Jeremy Staff

Substance use changes and social role transitions: Proximal developmental effects on ongoing trajectories from late adolescence through early adulthood

Substance use changes rapidly during late adolescence and early adulthood. This time in the life course is also dense with social role changes, as role changes provide dynamic context for individual developmental change. Using nationally representative, multiwave longitudinal data from age 18 to 28, we examine proximal links between changes in social roles and changes in substance use during the transition to adulthood. We find that changes in family roles, such as marriage, divorce, and parenthood, have clear and consistent associations with changes in substance use. With some notable exceptions, changes in school and work roles have weaker effects on changes in substance use compared to family roles. Changes in socializing (i.e., nights out for fun and recreation) and in religiosity were found to mediate the relationship of social role transitions to substance use. Two time-invariant covariates, socioeconomic background and heavy adolescent substance use, predicted social role status, but did not moderate associations, as within-person links between social roles and substance use were largely equivalent across groups. This paper adds to the cascading effects literature by considering how, within individuals, more proximal variations in school, work, and family roles relate to variations in substance use, and which roles appear to be most influential in precipitating changes in substance use during the transition to adulthood.

Too Cool for School? Violence, Peer Status and High School Dropout

Research shows that peer status in adolescence is positively associated with school achievement and adjustment. However, subculture theories of juvenile delinquency and school-based ethnographies suggest that (1. disadvantaged boys are often able to gain some forms of peer status through violence and (2. membership in violent groups undermines educational attainment. Building on these ideas, we use peer network data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to examine whether peer status within highly violent groups increases male risks of high school dropout. Consistent with the subcultural argument, we find that disadvantaged boys with high status in violent groups are at much greater risks of high school dropout than other students.

The Fruits of Good Work: Early Work Experiences and Adolescent Deviance

Some theories of crime suggest that “adultlike” work conditions diminish adolescent delinquency, whereas others suggest that precocious entry into adult work roles increases youth problem behaviors. The authors consider the relationship between delinquency and several dimensions of adolescent employment, including learning opportunities, freedom and autonomy, social status, demands and stress, wages, and compatibility between work and school. They find the lowest rates of 12th-grade school deviance, alcohol use, and arrest among adolescents whose jobs supported rather than displaced academic roles and provided opportunities for them to learn new things. In contrast, many qualities of work considered desirable for adults (autonomy, social status, and wages) appear to increase delinquency in adolescence. The authors conclude that work conditions have age-graded effects on delinquency that are contingent on the life course stage of the worker.

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in ADHD Diagnosis From Kindergarten to Eighth Grade

OBJECTIVE: Whether and to what extent racial/ethnic disparities in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosis occur across early and middle childhood is currently unknown. We examined the over-time dynamics of race/ethnic disparities in diagnosis from kindergarten to eighth grade and disparities in treatment in fifth and eighth grade. METHODS: Analyses of the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–1999 (N = 17 100) using discrete-time hazard modeling. RESULTS: Minority children were less likely than white children to receive an ADHD diagnosis. With time-invariant and -varying confounding factors statistically controlled the odds of ADHD diagnosis for African Americans, Hispanics, and children of other races/ethnicities were 69% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 60%–76%), 50% (95% CI: 34%–62%), and 46% (95% CI: 26%–61%) lower, respectively, than for whites. Factors increasing children’s risk of an ADHD diagnosis included being a boy, being raised by an older mother, being raised in an English-speaking household, and engaging in externalizing problem behaviors. Factors decreasing children’s risk of an ADHD diagnosis included engaging in learning-related behaviors (eg, being attentive), displaying greater academic achievement, and not having health insurance. Among children diagnosed with ADHD, racial/ethnic minorities were less likely than whites to be taking prescription medication for the disorder. CONCLUSIONS: Racial/ethnic disparities in ADHD diagnosis occur by kindergarten and continue until at least the end of eighth grade. Measured confounding factors do not explain racial/ethnic disparities in ADHD diagnosis and treatment. Culturally sensitive monitoring should be intensified to ensure that all children are appropriately screened, diagnosed, and treated for ADHD.

TRACING THE TIMING OF “CAREER” ACQUISITION IN A CONTEMPORARY YOUTH COHORT

Contemporary youth typically experience considerable floundering and uncertainty in their transition from school to work. This article examines patterns of schooling and working during adolescence and the transition to adulthood that hasten or delay an important subjective marker of transition to adulthood: acquiring a job that is recognized as a “career.” We use Youth Development Study data, obtained from a prospective longitudinal study of 9th graders. Estimation of discrete-time logit models shows that adolescent work patterns during high school, as well as the cumulative investments they make in work and schooling in the years following, significantly influence this milestone. Time-varying predictors, including job characteristics and parenthood, also affect the process of movement into “careers.”

The Effects of Alcohol Intoxication on Violent Versus Other Offending

The role of alcohol intoxication in different types of criminal behavior was examined using data from a nationally representative sample of inmates (N = 16,698). An attempt was made to isolate the effects of intoxication on violent criminal behavior by controlling for chronic alcohol use and prior offending. The results suggested that intoxication plays its strongest role in homicide and physical and sexual assault but that it also plays a role in robbery and burglary. Dosage effects also provided supporting evidence: The more intoxicated the offender, the greater the effect. However, alcohol played a role in homicide and physical assault even when offenders drank in moderation. The evidence was most consistent with the idea that alcohol has stronger effects on offenses that involve personal confrontation and are therefore more risky. Evidence also suggested that alcohol effects are stronger for dispute-related violence in part because victims are also likely to be intoxicated.

Early Occupational Aspirations and Fractured Transitions: A Study of Entry into ‘NEET’ Status in the UK

There has been significant recent research and policy interest in issues of young peoples occupational aspirations, transitions to employment and the antecedents of NEET (not in employment, education or training) status.Many have argued that changes to the youth labour market over the past 30 years have led to transitions to work becoming more individualised, complex and troublesome for many, particularly those from poorer backgrounds. However, little research has examined the connection between early uncertainty or misalignment in occupational aspirations and entry into NEET status. This paper draws on the British Cohort Study to investigate these issues, and finds that young people with uncertain occupational aspirations or ones misaligned with their educational expectations are considerably more likely to become NEET by age 18. Uncertainty and misalignment are both more widespread andmore detrimental for those from poorer backgrounds. These findings are discussed in the context of recent research and debates on emerging adulthood and the youth labour market. Introduction

Adolescent Work Intensity, School Performance, and Academic Engagement

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.

Social Class Background and the School-to-Work Transition.

Whereas in years past, young people typically made a discrete transition from school to work, two ideal typical routes now characterize the sharing of school and work roles during adolescence and the transition to adulthood. Longitudinal data from the Youth Development Study show that one route involves less intensive employment during high school, followed by continued part-time employment and postsecondary educational investment. This pathway, more common for youth of higher-class origins, is especially beneficial for young people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. A second route is early intensive work experience during high school that is less conducive to longer-term educational and wage attainments.

Explaining the Motherhood Wage Penalty During the Early Occupational Career

Prior research shows that mothers earn lower hourly wages than women without children, and that this maternal wage penalty cannot be fully explained by differences between mothers and other women in work experience and job characteristics. This research examines whether the residual motherhood wage penalty results from differences between mothers and other women in the accumulation of work interruptions and breaks in schooling. Using longitudinal data for 486 women followed from ages 19 to 31 in the Minnesota Youth Development Study, we find that accumulated months not in the labor force and not enrolled in school explain the residual pay gap between mothers and other women.