The primary aim of the proposed research is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the role of social networks in the emotional and behavioral development of black youths. A longitudinal research design will be employed by reinterviewing 942 respondents who were adolescents (aged l2- 19) at the first interview. The conceptual framework and related set of measures employed in the first wave of data collection provided a rich body of data on the characteristics, functions and adequacy of these adolescents' peer and family relationships. The proposed follow up will allow a detailed examination of the consequences of variations in black (and white) adolescents' intimate networks for the success of their transition to adulthood. A successful transition will be measured in terms of educational and occupational achievement as well as life/relationship satisfaction, while a less than successful transition will be indexed by measuring adult participation in crime, the experience of early/unplanned pregnancies and/or psychological distress. This research has five specific objectives: (1) to determine the extent to which family and peer networks have played similar or different roles for black as for white youth in the etiology of problem behaviors, especially those which may inhibit the successful transition to adult role; (2) to determine the degree to which these problem behaviors overlap/cluster in individuals and (b) whether there are similar or different causal paths to these separate problems. Racial differences in the degree to which problems tend to cluster or form a """"""""syndrome,"""""""" and in the assumption of similar causes will also be examined; (3) to determine whether early involvement in deviance during adolescence has a more long range limiting effect on the educational/occupational attainment of black in contrast to white youths; (4) to examine the network characteristics of those young adults evidencing high academic and occupational achievement and life/relationship satisfaction; (5) to examine the ways in which class and gender interact with race in relation to each of the above objectives.
| Giordano, P C; Cernkovich, S A; Groat, H T et al. (1998) The quality of adolescent friendships: long-term effects? J Health Soc Behav 39:55-71 |
