The period from adolescence to age 30 is a stage in the life course during which individuals traverse a number of life-course trajectories as they attempt to complete the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Involvement in antisocial behavior can be thought of as one trajectory that is experienced by many adolescents and young adults. Antisocial careers are diverse -- some are characterized by continuity, others by change. Prior research has focused on the early stages of antisocial careers and their impact on continuity. Much less is known about two types of change: desistance from, and abnormally late onset of, antisocial behavior. The proposed study examines the processes of continuity, desistance, and late onset from early adolescence (age 13) through to age 30 for a high-risk sample of urban males and females. We capitalize on the rich body of data that the Rochester Youth Development Study has collected on an initial sample of 1000 high-risk youth. Twelve waves of data have been collected on respondents encompassing ages 13-22. This study will follow the subjects until average age 30, collecting 2 additional waves of interviews and updating official records. By age 30 critical trajectories such as education, job, and family formation are typically more stable. Moreover, by this time trajectories of antisocial behavior should be apparent, enabling us to identify groups of individuals who show patterns of continuity or change in such behavior. The additional interview and official data, combined with the twelve waves of data already collected on these respondents, will enable us to identify and examine diverse patterns of antisocial behavior over the life course. We will examine the factors that predict different patterns of antisocial behavior and the movement along those trajectories, focusing on both early risk factors and time-varying factors such as transitions along major life-course trajectories. We will also examine the impact of these varying patterns of antisocial behavior on life-course transitions to better account for adult development during the late 20s.
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