State Investments in Successful Transitions to Adulthood

爱荷华大学的社会学家长期以来一直对将儿童转变为成功成年人的社会层面的过程感兴趣。最近家庭、教育和经济方面的变化改变了成功成年的时间和指标，研究人员还没有系统地了解这些变化是如何帮助或阻碍独立年轻人成功运作的。更少的研究致力于背景因素，如公共政策，国家经济发展努力，教育，以及改变对高等教育的财政支持，以帮助或阻碍成功地过渡到成年人。这项研究有三个具体目标：(1)从教育程度、经济保障和稳定的伙伴关系方面界定和描述成功过渡到成年的过程；(2)确定成功过渡中的群体和个人差异；(3)衡量社会和经济环境对成功过渡到成年的影响，以及这些环境对不同种族和民族背景和移民地位的年轻人的影响。我们假设，在拥有广泛商业能力和高科技工作优势的州和地方，成功地过渡到成年人是有利的，而在拥有广泛商业政治优势、去工业化和极端高科技工资优势的州和地方，则是障碍。我们还假设，与具有后一组特征的州和地区相比，在具有前一组特征的州和地区，传统上处于不利地位的群体成功过渡到成年将更容易。该项目的数据来自1979年全国青年男女纵向研究和1997年全国青年纵向研究。这些数据将被串联起来，以提供成功过渡到成年的月度分析。这些数据将与一个广泛和独特的数据集合并，其中汇集了涵盖1970-2004年的州一级政治和经济情况的年度指标(见Jenkins、Leicht和Wendt，2006年即将出版)。该分析将使用离散危险建模和分层广义线性建模(HGLM)在广泛的不同维度(从教育程度到全职工作的稳定就业、有医疗保险的就业和独立居住)建立成年过渡的一般模型，并检查导致成年的过程中跨队列、跨种族/民族和移民群体的系统性变化。BROADER IMPACTS他的项目通过研究30年(20世纪80年代、90年代和2000年代初)广泛的人生历程过渡，对围绕成年过渡的快速变化的背景提供了重要的见解。这项分析将确定通向成功成年的道路上的显著差异。更重要的是，这项研究将更好地理解国家的政治和经济背景如何帮助或阻碍向成年的过渡，并确定哪些青年特别容易受到背景变化的影响，因为这些变化会影响青年成为有能力和有生产力的成年人的能力。

SES-0550538Kevin T. LeichtThe University of IowaSociologists have a long-standing interest in the societal-level process of transforming children into successful adults. Recent changes in families, education, and the economy have modified the timing and indicators of successful adulthood, and researchers have yet to systematically access how these changes have helped or hindered the successful functioning of independent young adults. Even less research has been devoted to contextual factors like public policies, state economic development efforts, education, and changing financial support for higher education in helping or hindering successful transitions to adulthood. This research has three specific aims; (1) to define and describe the successful transition to adulthood in terms of educational attainment, economic security, and stable partnership, (2) to identify group and individual disparities in successful transitions, and (3) to measure the impact of social and economic environments on successful transitions to adulthood and the effects these environments have on young people of differing racial and ethnic backgrounds and immigrant statuses. We hypothesize that successful transitions to adulthood are facilitated in states and localities with extensive business capacity and high-technology job advantages and hindered in states and localities with extensive business political dominance, deindustrialization, and extreme high-technology wage advantages. We also hypothesize that successful transition to adulthood for traditionally disadvantaged groups will be easier in the states and localities with the former set of characteristics compared to states and localities with the latter set of characteristics.The data for this project are drawn from the 1979 National Longitudinal Study of Young Men and Women and the 1997 National Longitudinal Study of Youth. These data will be concatenated to provide for a monthly analysis of successful transitions to adulthood. These data will be merged with an extensive and unique data set with assembled yearly indicators of state-level political and economic contexts covering the years 1970-2004 (see Jenkins, Leicht, and Wendt, 2006 forthcoming). The analysis will use discrete hazard modeling and hierarchical generalized linear modeling (HGLM) to build a general model of the transition to adulthood on a wide variety of dimensions (from educational attainment to stable employment in a full-time job, employment in a job with health insurance and to independent residence) and examine systematic changes in the process leading to adulthood across cohorts and across race/ethnic and immigrant groups.BROADER IMPACTSThis project provides important insights into the rapidly changing context surrounding transitions to adulthood by examining a broad spectrum of life-course transitions across three decades (the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s). The analysis will identify significant differences in the pathways leading to successful adulthood. More importantly, the research will provide a better understanding of the ways that state political and economic contexts help or hinder the transition to adulthood, and identify youth who are especially susceptible to contextual changes as these affect the ability of youth to become functioning and productive adults.