Suchergebnisse

Teenagers working more than 20 hours per week perform worse in school than youth who work less. There are two competing explanations for this association: (1) that paid work takes time and effort away from activities that promote achievement, such as completing homework, preparing for examinations, getting help from parents and teachers, and participating in extracurricular activities, and (2) that the relationship between paid work and school performance is spurious, reflecting preexisting differences between students in academic ability, motivation, and school commitment. Using longitudinal data from the ongoing national Monitoring the Future project, this research examines the impact of teenage employment on school performance and academic engagement during the 8th, 10th, and 12th grades. The authors address issues of spuriousness by using a two-level hierarchical model to estimate the relationships of within-individual changes in paid work to changes in school performance and other school-related measures. Unlike in prior research, the authors compare youth school performance and academic orientation when they are actually working in high-intensity jobs to when they are jobless and wish to work intensively. Results indicate that the mere wish for intensive work corresponds with academic difficulties in a manner similar to actual intensive work.

Despite a growing understanding about civic development, we know little about whether the developmental course of civic engagement is the same across different types of civic engagement or different groups of youth. To advance developmental science in this area, we documented age-related change in community service, political interest, electoral participation, and political voice across the transition to adulthood by race/ethnicity, parent education, gender, and their interactions. National multicohort probability samples of U.S. high school seniors from the Monitoring the Future study were assessed at baseline (age 18) and followed longitudinally via self-administered mail surveys across 6 follow-up waves to age 29/30. Of the sample (N = 12,557), 51.0% were women, 11.0% were Black, 7.0% were Latinx, 2.3% were Asian, and 75.4% were White. Community service decreased from age 18 to 24, then showed modest recovery. Political interest, electoral participation, and political voice increased steadily from 18 to 24 and less steeply thereafter. Intercepts and (to some extent) slopes varied by race/ethnicity, parent education, gender, and intersections of these factors. Black youth started and remained highest in community service and showed more accelerated growth in political interest and electoral participation. Young women reported higher community service, whereas gender gaps in political engagement trajectories favored young men. Black and Latinx young women stood out as having distinct civic trajectories. The role of parent education varied by race/ethnicity and gender. Diverse civic pathways advance theoretical understanding of civic development.

This study examines the predictors of parent involvement in 537 Asian American and 12,630 European American parents. Data came from the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K), an ongoing study of kindergarten children as they make the transition into and through formal schooling. We used Structural Equation Models (SEM) to examine (1) the influence of parents' beliefs, expectations, and educational attainment on multiple aspects of parent involvement, and (2) the relationship among multiple aspects of parent involvement across contexts in families of kindergarten children. Results indicated that although Asian American and European American parents may become involved in different ways, the predictors of and relations among different types of parent involvement across contexts are similar.

AbstractOf nine areas of adolescent self‐image, five change positively, two remain stable, and two decline during the early adolescent years.

Adolescent boredom is associated with maladaptation and negative developmental outcomes, yet little is known about the prevalence and correlates of high boredom. Drawing from a broad psychosocial framework, the present study examined rates of high boredom and sociodemographic and contextual correlates among nationally representative samples of 8th and 10th graders ( N = 21,173; 51.8% female) from the Monitoring the Future survey. Results indicate that approximately 20% of adolescents reported high levels of boredom. Those who were more likely to report high boredom were eighth graders; females; youth who identified as Black, Biracial, or Native American/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander; rural youth; and youth of lower socioeconomic status. Results of multivariable logistic regression analyses show significant associations between high boredom and many elements of school, parent, peer, and extracurricular contexts, controlling for sociodemographic characteristics. Findings highlight the pervasiveness of high boredom among American youth and may benefit prevention and intervention efforts by identifying multiple contextual associations with adolescent boredom.

Most criminological theories predict an inverse relationship between employment and crime, but teenagers' involvement in paid work during the school year is correlated positively with delinquency and substance use. Whether the work–delinquency association is causal or spurious has been debated for a long time. This study estimates the effect of paid work on juvenile delinquency using longitudinal data from the national Monitoring the Future project. We address issues of spuriousness by using a two‐level hierarchical model to estimate the relationships of within‐individual changes in juvenile delinquency and substance use to those in paid work and other explanatory variables. We also disentangle the effects of actual employment from the preferences for employment to provide insight about the likely role of time‐varying selection factors tied to employment, delinquency, school engagement, and leisure activities. Whereas causal effects of employment would produce differences based on whether and how many hours respondents worked, we found significantly higher rates of crime and substance use among nonemployed youth who preferred intensive versus moderate work. Our findings suggest the relationship between high‐intensity work and delinquency results from preexisting factors that lead youth to desire varying levels of employment.

Self‐report data regarding alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use were collected biennially from ages 14 to 20 in a nationally representative panel sample of adolescents (N=1,897) from the Monitoring the Future study. Growth curve analyses were performed using hierarchical linear modeling to consider psychosocial background, motivation and school attitudes, and parental and peer influences at age 14 as predictors of concurrent substance use and change in substance use. Results indicated that school misbehavior and peer encouragement of misbehavior were positively associated with substance use at age 14 and with increased use over time; school bonding, school interest, school effort, academic achievement, and parental help with school were negatively associated. The protective effects of positive school attitudes and perceptions of high status connected to academics were stronger for low‐achieving compared with high‐achieving youth. Implications for a developmental perspective on substance use etiology and prevention are discussed.

This book is intended as a thoughtful extension to Bachman et al.'s well-received monograph Smoking, Drinking, and Drug Use in Young Adulthood. That volume showed that the new freedoms of young adulthood lead to increases in substance use, while the responsibilities of adulthood--marriage, pregnancy, parenthood--contribute to declines in substance use. The Decline of Substance Use in Young Adulthood examines how the changes in social and religious experiences and in attitudes toward substance use observed among young adults are related to changes in substance use, family transitions, living ar