common individualistic paradigms. Section II highlights changes in major institutional and organizational contexts of the life course. It draws on conceptual advances and recent empirical findings to identify promising avenues for research that illuminate the interplay between structure and agency. It examines trends in family, school, and workplace, as well as contexts that deserve heightened attention, including the military, the criminal justice system, and natural and man-made disaster. The remaining three sections consider advances and suggest strategic opportunities in the study of health and development throughout the life course; methodological innovations, including qualitative and three-generational longitudinal research designs, causal analysis, growth curves, and the study of place; and building bridges between life course research and public policy

In this essay, we argue that viewing adolescence within the full life course will improve our understanding of both adolescence itself and the life course more generally. Such an approach makes explicit how adolescence is linked to developmental processes in the years both before and after adolescence in ways that are shaped by broader patterns of social change. We highlight insights from research over the past decade that illustrate the kinds of life course questions about adolescence that need to be posed in the next decade, focusing on connections between adolescence and the 2 life stages that border it: childhood and young adulthood. Although life course themes cut across the many different topics that adolescence scholars typically study, we draw our examples from 3 specific substantive areas—educational success, puberty, and problem behavior.

Rural youth in economically troubled regions develop plans for their future in a context in which opportunities for educational and occupational success generally lie elsewhere, prompting the need to migrate. This study investigates the links between rural adolescents' residential preferences and their plans for the future, perceptions of local opportunity, and ties to family and community. We examine whether residential preferences shape the pathways to adulthood through decisions about where to live as well as educational and occupational attainments. Residential preferences are indeed related to adolescents' academic achievements and future educational plans, their relationships with parents, and perceptions of local job opportunities, but they are not associated with family socioeconomic background and social ties to the community. For the most part, residential preferences are linked to where young people live and pursue higher education in the years after high school, but generally not to their socioeconomic attainment.

Objectives. The purpose of this study was to extend research on the connection between school size and student outcomes by examining how school size was related to interpersonal processes and whether the interpersonal effects of school size varied by race/ethnicity.Methods. We applied multilevel modeling techniques to a sample of 14,966 students in 84 schools from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.Results. Increasing school size was associated with decreasing student attachment to school and to teachers as well as extracurricular participation. Student attachment and teacher bonding diminished with increasing school size at a decreasing rate (reaching minimums in schools with between 1,700–2,000 students), but extracurricular participation dropped at a steady rate. These patterns did not differ substantially by race/ethnicity.Conclusions. The size of the educational institution influences interpersonal dynamics among actors in the institution and does so similarly across student groups. More generally, this research demonstrates the importance of organizational characteristics for social life.

Objective. The purpose of this study was to extend research on the connection between school size & student outcomes by examining how school size was related to interpersonal processes & whether the interpersonal effects of school size varied by race/ethnicity. Methods. We applied multilevel modeling techniques to a sample of 14,966 students in 84 schools from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Results. Increasing school size was associated with decreasing student attachment to school & to teachers as well as extracurricular participation. Student attachment & teacher bonding diminished with increasing school size at a decreasing rate (reaching minimums in schools with between 1,700-2,000 students), but extracurricular participation dropped at a steady rate. These patterns did not differ substantially by race/ethnicity. Conclusions. The size of the educational institution influences interpersonal dynamics among actors in the institution & does so similarly across student groups. More generally, this research demonstrates the importance of organizational characteristics for social life. 4 Tables, 31 References. Adapted from the source document.