Adolescents' Love Lives: Heterogeneity in Relationship Status Trajectories and Links with Affect.

Romantic experiences are more fluid and heterogeneous during middle adolescence than at any other life stage, but current understanding of this heterogeneity and flux is limited because of imprecise measurement. A sample of 531 adolescents (55% female; 28% non-Hispanic White; 32% Black; 27% Hispanic; 14% Other) recruited from an ongoing birth cohort study (Mean age = 16.7 years, SD = 0.

Adolescent Partnership Quality and Emotional Health: Insights from an Intensive Longitudinal Study.

Prior research has documented an association between adolescents' romantic experiences and poor emotional health. However, lack of intensive longitudinal measurement and an emphasis on negative affect have limited understanding about the extent to which adolescent relationship quality influences the emotional health of adolescents in partnerships, including the potential benefits of high-quality partnerships. Previous research has also been limited in its ability to account for factors that select adolescents into lower or higher quality partnerships.

Using Paradata to Evaluate Youth Participation in a Digital Diary Study.

We analyze recruitment, access and longitudinal response paradata from a year-long intensive longitudinal study (mDiary) that used a mobile-optimized web app to administer 25 bi-weekly diaries to youth recruited from a birth cohort study. Analyses investigate which aspects of teen recruitment experiences are associated with enrollment and longitudinal response patterns; whether compliance behavior of teens who require multiple invitations to enroll differs from that of teens who enroll on the first invitation; and what personal and social circumstances are associated with different longitudinal compliance patterns. Latent Class Analysis (LCA) is used to derive longitudinal compliance classes.

Adolescents' Partner Search in the Digital Age: Correlates and Characteristics of Relationships Initiated Online.

Digital technology and social media platforms have transformed the ways adolescents communicate and cultivate romantic relationships, but few studies consider whether relationships initiated online are less salutary than those formed in person. A sample of 531 adolescents (Mean age = 16.7 years, SD = 0.

Adolescent Relationship Quality: Is There an Intergenerational Link?

Objective: This study examines intergenerational continuities in relationship instability, general relationship quality, and intimate partner violence (IPV) between mothers and adolescents.

Background: A growing body of literature has observed similarities in relationship quality between parents and their adult offspring. Less attention has focused on whether intergenerational continuities are present in adolescent relationships.

Using Bi-Weekly Surveys to Portray Adolescent Partnership Dynamics: Lessons From a Mobile Diary Study.

Partnership formation is an important developmental task for adolescents, but cross-sectional and periodic longitudinal studies have lacked the measurement precision to portray partnership stability and flux and to capture the range of adolescent partnership experiences. This article assesses the promises and challenges of using bi-weekly mobile diaries administered over the course of a year to study adolescent partnership dynamics. Descriptive findings illustrate the potential of bi-weekly diaries for both capturing the longitudinal complexity and fluidity of adolescent partnerships as well as for reducing retrospection biases.

Low birthweight among immigrants in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Immigrant women are less likely than their native-born counterparts to give birth to a low birthweight infant in the United States, and length of U.S. residence shrinks nativity differences in rates of low birthweight.

Institutional and ethnic variations in postgraduate enrollment and completion.

Using the B&B:93/03 longitudinal cohort survey, we investigate (1) whether and how much variations in the timing of enrollment, the type of undergraduate institution attended, and type of graduate program pursued contribute to observed racial and ethnic differentials in post-baccalaureate enrollment, and (2) whether the observed enrollment differentials carry over to degree attainment. Dynamic event history methods that account both for the timing of matriculation and the hazard of enrolling reveal that compared to whites underrepresented minorities enroll earlier and also are more likely to enroll in doctoral and advanced professional degree programs relative to nonenrollment. Our results reveal sizable differences in the cumulative probability of advanced degree attainment according to undergraduate institutional mission, with graduates from research institutions enjoying a decided advantage over liberal arts college graduates.

Thirteenth Annual Lecture in Education Research: Public Education and the Social Contract: Restoring the Promise in an Age of Diversity and Division.

Building on the premise that closing achievement gaps is an economic imperative both to regain international educational supremacy and to maintain global economic competitiveness, I ask whether it is possible to rewrite the social contract so that education is a fundamental right-a statutory guarantee-that is both uniform across states and federally enforceable. I argue that the federal government was complicit in aggravating educational inequality by not guaranteeing free, public education as a basic right during propitious political moments; by enabling the creation of a segregated public higher education system; by relegating the Department of Education and its predecessors to a secondary status in the federal administration, thereby compromising its enforcement capability; and by proliferating incremental reforms while ignoring the unequal institutional arrangements that undermine equal opportunity to learn. History shows that a strong federal role can potentially strengthen the educational social contract.

Marriage-Market Constraints and Mate-Selection Behavior: Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Differences in Intermarriage.

Despite theoretical consensus that marriage markets constrain mate selection behavior, few studies directly evaluate how local marriage market conditions influence intermarriage patterns. Using data from the American Community Survey, we examine what aspects of marriage markets influence mate selection; assess whether the associations between marriage market conditions and intermarriage are uniform by gender and across pan-ethnic groups; and investigate the extent to which marriage market conditions account for group differences in intermarriage patterns. Relative group size is the most salient and consistent determinant of intermarriage patterns across pan-ethnic groups and by gender.

Age at migration, family instability, and timing of sexual onset.

This study builds on and extends previous research on nativity variations in adolescent health and risk behavior by addressing three questions: (1) whether and how generational status and age at migration are associated with timing of sexual onset among U.S. adolescents; (2) whether and how family instability mediates associations between nativity and sexual debut; and (3) whether and how these associations vary by gender.

Boundary crossing in first marriage and remarriage.

Owing to secular increases in divorce rates, remarriage has become a prevalent feature of American family life; yet, research about mate selection behavior in higher order marriages remains limited. Using log-linear methods to recent data from the 2008-2014 American Community Survey, we compare racial and ethnic sorting behavior in first and subsequent marriages. The two most frequently crossed boundaries - those involving White-Asian and White-Hispanic couples - are more permeable in remarriages than in first marriages.

Birthing, Nativity, and Maternal Depression: Australia and the United States.

This study analyzes two birth cohort surveys, the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (n=3944) and Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (n=7700), to examine variation in maternal depression by nativity, duration of residence, age at migration, and English proficiency in Australia and the United States. Both countries have long immigrant traditions and a common language. The results demonstrate that US immigrant mothers are significantly less depressed than native-born mothers, but maternal depression does not differ by nativity in Australia.

Age at immigration and the incomes of older immigrants, 1994-2010.

Objectives: Seniors comprise a growing proportion of new U.S. immigrants.

Family Sponsorship and Late-Age Immigration in Aging America: Revised and Expanded Estimates of Chained Migration.

We use the (micro-data) supplemented with special tabulations from the Department of Homeland Security to examine how family reunification impacts the age composition of new immigrant cohorts since 1980. We develop a family migration multiplier measure for the period 1981 to 2009 that improves on prior studies by including immigrants granted legal status under the 1986 and relaxing unrealistic assumptions required by synthetic cohort measures. Results show that every 100 initiating immigrants admitted between 1981-85 sponsored an average of 260 family members; the comparable figure for initiating immigrants for the 1996-2000 cohort is 345 family members.

Delayed enrollment and College Plans: is There a Postponement Penalty?

Using a representative longitudinal survey of Texas high school seniors who graduated in 2002, we investigate how college postponement is associated with four-year college expectations and attendance-focusing both on the length of delay and the pathway to the postsecondary system. Like prior studies, we show that family background and student academic achievement explains the negative association between delay and college expectations and that these factors, along with two-year college entry pathway, largely accounted for the negative association between postponement and enrollment at a four-year institution in 2006. Although delays of one year or longer are associated with significantly lower odds of attending a baccalaureate-granting institution four years after high school, the longest delays do not incur the most severe enrollment penalties.

High School Economic Composition and College Persistence.

Using a longitudinal sample of Texas high school seniors of 2002 who enrolled in college within the calendar year of high school graduation, we examine variation in college persistence according to the economic composition of their high schools, which serves as a proxy for unmeasured high school attributes that are conductive to postsecondary success. Students who graduated from affluent high schools have the highest persistence rates and those who attended poor high schools have the lowest rates. Multivariate analyses indicate that the advantages in persistence and on-time graduation from four-year colleges enjoyed by graduates of affluent high schools cannot be fully explained by high school college orientation and academic rigor, family background, pre-college academic preparedness or the institutional characteristics.

HISPANICS IN HIGHER EDUCATION AND THE TEXAS TOP TEN PERCENT LAW.

This paper examines the consequences of changes in Hispanic college enrollment after affirmative action was banned and replaced by an admission guarantee for students who graduate in the top 10% of their high school class. We use administrative data on applicants, admittees and enrollees from the two most selective public institutions and TEA data about high schools to evaluate whether and how application, admission and enrollment rates changed under the three admission regimes. Despite popular claims that the top 10% law has restored diversity to Texas's public flagships, our analyses that account for secular changes in the size of graduation cohorts show that Hispanics are more disadvantaged relative to whites under the top 10% admission regime at both UT and TAMU.

Immigration and Status Exchange in Australia and the United States.

This paper evaluates the status exchange hypothesis for Australia and the United States, two Anglophone nations with long immigration traditions whose admission regimes place different emphases on skills. Using log-linear methods, we demonstrate that foreign-born spouses trade educational credentials via marriage with natives in both Australian and U.S.

Age at Immigration and the Adult Attainments of Child Migrants to the United States.

Immigrants' age at arrival matters for schooling outcomes in a way that is predicted by child development theory: the chances of being a high school dropout increase significantly each year for children who arrive in a host country after the age of eight. The authors document this process for immigrants in the United States from a number of regions relative to appropriate comparison regions. Using instrumental variables, the authors find that the variation in education outcomes associated with variation in age at arrival influences adult outcomes that are important in the American mainstream, notably English-language proficiency and intermarriage.

Test Scores, Class Rank and College Performance: Lessons for Broadening Access and Promoting Success.

Using administrative data for five Texas universities that differ in selectivity, this study evaluates the relative influence of two key indicators for college success-high school class rank and standardized tests. Empirical results show that class rank is the superior predictor of college performance and that test score advantages do not insulate lower ranked students from academic underperformance. Using the UT-Austin campus as a test case, we conduct a simulation to evaluate the consequences of capping students admitted automatically using both achievement metrics.