Monica Kirkpatrick Johnson

The Emergence and Development of Life Course Theory

Today, the life course perspective is perhaps the pre-eminent theoretical orientation in the study of lives, but this has not always been the case. The life histories and future trajectories of individuals and groups were largely neglected by early sociological research. In the pioneering study, The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (1918-1920), W. I. Thomas (with Florian Znaniecki) first made use of such histories and trajectories and argued strongly that they be investigated more fully by sociologists. By the mid-1920s, Thomas was emphasizing the vital need for a “longitudinal approach to life history” using life record data (Volkart, 1951, p. 593). He advocated that studies investigate “many types of individuals with regard to their experiences and various past periods of life in different situations” and follow “groups of individuals into the future, getting a continuous record of experiences as they occur.” Though this advice went unheeded for decades, Thomas’s early recommendations anticipated study of the life course and longitudinal research that has become such a central part of modern sociology and other disciplines.

Intergenerational Bonding in School: The Behavioral and Contextual Correlates of Student-Teacher Relationships

To explore the significance of social integration in the educational system, this study examined whether student-teacher relationships predicted two important student behavioral outcomes (academic achievement and disciplinary problems); whether these within-school intragenerational relationships were predicted by the structural, compositional, and climate-related characteristics of schools; and how the behavioral and contextual correlates of student-teacher relationships varied by race-ethnicity. Our findings, based on nationally representative panel data, indicated that stronger intergenerational bonding in school was associated with higher academic achievement, especially for Hispanic American girls, and with a lower likelihood of disciplinary problems, especially for white girls. Moreover, these intragenerational bonds were stronger in schools with several characteristics (private sector, greater racial-ethnic matching between students and the student body, greater perceived safety, and lower socioeconomic status), although these associations also differed by race-ethnicity.

Volunteerism during the Transition to Adulthood: A Life Course Perspective

This panel study examines whether educational, work, and family roles promote volunteerism during late adolescence and early adulthood, as they do later in adulthood. The findings reveal substantial continuity in volunteerism from adolescence through the transition to adulthood and highlight the importance of values expressed in adolescence for volunteerism in the years following. Controlling these processes, attending school during this life stage promotes volunteerism. In contrast, full-time work investments in the early life course are found to hinder volunteer participation, as does the presence of young children in the family, especially at earlier parental ages. The results support a life course perspective for understanding civic participation.

Change in Job Values During the Transition to Adulthood

This panel study of young people in the United States addresses a set of interrelated questions on how job values change during the transition to adulthood, including whether the gender differences in job values apparent in adolescence persist across the transition to adulthood, and whether young mens and womens job values change in similar ways. The findings indicate that there is a good deal of instability in job values during this stage of the life course, as young people make the transition from student to adult worker. Gender differences in job values narrow in the process, though do not disappear. For both males and females, job values change in response to the attainment of valued rewards, and not in response to their family roles.

Further Evidence on Adolescent Employment and Substance Use: Differences by Race and Ethnicity∗

In an on-going debate over the consequences of adolescent employment, there is growing agreement that work intensity (i.e., longer hours) fosters underage drinking and other substance use. The current study furthers our understanding of the relationship between hours of employment and substance use in adolescence by testing whether it is evident across racial/ethnic groups. Based on data from two waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the study finds that the effects of work intensity on substance use is mostly limited to whites. Work intensity is not consistently related to alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use among minority adolescents.

GENDER AND PROSOCIAL VALUES DURING ADOLESCENCE: A Research Note

To date, relatively little is known about the prosocial values of adolescents. Research has shown that females attach more importance to certain prosocial values than males do in late adolescence but has not considered whether this gender difference is evident across stages of adolescence and whether it varies by race. We examine values that focus on doing things for others, using data from a nationwide survey of 12- to 17-year-olds. We find that girls place more importance on these prosocial values than boys at younger ages. However, we also find important patterns in this gender difference across racial groups as well as across age. White boys appear to attach less importance to prosocial values than other race and gender groups. Furthermore, the gender gap in prosocial values is larger at older ages, with older adolescent boys placing less importance on prosocial values than younger ones.

Differentiation in Self-Perceived Adulthood: Extending the Confluence Model of Subjective Age Identity

This study examines and extends the confluence model of age identity by testing whether young peoples self-perceptions as adults are linked to role transitions, self-assessed personal qualities, and social location. We propose that young peoples sense of adulthood and the factors associated with it vary based on socially structured experience tied to race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and age. Analyzing data from 18–28 year olds in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we find racial/ethnic and socioeconomic status differences in age identity. Consistent with the confluence model, both role transitions and personal qualities are associated with age identity, although the most salient roles and qualities differ somewhat across racial/ethnic groups and consistently by socioeconomic status and age. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding the transition to adulthood and adult identity, and for the young people themselves.

Work Values, Early Career Difficulties, and the U.S. Economic Recession

We examine how work difficulties in the early career and the generally deteriorating work conditions associated with the recent U.S. economic recession shape individuals’ work values. Drawing on panel data from the Youth Development Study, we test whether individuals change their work values in response to concerns about satisfying material needs or the features of jobs that they are able to attain. Results indicate that extrinsic values are weakened in the face of unemployment, as well as reduced job security, income, and advancement. These patterns support a reinforcement and accentuation model in which workers adjust their values to emphasize what they actually obtain from the job. Intrinsic values are weakened by working in a job unrelated to one’s career plans; they are reinforced by the experience of greater intrinsic rewards and advancement opportunities.

Adolescent Family Context and Adult Identity Formation

This study examines the links between adolescent family context and coming to see oneself as an adult. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the authors investigate how adolescent family structure, resources, and processes together influence adult identity and whether they do so similarly for men and women. The authors find that youth in single-parent or stepparent families, but not in two-parent adoptive families, are more likely to identify as adults compared with those in two-biological-parent families. These relationships, however, are mediated by both family resources and processes. Furthermore, one of these processes, parental control, is especially influential for youth in single-father and other family structures, and parent—adolescent relationship quality and living in other-structure families are more consequential for young women than men.

Reconceptualizing Agency within the Life Course: The Power of Looking Ahead.

Empirical treatments of agency have not caught up with theoretical explication; empirical projects almost always focus on concurrent beliefs about one’s ability to act successfully without sufficiently attending to temporality. The authors suggest that understanding the modern life course necessitates a multidimensional understanding of subjective agency involving (a) perceived capacities and (b) perceived life chances, or expectations about what life holds in store. The authors also suggest that a proper understanding of agency’s potential power within a life course necessitates moving beyond the domain-specific expectations more typical of past sociological work. Using the Youth Development Study, the authors employ a scale of general life expectations in adolescence to explore the potential influence of a general sense of optimistic life expectations in addition to the traditional approach on a range of important outcomes.