This is a proposal to fill a unique niche relevant to young adult development, family contexts while growing up, and continuing relationships with both mothers and fathers. Interviews will be conducted with parent-child dyads from the National Survey of Families and Households to follow the processes of emancipation and young adult transitions and effects of these on parent-child relationships. The young-adult sample is based on young people ages 5-18 who were living with their parents at the time of the 1987-88 interview (NSFH-1). During the interview of NSFH-1 respondents with children in the household, one child under the age of 19 was randomly selected as the focal child. The parents were asked specific questions about that child's behaviors and about parenting of the children in general. At NSFH-2, both the NSFH-1 mother and father were again asked detailed questions about the focal child. Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews were also conducted with these focal children who ranged in age from about 10 to 23 at the time. These interviews included age-appropriate questions about the child's behaviors and about relationships with parents. The interviews of the older children included questions regarding their young-adult life-course transitions in the worlds of work, education, and family, as well with information on their attitudes towards an array of relevant issues, and their relationships with their parents and peers. The proposed research will attempt to interview all eligible NSFH-1 focal children who were age 5 and older at NSFH-1 (age 18-31 at NSFH-3) and their NSFH-1 parents, whether or not they were respondents at NSFH-2. The project is expected to yield interviews with about 3024 young adults, about 3024 primary respondent parents, and about 1887 spouses at NSFH-1. The interviews will average 60 minutes in length and will be conducted by the University of Wisconsin Survey Center. This reduced focus for NSFH-3 (on parent-child dyads) is a reluctant compromise made necessary by administrative fiscal constraints, but it draws on the unique features of this survey in providing rich data on the familial and life-course histories of the child's parent (or parents), the familial context of the child while they were in the household (such as measures of parental marital quality and parental attitudes), and subsequent life-course development. This component was selected from among the set of very important alternative possibilities because these young cohorts are the leading edge in the continuing transformation of American family life. This is a unique opportunity to observe their behavior with respect to cohabited marriage, unmarried childbearing and developing independence in the context such rich data on their families of origin.
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