Not making the transition to college: School, work, and opportunities in the lives of American youth

Unlike traditional research on educational stratification that focuses on the pursuit of higher education, our study examines why young adults do not make the transition to college, using a nationally representative sample of college non-enrollees (N = 2640). In applying latent class analysis techniques, we identified multiple types of students who do not pursue college. One group of non-enrollees (27.6%) reports forgoing college because the economic barriers are too high - either because of college affordability or family financial responsibility. These youth had both low math test scores and low family income, and thus closely align with regression-based analyses on college enrollment that emphasize academic and economic constraints as the central barriers to educational progress. However, we also identified a second, often overlooked group of youth who had the academic preparation and family income support to enroll in higher education, but decided to forgo college because they preferred to work and to make money (18.3%). The heterogeneous motives of these youth suggest that postsecondary decisions are not always guided by academic and economic barriers, but sometimes driven by previous work experience and perceptions of local opportunities for school and work.     

Family and Nonfamily Role Configurations in Two British Cohorts

The aim of this paper is to examine variations in the combination of social roles during times of social change. We specify a latent class approach to examine role configurations for individuals in their early 30s, establishing a typology of how work‐ and family‐related roles combine within individuals born 12 years apart and examine their antecedents. Drawing on data collected for two British Birth Cohorts born in 1958 (N = 10,706) and 1970 (N = 11,005), we provide empirical evidence of both consistency and change in life course patterns. Findings are discussed in terms of destandardization, differentiation, and individualization of the life course in times of social change and their implications for family research within a life course perspective.     

How Are Parental Psychological Control and Autonomy‐Support Related? A Cluster‐Analytic Approach

This study addresses the hypothesis that the relationship between parental psychological control and autonomy‐support depends on how autonomy‐support is conceptualized, that is, in terms of promotion of independence or in terms of promotion of volitional functioning. Questionnaires tapping into psychological control and these two types of autonomy‐support were administered to a sample of 495 emerging adults. Cluster analysis revealed that, whereas parental promotion of independence may or may not co‐occur with psychological control, high parental promotion of volitional functioning systematically goes together with low psychological control and vice versa. Differences between clusters in terms of adjustment were mainly driven by differences in psychological control and promotion of volitional functioning and to a lesser extent by differences in promotion of independence.     

新建本科高校产学研创新模式探究

高校的职责不仅仅是教学和科研,还要更好的服务社会,满足社会需求,而产学研合作可以更有效的实现高校对社会的服务职能。产学研合作即是企业、学校、科研机构之间的相互配合,其合作有利于高校和企业的共同发展,实现优势互补和校企共赢。以新建本科高校为背景,进一步分析了产学研合作中存在的诸多问题,如：高校的办学理念与社会需求的脱节;人才培养模式封闭单一;一些企业和教师对产学研价值取向存在分歧;政府引导和支持力度较弱,产学研合作持续发展的运行机制不够完善等。并且探讨了如何转变办学理念以及创新人才的培养;加强地方政府支持,构建完善的产学研模式;健全中介机构,充分发挥其在产学研合作中的桥梁作用,提出了“政产学研用”创新合作模式。     

Are They Really Mama’s Boys/Daddy’s Girls? The Negotiation of Adulthood upon Returning to the Parental Home

This article explores how living with parents affects the ways emerging adults construct their self‐identity. Data are from in‐depth interviews with 30 young adults who returned to live with their origin family after a period of residential autonomy. Respondents perceive adulthood as a psychological state, attained through a process of assuming responsibility for one’s actions and learning how to interact with other adults (particularly parents) from a position of equality. Nonetheless, an economic component remains important, mentioned by respondents who contributed to the family economy and those who sought to avoid doing so. Successfully viewing oneself as an adult is gendered, with daughters less likely to perceive themselves as equals in interactions with parents.     

新仲裁机构受理涉外仲裁案件若干问题的探讨

本文针对仲裁法实施后新组建的仲裁机构可否受理涉外仲裁案件问题上存在的一些分歧 ,论证了新仲裁机构受理涉外仲裁案件的必要性和可能性 ,同时提出问题并找出相应的对策。文章认为 ,新仲裁机构不仅可以而且应该受理涉外仲裁案件。     

The Sociology of Adolescence and Youth in the 1990s: A Critical Commentary

The 1990s saw considerable advances in the state of research on adolescence and youth. This article provides a critical commentary on a subset of this research, focusing on the causes and consequences of the lengthened period in which the transition to adulthood occurs. It provides a brief history of adolescence research, identifying a select set of topics, themes, and research problems that will guide research on adolescence and youth over the next decade. These research foci, which include peer group relations, biological influences on adolescence, employment experiences, increased autonomy, and racial and gender differences, are described as representing either continuities or advances in adolescence research. The strengths and shortcomings of this research are detailed. The paper concludes by suggesting promising areas for future research and by providing guidelines for undertaking such research.     

Patterns of Work and Schooling in Young Adulthood

If the years of late adolescence and early adulthood are depicted as rocky, disorderly, and experimental, then how should the life course stage that immediately follows be characterized? Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972, we focus on work and school activities in the latter half of the young adult years (ages roughly 25–31) to empirically address whether the diversity of work and schooling patterns diminishes. Finding a lack of orderliness in work and schooling trajectories, and that holding two or more activities simultaneously is quite common, we question how this stage of the life course should be conceptualized. Moving away from the traditional sequential roles approach, we use multinomial logistic regression to differentiate among activity sequences commonly held by young men and women at these ages, and address how family of origin background factors and prior life experiences influence life course experiences in the later 20s and early 30s.

     

Parental and adolescent health behaviors and pathways to adulthood

This paper examines associations among parental and adolescent health behaviors and pathways to adulthood. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we identify a set of latent classes describing pathways into adulthood and examine health-related predictors of these pathways. The identified pathways are consistent with prior research using other sources of data. Results also show that both adolescent and parental health behaviors differentiate pathways. Parental and adolescent smoking are associated with lowered probability of the higher education pathway and higher likelihood of the work and the work & family pathways (entry into the workforce soon after high school completion). Adolescent drinking is positively associated with the work pathway and the higher education pathway, but decreases the likelihood of the work & family pathway. Neither parental nor adolescent obesity are associated with any of the pathways to adulthood. When combined, parental/adolescent smoking and adolescent drinking are associated with displacement from the basic institutions of school, work, and family.     

Trends in the age at reproductive transitions in the developing world: The role of education

Girls’ school participation has expanded considerably in the developing world over the last few decades, a phenomenon expected to have substantial consequences for reproductive behaviour. Using Demographic and Health Survey data from 43 countries, this paper examines trends and differentials in the mean ages at three critical life-cycle events for young women: first sexual intercourse, first marriage, and first birth. We measure the extent to which trends in the timing of these events are driven either by the changing educational composition of populations or by changes in behaviour within education groups. Mean ages have risen over time in all regions for all three events, except age at first sex in Latin America and the Caribbean. Results from a decomposition exercise indicate that increases in educational attainment, rather than trends within education groups, are primarily responsible for the overall trends. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed.