Bonnie L. Barber

Student council, volunteering, basketball, or marching band: what kind of extracurricular involvement matters?

We examined the potential benefits and risks associated with participation in five types of activities: prosocial (church and volunteer activities), team sports, school involvement, performing arts, and academic clubs. Our sample included 1,259 mostly European American adolescents (approximately equal numbers of males and females). First, we explore the link between involvement in these activities and our indicators of positive and negative development. Involvement in prosocial activities was linked to positive educational trajectories and low rates of involvement in risky behaviors. In contrast, participation in team sports was linked to positive educational trajectories and to high rates of involvement in one risky behavior, drinking alcohol. Then, we explore two possible mediators of these associations: peer associations and activity-based identity formation. The evidence supported our hypothesis that group differences in peer associations and activity-based identities help explain activity group differences.

Whatever Happened to the Jock, the Brain, and the Princess? Young Adult Pathways Linked to Adolescent Activity Involvement and Social Identity

This study examined young adult sequelae of participation in high school activities and identity group for 900 participants from the Michigan Study of Life Transitions.Participation at Grade 10 in high school activities predicted later substance use, psychological adjustment, and educational and occupational outcomes.Prosocial activity participation predicted lower substance use and higher self-esteem and an increased likelihood of college graduation.Performing arts participation predicted more years of education as well as increases in drinking between ages 18 and 21 and higher rates of suicide attempts and psychologist visits by the age of 24.Sports participation predicted positive educational and occupational outcomes and lower levels of social isolation but also higher rates of drinking. Breakfast Club identity categories were predictive of both levels and longitudinal patterns in substance use, education and work outcomes, and psychological adjustment.In general, Jocks and Brains showed the most positive adjustment and Criminals the least.

Not so doomed : computer game play and positive adolescent development

It has been speculated that computer game play by young people has negative correlates or consequences, although little evidence has emerged to support these fears. An alternative possibility is that game play may be associated with positive features of development, as the games reflect and contribute to participation in a challenging and stimulating voluntary leisure environment. This study examined the relationship between game play and several measures of adjustment or risk taking in a sample of 16-year-old high school students. No evidence was obtained of negative outcomes among game players. On several measures-including family closeness, activity involvement, positive school engagement, positive mental health, substance use, self-concept, friendship network, and disobedience to parents-game players scored more favorably than did peers who never played computer games. It is concluded that computer games can be a positive feature of a healthy adolescence. Language: en

Financial Socialization of First-Year College Students: The Roles of Parents, Work, and Education.

This cross-sectional study tests a conceptual financial socialization process model, specifying four-levels that connect anticipatory socialization during adolescence to young adults’ current financial learning, to their financial attitudes, and to their financial behavior. A total of 2,098 first-year college students (61.9% females) participated in the survey, representing a diverse ethnic group (32.6% minority participation: Hispanic 14.9%, Asian/Asian American 9%, Black 3.4%, Native American 1.8% and other 3.5%). Structural equation modeling indicated that parents, work, and high school financial education during adolescence predicted young adults’ current financial learning, attitude and behavior, with the role played by parents substantially greater than the role played by work experience and high school financial education combined. Data also supported the proposed hierarchical financial socialization four-level model, indicating that early financial socialization is related to financial learning, which in turn is related to financial attitudes and subsequently to financial behavior. The study presents a discussion of how the theories of consumer socialization and planned behavior were combined effectively to depict the financial development of young adults. Several practical implications are also provided for parents, educators and students.

The Relation of Early Adolescents' College Plans and Both Academic Ability and Task-Value Beliefs to Subsequent College Enrollment

Although it is likely that plans to attend a 4-year college are made much earlier than the last 2 years of high school, few researchers have assessed the pre–high school factors that influence high school performance and course-enrollment decisions, which, in turn, affect college attendance. The data presented in this article were collected as part of the longitudinal Michigan Study of Adolescent Life Transitions. In this article, we used data from 681 adolescents in sixth grade and from their mothers to predict college attendance 2 years after high school graduation. Hierarchical logistic regression revealed the following as significant predictors of full-time college attendance: youth’s grade point averages, their plans for college, their resiliency, family income, mother’s education level, and mother’s educational valuing.

Childhood and Adolescent Sports Participation as Predictors of Participation in Sports and Physical Fitness Activities During Young Adulthood

This study examined whether organized sports participation during childhood and adolescence was related to participation in sports and physical fitness activities in young adulthood. The data were from the Michigan Study of Adolescent Life Transitions. The analyses include more than 600 respondents from three waves of data (age 12, age 17, and age 25). Childhood and adolescent sports participation was found to be a significant predictor of young adults’ participation in sports and physical fitness activities.

Why Don't They Want a Male-Dominated Job? An Investigation of Young Women Who Changed Their Occupational Aspirations.

We examined 2 hypotheses regarding why some young women do not maintain their espoused occupational aspirations in male-dominated fields from late adolescence through young adulthood. The first hypothesis concerns attitudes towards math and science; the second concerns the desire for job flexibility. The sample of young women (N = 104) was taken from a larger longitudinal investigation of approximately 1,000 young women from a midwestern metropolitan area in Michigan, USA, who were followed from age 18 (in 1990) to age 25 (1997). Findings suggest that desire for a flexible job, high time demands of an occupation, and low intrinsic value of physical science were the best predictors of women changing their occupational aspirations out of male-dominated fields. These results suggest that despite the womens movement and more efforts in society to open occupational doors to traditional male-jobs for women, concerns about balancing career and family, together with lower value for science-related domains, continue to steer young women away from occupations in traditionally male-dominated fields, where their abilities and ambitions may lie.

Sexual Coercion and Well-Being in Young Adulthood Comparisons by Gender and College Status

This study examined the associations between sexual coercion and well-being (anger, coping, depressed mood, self-esteem, social anxiety, and social isolation) based on gender and college enrollment. Participants were 872 women and 527 men, ages 19 through 22 years. Women were more likely than men to report having experienced sexual coercion. In addition, noncollege women were more likely than college women to report having experienced rape and sexual abuse. Participants who reported experiencing sexual coercion had poorer social and psychological adjustment. The effect of coercion on well-being did not differ for college and noncollege young adults. Type of sexual coercion (no coercion, pressure, and violent coercion) related to adjustment differentially for women and men. Pressured women had lower well-being scores than either women who were not coerced or violently coerced. In contrast, violently coerced men had lower scores for well-being than either pressured men or men who were not coerced.

Demographic, Biological, Psychological, and Social Predictors of the Timing of First Intercourse.

This study applied a biopsychosocial approach to examine the predictors of the initiation of sexual intercourse during adolescence. The sample included 157 boys and 268 girls, of whom 85.4% reported having had sexual intercourse by age 21 to 22. Participants were surveyed at 3 time points; once when they were 13 to 14 years old, again at ages 16 to 17 years, and again 6 years later. Proportional hazards regression was used to examine the relation of demographic, biological, psychological, and social predictors to the timing of first intercourse. In the biopsychosocial model, different factors significantly predicted timing of first intercourse for girls and boys. For girls, always-married parents and less dating alone predicted later timing of first intercourse. Earlier timing of first intercourse for boys was related to associating with peers with lower achievement orientation and greater importance of popularity.

Leaving Home, Attending College, Partnership and Parenthood: The Role of Life Transition Events in Leisure Pattern Stability From Adolescence to Young Adulthood

Few researchers have examined the role that life transition events play in the maintenance of or change in leisure behaviors across the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. This study examines the role that leaving home, going to college, having a committed partner, and becoming a parent played in intraindividual change and stability in leisure patterns. The data were from the Michigan Study of Adolescent Life Transitions (MSALT), and were collected during the final year of high school and 3 years following high school. Results suggest that transition events are particularly useful in predicting female leisure pattern stability or change; going to college and leaving home were generally predictive of the maintenance of a stable leisure pattern, while becoming a partner and becoming a parent were predictive of change. For males, the most useful predictor of stability or change was leaving home. However, the nature of the relation of the transition events to pattern stability or change depended on the type of initial leisure pattern.