Contextual Influences on the Transition to Adulthood

这是一项研究社区特征如何影响向成年过渡的几个方面的发生和时间的建议，例如决定结婚和生第一个孩子。这项研究将特别着重于非婚生育与一个社区中婚姻伴侣的相对可得性之间的关系，以及在向成年过渡的过程中，社区特征在多大程度上可以解释种族和民族差异。来自全国青年纵向调查（NLSY）的数据将与来自人口普查和其他来源的县和大都市区的数据联系起来。将估计事件历史模型，以确定社区水平变量对成年过渡的影响。这项研究将为美国社会向成年过渡的大量文献提供有价值的贡献。它的独特贡献将是阐明年轻人所生活的社区可能如何影响他们在生命早期做出的选择和决定，特别是关于生育、婚姻和性活动的决定。

This is a proposal to study how characteristics of communities influence the occurrence and timing of several dimensions of the transition to adulthood, for example the decision to get married, and to have the first child. The study will focus in particular on the relationship between out-of- wedlock childbearing and the relative availability of marriage partners in a community, and on the degree to which community characteristics can account for racial and ethnic differences in the transition to adulthood. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) will be linked with data for counties and metropolitan areas from the Census and other sources. Event history models will be estimated to determine the impact of the community level variables on the transition to adulthood. This study will provide a valuable contribution to a large literature on the transition to adulthood in American society. Its unique contribution will be to shed light on how the communities in which young people live may affect the choices and decisions they make early in life in particular with respect to decisions about childbearing, marriage, and sexual activity.