A. Wade Smith

Sex and Ethnic Group Differences in Mathematics Achievement: Results from the National Longitudinal Study.

The mathematics test achievement of 11 914 young men and women, aged 15 to 22, who participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Youth Labor Force Behavior in 1980 was analyzed to assess sex, education, and ethnic group effects. The mathematics knowledge and arithmetic reasoning subtests of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery were the measures of achievement. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed significant main effects for sex, education, and ethnic group membership. Generally, the mathematics achievement of all groups increased the longer they were in school. White males showed the greatest benefit of continued education, and blacks as a group showed the smallest. However, significant two-way interaction effects confounded these general trends.

Cohorts education and the decline in undisrupted marriages

The trend toward increased marital disruption in the United States is examined. The authors construct a series of dynamic survey metric models which fail to confirm that the young and least educated make disproportionately heavy contributions to higher rates of marital dissolution. Neither does this research suggest that age at first marriage or presence and number of children are responsible for increases in marital dissolutions over time. (ANNOTATION)

University Prestige and Black Academic Performance

Neither strength of racial identification nor some other conventional variables seem to predict black studentssuccess at predominantly white colleges or universities. However, the nature of the schools is a predictor.

Life-course effects on marital disruption

Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, between 1969 and 1978, the change in the percentage of marital disruption among 3372 families is decomposed into: (1) an increase of 1.7 percent due to the direct effects of age at first marriage; (2) a decrease of 1.1 percent from changes in the relative age at first birth; and (3) a 2.7 percent increase stemming from changes in the internal structure of the families. The maldaptation of concepts from the life-course perspective is demonstrated to have led to the expectation of somewhat different findings, and for the confusion regarding the roles of life-cycle and life-course events in precipitating marital instability. The results strongly suggest the use of greater discretion in the formulation and use of different classes of events within the life-course framework.