The Evolution, Contributions, and Prospects of the Youth Development Study

Abstract

Grounded in social structure and personality, life course, and status attainment perspectives of social psychology, the Youth Development Study has followed a cohort of teenagers from the beginning of high school through their mid-thirties. Evidence for the effective exercise of agency derives from diverse adolescent work patterns leading to outcomes that are consistent with youth’s earlier goals, motivations, and resources. Thus, the socioeconomic career begins well before the completion of formal education. The YDS has revealed multiple pathways of contemporary transition to adulthood, the circumstances surrounding parental residential and financial support to their transitioning children, and the cessation of deviant behavior as adult roles are acquired. Agentic pathways during this period are significant precursors of success during subsequent economic downturn. The new YDS Second Generation Study is well poised to address the impacts of parental trajectories on the adjustment and well-being of children.

Reconceptualizing Agency within the Life Course: The Power of Looking Ahead

“…This orientation allows us to incorporate a temporal dimension within our empirical measure, informed by Emirbayer and Mische’s (1998) and Mische’s (2009) focus on the importance of a temporal perspective for conceptualizing agency. Such orientations tap into similar aspects of positivity previously found to influence adaptive life course outcomes (see Mortimer 2012), and overlaps theoretically with the influential psychological notion of ‘possible selves’ (Markus and Nurius 1986; Markus and Nurius 1987) forming a bridge between reflective self-concept and individual motivation. 11 …”

Family (Dis)Advantage and Life Course Expectations

“…In addition, respondents in this study have been followed into adulthood, allowing an assessment of whether life expectations matter for a wide range of later outcomes differentially by family (dis)advantage status. Although a community-based sample, U.S. Census data indicate that St. Paul was comparable to the nation as a whole with respect to several economic and sociodemographic indicators (Mortimer 2003, 2012). We know of no nationally representative data that has included a suitable measure of life expectations with which to test the ideas presented here.…”

Can’t afford a baby? Debt and young Americans

“…For this reason successful early life transitions are particularly important to one's life trajectory and the study of these transitions has emerged as a major focus in sociology and the social sciences more generally. Studies of young adult transitions typically utilize a life course approach (Mortimer, 2012). A life course approach sees transitions as influenced both by the age and social position of those undergoing the transition, but also, and importantly, by the historical circumstances at that particular point in time.…”