The proposed research examines the sequence of events, and expectations for these events, in the work/school spheres of a young individual's life, and the impact that such sequences have on the timing of first cohabitation, marriage and parenthood. This research builds upon the growing body of literature which has examined the effect of background and early adolescent characteristics on the timing of family formation in the United States. This past research, however, has paid scant attention to events in the late adolescent and early adult years; yet, there are strong theoretical reasons for expecting such events to affect the timing of family formation. The basic proposition guiding the proposed research is that variation exists in the orderliness and crispness with which such transitions as leaving school or entering the labor force occur, and this variation, in turn, is related to the timing of family formation. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS72) will be used. This is a large, high quality, multi-purpose panel study begun in the spring of 1972, when all the panel members were seniors in high school. There have been five follow-ups: 1973, 1974, 1976, 1979, and 1986. It contains information on marriage, fertility, education, work, military and unemployment expectations and behavior. The proposed work is organized into five interrelated specific aims.
The first aim examines in a descriptive manner the extent to which the transition from student to worker proceeds in an orderly fashion.
The second aim examines the extent to which marriage and the first birth are crisp transitions into the broader sociological roles of spouse and parent.
The third aim examines the correlates of disorder in the work/school sphere. The next aim examines how well individuals can predict the timing of their own life course transitions.
The final aim exploits the temporal ordering of the data and examines the extent to which order or disorder in the school/work sphere predict the timing of family formation events.
| Rindfuss, R R (1991) The young adult years: diversity, structural change, and fertility. Demography 28:493-512 |
