Adult Status Attainment Research Articles

Assets and Life Satisfaction of Older Korean Parents: Mediating Effects of Multiple Children’s Adult Status Attainment

This study examined if the association between older parents’ assets and life satisfaction is mediated by multiple children’s adult status attainment, given increasingly complicated processes of transition to adulthood and diminishing returns for parents’ extended investment in adult children. Disparate bodies of literature have indicated that assets help promoting older adults’ individual health and well-being; and parental assets also facilitate children’s reaching of adulthood. However, little attention has been paid to the ways in which the association between assets and life satisfaction might be explained by multiple children’s adult role statuses. Using the 5th wave of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (2014), this study analyzed a sample of parents aged 60 years and older with at least one living child aged between 30 and 50. For analyses, mediation models were estimated using SPSS PROCESS. Results showed that the association between non-financial assets and life satisfaction was partially mediated by one or more grown children’s college graduation and home ownership. Children’s employment, marriage, and parenthood did not play a major role in explicating the link between assets and life satisfaction in the contemporary socioeconomic context of Korea. Regarding policy and practice implications, comprehensive asset-building programs should be offered for parents to financially prepare for old age; parents should be informed that their overall life quality may hinge less on the lives of their children than might be typically expected, thus necessitating a more tailored approach to financially supporting their children during their transition to adulthood.

Assessment of Secondary Sexual Development of Adolescent School Boys of Aligarh

Introduction: Adolescence comprises a period in the life cycle between childhood and adulthood. It is a period between 10 to 19 years. Biological, social and environmental factors influence the definitive onset and termination of adolescence. There is wide individual variation in pubescence and the rate of acquisition of pubertal changes. The rapid changes during the adolescence include increase in body dimensions, i.e. growth and progressive attainment of adult status, i.e. maturation. Objective: To study the secondary sexual development in adolescent school boys using Tanner staging. Materials and Method: A cross-sectional study was done covering 500 students between 10-19 years of age from rural and urban schools of district Aligarh. Students were interviewed and sexual maturity rating (SMR) was observed using Tanner stages. The data obtained were analysed using SPSS 20 and tested statistically. P value <0.05 was considered significant. Results: SMR-1 ranged from age 10-12 yrs, SMR-2 ranged from 11-14 yrs. SMR-3 started from age 12 yrs and ended gradually at 18 yrs. Similarly SMR-4 started from 14 yrs and SMR-5 at 15 yrs. Conclusion: Adolescent showed different maturity stages on same age. Though it is a vulnerable age group therefore it should be given priority in national health programs.

Associations of head circumference at birth with early life school performance and later-life occupational prestige

Head circumference at birth has been suggested as a marker of foetal brain development. New-borns with small head size have been shown to have lower intelligence scores in childhood. It is, however, unclear whether this relationship extends into adult life, and more importantly, whether adult status attainment and lifetime success is affected as a result. Furthermore it is unclear how social origin at birth attenuates the relationship between foetal brain development, childhood cognitive outcomes, and lifetime status attainment. Using the Uppsala Birth Cohort Multigenerational Study, a unique population-based database of 14,192 individuals followed from birth into advanced old age, we demonstrate that those born with small head circumference experience reductions in both early-life school performance and lifetime occupational prestige. These effects are not subject to modification by parental social class: small head size at birth is associated with lower grades and lower occupational prestige among individuals born into both advantaged and disadvantaged social classes. Employing causal mediation analysis, we also demonstrate that the link between head circumference at birth and adult occupational prestige is mainly the result of a direct effect, although a portion of this effect is also mediated by early-life school performance which also contributes to occupational attainment trajectories. These findings demonstrate the importance of early-life environments for cognitive development as well as lifetime status attainment.

Youth transition in Australia: challenging assumptions of linearity and choice

Youth educational transitions have transformed since the 1970s, in response to dramatic changes in the labour market and associated policy shifts in relation to post‐compulsory education. Assumptions in current youth and education policy of linearity and choice in educational transition, however, do not match the practice of this transformation. This article challenges both these policy assumptions by drawing on the experiences of students at two Senior Colleges in the state of New South Wales. Findings suggest that non‐linear transitions may be beneficial and represent successful attainment of adult status. Furthermore, individual choice was found to be restricted by external factors, including actions by adults, schools and systems. The presentation of research results in this article aims to contribute to a reconceptualisation of educational transition, in order for policy to better match transition experiences in contemporary society.

The Effects of Age at Home Leaving and Pathways from Home on Educational Attainment

Using data from the 1986-1987 National Survey of Families and Households, this article examines whether age at leaving home and the pathway from home have long-term consequences for children's educational attainment. Young adults who leave home to attend school (approximately 25% of recent cohorts) average high educational attainment, regardless of their age at home leaving. Their educational attainment, however, is significantly lower if they ever have a home-returning episode. Among the 75% who use other pathways from home, delayed home leaving is associated with significantly and substantially higher education at every level through college graduation. Net of age at home leaving, choosing premarital residential independence or military service (for men) as a pathway from home is associated with significantly higher educational attainment than leaving home through marriage or cohabitation. Effects are modestly stronger among those in more recent cohorts. The results suggest that parental coresidence until at least age 21 and a period of premarital residential independence are associated with children's higher educational attainment. Key Words: education, home leaving, transition to adulthood. Beginning with Kobrin-Goldscheider's study (Kobrin, 1976), a growing body of empirical work has developed on the process of home leaving by young adults. As a result, we have a pretty solid understanding of who leaves home, when, and why. (See White, 1994 for a review.) What we don't know is whether it matters. Research on home leaving has been surprisingly marginalized. Home leaving rarely is included in standard studies of the transition to adulthood, nor has it been investigated as an element of parental sponsorship and support for young adults. The research presented here integrates literatures on home leaving, transition to adulthood, parental sponsorship, and status attainment. Using data from men and women aged 25-49 drawn from the first wave of the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), we ask whether age at home leaving and pathways from the parental home have long-term consequences for children's status attainment. PRIOR WORK Transition to Adulthood Along with getting married, having children, entering the labor force, and leaving school, leaving the parental home to establish an independent residence is a normative part of the transition to adulthood. In addition to charting historical changes in the life course, scholars have been concerned with the effects of the timing and sequencing of these transitions for adult status attainment (e.g., Marini, Shin, & Raymond, 1989; Rindfuss, 1991). Theoretically, it has been argued that early transitions to adult roles may have negative effects because they thrust young people into roles for which they are not fully prepared and which they cannot sustain successfully (Chassin, Proessen, Sherman, & Edwards, 1992). More generally, out-of-sequence and off-time transitions-both early and late-are suggested to put the individual out of sequence with prevailing institutional structures (Marini et al., 1989, p. 89). Research that links timing and sequencing to outcomes has been mixed. Hogan (1980) demonstrated that, net of education, early transitions depressed career mobility in a large sample of White, married men. More recent research generally finds few effects. Using a 15-year panel of high school students to assess the effect of the timing and sequencing of their entry into the labor force, family formation, and leaving school, Marini, Shin, and Raymond (1989) find little or no long-term effect of sequencing or timing on occupation and earnings. Rindfuss, Swicegood, and Rosenfeld (1987) reach the same conclusion. They note that the early adult years are so disorderly, characterized by so many changes and reverses, that sequencing and timing during this period of transition are of little consequence. As a sign of adulthood, leaving home seems to have as much normative support as getting married or becoming a parent. …

Puberty Rites as Clues to the Nature of Human Adolescence

Puberty rites are widespread in traditional cultures and hence probably offer some general adaptive advantages. Elucidating the general features and functions of puberty rites may shed light on the basic nature of human adolescence itself. It is suggested that puberty rites function generally to provide intensive instruction in adult sex roles, instill cultural loyalty, regulate and publicize the attainment of adult status, and enhance the mate value of the initiate. These functional explanations are consistent with evolu tionary theory and with data on pubertal changes and their func tions, and with cross-cultural and cross-species behavioral data. That is, puberty rites may conspire with the evolved bodily and behavioral changes of adolescence to prepare the individual for adulthood. Moreover, although puberty rites vary widely around the world, they may possess certain common features to accomplish these functions. Preliminary functional explanations of these modal features are proposed and evaluated.

Wealth Accumulation across the Adult Life Course: Stability and Change in Sociodemographic Covariate Structures of Net Worth Data in the Survey of Income and Program Participation, 1984–1991

This paper reports microlevel Tobit regression analyses of sociodemographic covariates of the life course accumulation of total household net worth data in eight waves of five distinct panels—spanning over 6 years from late 1984 through early 1991—of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). It is found that the quadratic age–wealth relationship predicted by Modigliani's Life Cycle Hypothesis is evident in aggregate age–median wealth profiles as well as in the micro data for households with positive net worth. However, when adult status attainment variables are entered into the regression models either by themselves or in combination with marital/family status variables, the age of household head at which net worth begins to decline is far beyond the typical retirement age. In addition, the traditional criterion variables of sociological status attainment theory—educational attainment, occupational status, and earnings—are found to be positively associated with household net worth, although the net effect of occupational status generally is not statistically significant and the earnings effect is nonlinear. Further, consistent with status attainment theory, householder minority status (black, Hispanic) is negatively associated with the accumulation of net worth. It is found that both single male and single female householder status are negatively associated with the accumulation of household net worth (relative to married couple households) as is the size of the household (measured by the number of children under age 18 present). Separate logistic regression analyses show that households with zero and negative net worth are more likely than households with positive net worth to be black and have low earnings. Higher levels of educational and occupational status attainment reduce the probability of zero net worth but not the probability of negative net worth. Male- and female-headed households and households headed by Hispanics also are more likely to have zero net worth, but not negative net worth. The estimated sociodemographic covariate structures of household net worth are found to exhibit substantial stability across both waves and panels in the SIPP—although effects of the 1990–1991 recession are detectable in estimates for the 1990 panel. Possible applications of the estimated models in demographic projections of household net worth are suggested.

Destiny and Drift: Subcultural Preferences, Status Attainments, and the Risks and Rewards of Youth

I combine the concept of drift, drawn from social control theory, and a life course conceptualization to elaborate a paradigmatic model to study cultural stratification. I apply this model in a thirteen-year panel study to examine the effects of adolescent subcultural preferences on later adult status attainments. Adolescents adrift from parental and educational control are more likely than those with more controls to develop mild or more seriously deviant subcultural preferences. I identify two distinct adolescent subcultural preferences: a subculture of delinquency and a party subculture. Among males with working-class origins, identification with the subculture of delinquency has a negative effect on trajectories of early adult status attainment. However, among males from non-working-class backgrounds, identification with a party subculture has a net positive effect when the negative effects of partying on educational performance are removed.

The denial of adolescence for people with mental handicaps: AN UNWITTING CONSPIRACY?

This article addresses the issues concerning the experience of adolescence for young people with mental handicaps. A developmental model is presented, which states that various tasks need to be accomplished if they are to attain adult status.Evidence is put forward which suggests that, for the great majority of adolescents with mental handicaps, these tasks are never accomplished. It is hypothesised that there is an unwitting conspiracy on the part of carers, both parents and professionals, to thwart the accomplishment of these tasks: unwitting in as much as there is no conscious conspiracy, but a communication through postures, attitudes, and styles of interaction. It is suggested that reform of service provision is the first step towards a more developmentally appropriate adolescence for people with mental handicaps and greater opportunities for the attainment of adult status.

Transitions in Young Adulthood in Great Britain.

The passage from adolescence to adulthood is a multi-faceted and complex process often extending over a period of years from the mid-teens to the mid to late twenties. No one single event marks the attainment of adult status, but it usually involves changes from economic dependence upon parents to economic independence and from participation in the family of origin to establishment of one's own family. Becoming an adult usually involves a number of key transitions: finishing full-time education; entry into the labour market; leaving home; establishment of an independent household; and entry into marriage and parenthood. Not everyone experiences all these transitions nor by any means follows such a sequence. Some transitions may be by-passed altogether and others may coincide. British studies that give joint consideration to the economic and familial transitions are rare (American examples are Modell, 1989 and Hogan, 1981). Specialists tend to concentrate on the transition from school to work or the transition to marriage and having children whilst the inter-relations and interdependence between them have received scant attention. As yet there is a lack of coherent data for studying sets of transitions in young adulthood. Cross-sectional current status data on the activity patterns and living arrangements of young adults, such as the Labour Force Survey used here, are the most commonly available and more up-to-date source, but they can only provide clues as to the timing of transitions. More direct estimates of the timing, prevalence and sequencing of transitions require life-history data. Such data are rare. However, for one British cohort born in 1958, it is possible to examine the dynamics of transitions in young adulthood over the age range 16 to 23 years by making use of data from the National Child Development Study (Shepherd, 1985). To set the scene, we consider how the size of the young adult population has changed in the recent past and will change in the near future.

Disability in Adulthood: Ten-year Follow-up of Young People with Disabilities

ABSTRACT This study investigates the attainment of adult status among a sample of 39 physically impaired people aged 25 to 30 years. Compared with the general population, they were much less likely to have worked in paid employment, to have established independent households, or to be married and have families of their own. Few had achieved their teenage aspirations for marriage or parenthood. Most of those who had never had a job since leaving school still wanted to work. The majority still hoped to live in a place of their own. The findings point to major inadequacies in provision for disabled people, particularly in practical and financial support for those who want to work and live independently. Policies and services for young disabled people need to be developed within a common framework which includes a comprehensive definition of the transition to adulthood and agreed goals for the achievement of adult status.

Patterns of Early Adult Status Attainment and Attitudes in the Nonmetropolitan South

Utilizing data from a study of Southern, nonmetropolitan youth, this paper reports the patterns of congruency and deflection in occupational and educational attitudes and attainment. Descriptive comparisons of status aspiration, expectations and attainment were made for 427 white and 268 black males from six Deep South states. Aspirations and expectation levels for future occupational and educational attainment were apparently "unrealistic" in terms of available opportunities and also appeared to be marginal related to present attainment. Although white levels of these variables somewhat exceeded comparable levels for blacks, both groups generally were found to have such unrealistic and optimistic attitudes. A hypothesis was offered where unrealistic future orientations are seen as having positive consequences in a success-oriented society for those who are not succeeding by allowing them to not admit failure by projecting future achievements.

The Interpretation of Data: Puberty Rites

SINCE the emergence of anthropology as a systematic study a century ago, accounting for similarities and differences in culture among the societies of the world has been the central concern of evolutionists, diffusionists, and functionalists. Van Gennep's classic work on rites of passage deals largely with similarities. Since the time of van Gennep, various writings concerning a single society or a few societies have considered differences in rites of passage, attempting to explain the presence, absence, or relative elaboration of rites concerned with birth, puberty, marriage and other important events in the lives of individuals. These studies, of which Audrey Richards' Chisungu (1956) is the most recent detailed example, have come to us principally from scholars identified as social anthropologists, and they present interpretations relating the rites to features of social structure and social institutions. No study using this approach collates and compares the scattered group of publications on the subject or attempts to be comprehensive. The idea expressed by Durkheim and various of his followers that whatever is important in social life tends to receive ritual attention seems to form the implicit foundation of most studies of this kind. Their objective has been to state why stable marriages or the attainment of adult status and the like are socially important and fraught with difficulties in one society but less important and less disturbing in another. Of a similar vein is the view expressed by Chapple and Coon (1942) that rites are both an indication of disturbed social equilibrium and a device for restoring equilibrium. Where no rites occur, it appears to be assumed that no social disturbances exist; at least, there has been no systematic observation of individual societies to account for differences in practice. It is with some interest, then, that we see the publication by Whiting, Kluckhohn, and Anthony (1958) of a large-scale, cross-cultural comparison of male initiation ceremonies at puberty that offers a specific interpretation to account for the presence and absence of these ritual events and generalizations on the significance of the rites that presumably apply to all societies.2 Interpretations of individual features of puberty rites have come to us previously from psychoanalysis, notably from Freud (1939), and more recently from Bettelheim (1954). Again, these interpretations do not account for variations in practice from society to society, and they do not attempt to quantify data. The study by Whiting and collaborators compares 56 societies and offers an interpretation, presented in quantitative form, that is derived largely from psychoanalytic theory concerning the Oedipus complex. A close relation is reported to exist between customs fostering intimacy between mother and infant son,

The attainment of adult status among the Mount Frere Bhaca

SYNOPSIS In this study the transition from childhood to full tribal membership is discussed. Although circumcision appears to have been part of original (i.e. Natalian) Bhaca culture, the practice has fallen into disuse today and, generally speaking, there are no special rites that mark the attainment of manhood among boys. However, the phenomenon of its re‐adopton, mainly due to Hlubi influence, is noted. Girls, on the other hand, should pass through a special ceremony (umnguzo, umgubho, ipati) on reaching physical maturity. The typical Christianized ceremony, as practised today, is described, with references to traditional practices.