National Longitudinal Survey Research Articles

The effect of single mothers’ employment on their children’s mental health in young adulthood: Random effects model for longitudinal data

ObjectiveBased on a longitudinal approach, this study explores the effect of single mothers’ employment from pregnancy to their children’s preschool years on their adult children’s self-esteem and depression. MethodsThe National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 79 for Children and Young Adults (NLSY79 CY) were employed to pair mothers and their adult children. We used six NLSY79 CY waves from 2004 to 2014. A total of 2,596 single mother-headed household dyads were selected. Variables repeatedly measured at six points in time were tested using the Random Effects Model. ResultsResults show that single mothers’ higher frequency of employment from pregnancy to when their children were four years old was significantly related to their children’s self-esteem and depression at above the age of 18 years.Discussion.Providing more opportunities for single mothers to get a job is necessary to enhance their children’s mental health over time. Accessible job training programs for single mothers and free provision of accessible and high-quality childcare services by the government should be focused on single mothers, particularly those who are pregnant or have children under the age of 5 years, for their children to positively develop self-esteem and reduce depression over time. The intergenerational transmission of inequality between single mothers and their adult children can be addressed by providing more opportunities for well-paying stable jobs with flexible schedules to single mothers, so they are better able to provide their children with time, support and resources.

How our longitudinal employment patterns might shape our health as we approach middle adulthood-US NLSY79 cohort.

Recent labor market transformations brought on by digital and technological advances, together with the rise of the service economy since the 1980s, have subjected more workers to precarious conditions, such as irregular work hours and low or unpredictable wages, threatening their economic well-being and health. This study advances our understanding of the critical role employment plays in our health by examining how employment patterns throughout our working lives, based on work schedules, may shape our health at age 50, paying particular attention to the moderating role of social position. The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-1979 (NLSY79), which has collected 30+ years of longitudinal information, was used to examine how employment patterns starting at ages 22 (n ≈ 7,336) might be associated with sleep hours and quality, physical and mental functions, and the likelihood of reporting poor health and depressive symptoms at age 50. Sequence analysis found five dominant employment patterns between ages 22 and 49: "mostly not working" (10%), "early standard hours before transitioning into mostly variable hours" (12%), "early standard hours before transitioning into volatile schedules" (early ST-volatile, 17%), "mostly standard hours with some variable hours" (35%), and "stable standard hours" (26%). The multiple regression analyses indicate that having the "early ST-volatile" schedule pattern between ages 22 and 49 was consistently, significantly associated with the poorest health, including the fewest hours of sleep per day, the lowest sleep quality, the lowest physical and mental functions, and the highest likelihood of reporting poor health and depressive symptoms at age 50. In addition, social position plays a significant role in these adverse health consequences. For example, whereas non-Hispanic White women reported the most hours of sleep and non-Hispanic Black men reported the fewest, the opposite was true for sleep quality. In addition, non-Hispanic Black men with less than a high school education had the highest likelihood of reporting poor health at age 50 if they engaged in an employment pattern of "early ST-volatile" between ages 22 and 49. In comparison, non-Hispanic White men with a college degree or above education had the lowest likelihood of reporting poor health if they engaged in an employment pattern of stable standard hours. This analysis underscores the critical role of employment patterns in shaping our daily routines, which matter to sleep and physical and mental health as we approach middle adulthood. Notably, the groups with relatively disadvantaged social positions are also likely to be subject to nonstandard work schedules, including non-Hispanic Blacks and people with low education; hence, they were more likely than others to shoulder the harmful links between nonstandard work schedules and sleep and health, worsening their probability of maintaining and nurturing their health as they approach middle adulthood.

Research Note: New Evidence on the Motherhood Wage Penalty

U.S. women's age at first birth has increased substantially. Yet, little research has considered how this changing behavior may have affected the motherhood pay penalty, or the wage decrease with a child's arrival, experienced by the current generation. Using Rounds 1–19 of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), in this research note we examine shifts in hourly pay with childbirth for a cohort of women who became mothers mostly in the 2000s and 2010s. Results from fixed-effects models indicate that the motherhood pay penalty for NLSY97 women who had their first child before their late 20s is generally similar to that of previous cohorts. Those who became mothers near or after age 30, however, encounter a parenthood premium, as men do. The growing proportion of women delaying motherhood, coupled with the rising heterogeneity in motherhood wage outcomes by childbearing timing, contributes to a comparatively small motherhood penalty for this recent cohort. The pay advantage of “late mothers” cannot be explained by factors such as their labor market locations, number of children, stage of childrearing, marital status, or ethnoracial composition. Instead, the hourly gain stems from such mothers’ tendency to reduce working hours more than other mothers without experiencing a commensurate decrease in total pay. Unlike the fatherhood premium, the premium for late mothers does not lead to a real boost in income.

Women’s Work Characteristics and Fertility Expectations

Previous research has shown that employment is an important social context affecting fertility, yet relatively little is known about the extent to which work characteristics affect fertility expectations. Using over 25 years of data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we analyzed the associations between part-time work and characteristics associated with autonomy over working time, specifically self-employment and managerial/professional occupation, and childbearing expectations among women ages 18–45 (N = 4,415). Logistic regression models for longitudinal data reveal that work characteristics are significantly associated with fertility expectations, but that the specific nature of the relationship varies by parity. Among women with one child, those working part-time had predicted probabilities of expecting to have additional children that were 2% higher than those working full-time. In contrast, among women without any children, those working part-time had predicted probabilities that were 2% lower than those working full-time. Similar contrasting relationships by parity were found when comparing self-employed women to employees and managers/professionals to those in other occupations. Findings were consistent across racial and ethnic groups. These results suggest that different mechanisms link work characteristics to fertility plans for mothers and non-mothers, specifically that role incompatibility and work-family conflict are more salient for mothers but that financial strain is so for non-mothers.

“Stepping-Stone” versus “Dead-End” Jobs: Occupational Structure, Work Experience, and Mobility Out of Low-Wage Jobs

Does working in a low-wage job lead to increased opportunities for upward mobility, or is it a dead-end that traps workers? In this article, we examine whether low-wage jobs are “stepping-stones” that enable workers to move to higher-paid jobs that are linked by institutional mobility ladders and skill transferability. To identify occupational linkages, we create two measures of occupational similarity using data on occupational mobility from matched samples of the Current Population Survey (CPS) and data on multiple dimensions of job skills from the O*NET. We test whether work experience in low-wage occupations increases mobility between linked occupations that results in upward wage mobility. Our analysis uses longitudinal data on low-wage workers from the 1979 National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY) and the 1996 to 2008 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). We test the stepping-stone perspective using multinomial conditional logit (MCL) models, which allow us to analyze the joint effects of work experience and occupational linkages on achieving upward wage mobility. We find evidence for stepping-stone mobility in certain areas of the low-wage occupational structure. In these occupations, low-wage workers can acquire skills through work experience that facilitate upward mobility through occupational changes to skill and institutionally linked occupations.

The Relationship Between Height and Income With Potential Application to Treatment of Limb Length Discrepancy.

Purpose When treating limb length discrepancy (LLD), decisions regarding lengthening versus contralateral shortening require careful consideration of deformity and patient factors. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) database, and income as a quantitative representation of overall socioeconomic benefit, we sought to determine the height at which incremental gains in height have the greatest value. Methods Using the NLSY79 database, we collected demographic data, height, yearly income from wages, college education (full- or part-time), and receipt of government financial aid. Multiple-linear regression and graphical analysis were performed. Results The study population included 9,652 individuals, 4,775 (49.5%) males and 4,877 (50.5%) females. Mean heights were 70.0±3.0 inches and 64.3±2.6 inches for males and females, respectively. Multiple-linear regression analysis (adjusted-r²=0.33) demonstrated height had a standardized-ß=0.097 (p<0.001), even when accounting for confounding factors. Using graphical analysis, we estimated cut-offs of 74 inches for males and 69 inches for females, beyond which income decreased with incremental height. Conclusions Using income as a quantitative representation of socioeconomic value, our analysis found income increased with incremental height in individuals with predicted heights up to 74 inches for males and 69 inches for females. Shortening procedures might receive more consideration at predicted heights greater than these cut-offs, while lengthening might be more strongly considered at the lower ranges of height. Additionally, our multiple-linear regression analysis confirms the correlation between height and income, when factoring in other predictors of income.

No Room to Fall: Criminal Justice Contact and Neighborhood Disadvantage

Abstract Neighborhoods across the United States are shaped by the criminal justice system and socioeconomic inequality. This article examines whether multiple forms of criminal justice contact affect neighborhood attainment for a cohort of young adults coming of age in the era of mass incarceration. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 cohort, and census data, I analyze neighborhood conditions before and after contact with the criminal justice system. Conviction is a critical experience in the life course. Having a household member incarcerated is associated with moving to a worse neighborhood only for White young adults. I contextualize these findings in the literature on the cumulative disadvantages faced by the justice-involved population and the complexities of identifying causal effects for this population. For many, incarceration represents a late stage of criminal justice contact, at which point there is no room to fall. Disentangling the web of disadvantage that follows criminal justice contact is crucial as the effects of the era of mass incarceration continue to accumulate. Locational attainment contextualized within the life course must be central to understanding how the legal system creates and reproduces disadvantage.

Variation by race/ethnicity-gender in the relationship between arrest history and alcohol use.

Alcohol use contributes to the national burden of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Arrest, as a unique form of criminal justice system involvement, may be related to alcohol use from adolescence to adulthood. This study investigates the relationship between arrest and alcohol use across race/ethnicity-gender (R/E-G) status (e.g., Black, Latinx, and White men and women) as youth age. Data from 17 waves (1997-2015) of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 cohort (N = 8901) were used to explore how variation in R/E-G moderates the relationship between arrest history and alcohol use trajectories from 13 to 30 years old. Multilevel zero-inflated Poisson and Poisson regression were used to assess R/E-G variation in the relationship between arrest history and days of alcohol consumption, drinks per drinking occasion, and days of binge drinking after accounting for covariates, including incarceration. The findings indicate that an arrest history is associated with alcohol use, and these results varied by R/E-G status, age, and alcohol use outcome. Those with an arrest history reported more days of drinking than their counterparts without an arrest; yet, the magnitude and direction of average drinks per occasion and binge drinking days varied by R/E-G status and age. Paradoxically, Black men, Black women, and Latinx men with an arrest history reported fewer days of binge drinking as they aged than their counterparts without an arrest. A history of arrest is important for alcohol use from adolescence to adulthood and varies by R/E-G status, age, and alcohol use outcome. This work confirms previous scholarship showing that arrest and alcohol use are socially patterned and R/E-G status is an essential consideration in understanding the relationship. Future work should include additional identities and health behaviors and the consequences related to alcohol use outcomes.

Disparities in Unmet Health Care Needs Among US Children During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted pediatric health care in the United States, and this disruption layered on existing barriers to health care. We sought to characterize disparities in unmet pediatric health care needs during this period. We analyzed data from Wave 1 (October through November 2020) and Wave 2 (March through May 2021) of the COVID Experiences Survey, a national longitudinal survey delivered online or via telephone to parents of children aged 5 through 12 years using a probability-based sample representative of the US household population. We examined 3 indicators of unmet pediatric health care needs as outcomes: forgone care and forgone well-child visits during fall 2020 through spring 2021, and no well-child visit in the past year as of spring 2021. Multivariate models examined relationships of child-, parent-, household-, and county-level characteristics with these indicators, adjusting for child's age, sex, and race/ethnicity. On the basis of parent report, 16.3% of children aged 5 through 12 years had forgone care, 10.9% had forgone well-child visits, and 30.1% had no well-child visit in the past year. Adjusted analyses identified disparities in indicators of pediatric health care access by characteristics at the level of the child (eg, race/ethnicity, existing health conditions, mode of school instruction), parent (eg, childcare challenges), household (eg, income), and county (eg, urban-rural classification, availability of primary care physicians). Both child and parent experiences of racism were also associated with specific indicators of unmet health care needs. Our findings highlight the need for continued research examining unmet health care needs and for continued efforts to optimize the clinical experience to be culturally inclusive.

Racialized feedback and social welfare receipt: disentangling duration and dollar amount mechanisms on policy feedback effects

ABSTRACT This paper examines how the resources associated with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and the Unemployment Insurance program affect political participation. The research on policy feedback on mass publics has produce greater results relative to research on feedback and political participation. However, prior research has not disaggregated resource feedback effects thoroughly enough to decipher whether the monetary resources provided by a social welfare program are independent of the effects of the duration of receipt nor have they disaggregated the effects by race to estimate the racialized feedback effects. This is crucial because the primary questions surrounding the development of social welfare programs are: who should get it, how much they should get, and how long they should get it for. Research has also found that social welfare programs can produce disparate resource feedback effects, both encouraging and discouraging participatory behavior. To answer these questions, I utilize the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. I incorporate three comprehensive measures of social welfare receipt which allow the estimation of the effects over time. I find that the amount of aid received, and the duration of receipt are both significant factors in shaping participatory behavior but depending on the program I find heterogeneous effects. The disparate effects persist across social welfare programs and race.

Cumulative Disadvantage or Strained Advantage? Remote Schooling, Paid Work Status, and Parental Mental Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, parents experienced difficulties around employment and children's schooling, likely with detrimental mental health implications. We analyze National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 data (N = 2,829) to estimate depressive symptom changes from 2019 to 2021 by paid work status and children's schooling modality, considering partnership status, gender, and race-ethnicity differences. We draw on cumulative disadvantage theory alongside strained advantage theory to test whether mental health declines were steeper for parents with more disadvantaged statuses or for parents with more advantaged statuses. Parents with work disruptions, without paid work, or with children in remote school experienced the greatest increases in depressive symptoms, with steepest increases among single parents without paid work and single parents with children in remote school (cumulative disadvantage), fathers without paid work (strained advantage), and White parents with remote school (strained advantage). We discuss the uneven impacts of the pandemic on mental health and implications for long-term health disparities.

Youth Incarceration in Adult Facilities and Mental Health in Early Adulthood

PurposeTo examine the relationship between youth incarceration in adult correctional facilities and mental health in early adulthood. MethodsWe analyzed nationally representative data from 1997 through 2019 (N = 8,961) using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997. An ordinary least squares regression model using inverse probability weights was used to assess the influence of youth incarceration in an adult facility on average mental health scores from age 18 to 37. ResultsRespondents incarcerated in an adult facility as a youth had poorer average mental health than those not held in adult prisons or jails over the course of the study period. Those incarcerated for longer in adult facilities also exhibited more mental health symptoms. DiscussionYoung people incarcerated in adult correctional facilities experience poorer long-term mental health related to depression and anxiety in early adulthood.

Incarceration History and Access to and Receipt of Health Care in the US

People with a history of incarceration may experience barriers in access to and receipt of health care in the US. To examine the associations of incarceration history and access to and receipt of care and the contribution of modifiable factors (educational attainment and health insurance coverage) to these associations. Individuals with and without incarceration history were identified from the 2008 to 2018 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort. Analyses were conducted from October 2022 to December 2023. Access to and receipt of health care were measured as self-reported having usual source of care and preventive service use, including physical examination, influenza shot, blood pressure check, blood cholesterol level check, blood glucose level check, dental check, and colorectal, breast, and cervical cancer screenings across multiple panels. To account for the longitudinal study design, we used the inverse probability weighting method with generalized estimating equations to evaluate associations of incarceration history and access to care. Separate multivariable models examining associations between incarceration history and receipt of each preventive service adjusted for sociodemographic factors; sequential models further adjusted for educational attainment and health insurance coverage to examine their contribution to the associations of incarceration history and access to and receipt of health care. A total of 7963 adults with 41 614 person-years of observation were included in this study; of these, 586 individuals (5.4%) had been incarcerated, with 2800 person-years of observation (4.9%). Compared with people without incarceration history, people with incarceration history had lower percentages of having a usual source of care or receiving preventive services, including physical examinations (69.6% vs 74.1%), blood pressure test (85.6% vs 91.6%), blood cholesterol level test (59.5% vs 72.2%), blood glucose level test (61.4% vs 69.4%), dental check up (51.1% vs 66.0%), and breast (55.0% vs 68.2%) and colorectal cancer screening (65.6% vs 70.3%). With additional adjustment for educational attainment and health insurance, the associations of incarceration history and access to care were attenuated for most measures and remained statistically significant for measures of having a usual source of care, blood cholesterol level test, and dental check up only. The results of this survey study suggest that incarceration history was associated with worse access to and receipt of health care. Educational attainment and health insurance may contribute to these associations. Efforts to improve access to education and health insurance coverage for people with an incarceration history might mitigate disparities in care.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Adherence to Antihypertensive Medications

Nonadherence to antihypertensive medications is associated with uncontrolled blood pressure, higher mortality rates, and increased health care costs, and food insecurity is one of the modifiable medication nonadherence risk factors. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a social intervention program for addressing food insecurity, may help improve adherence to antihypertensive medications. To evaluate whether receipt of SNAP benefits can modify the consequences of food insecurity on nonadherence to antihypertensive medications. A retrospective cohort study design was used to assemble a cohort of antihypertensive medication users from the linked Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS)-National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) dataset for 2016 to 2017. The MEPS is a national longitudinal survey on verified self-reported prescribed medication use and health care access measures, and the NHIS is an annual cross-sectional survey of US households that collects comprehensive health information, health behavior, and sociodemographic data, including receipt of SNAP benefits. Receipt of SNAP benefits in the past 12 months and food insecurity status in the past 30 days were assessed through standard questionnaires during the study period. Data analysis was performed from March to December 2021. Status of SNAP benefit receipt. The main outcome, nonadherence to antihypertensive medication refill adherence (MRA), was defined using the MEPS data as the total days' supply divided by 365 days for each antihypertensive medication class. Patients were considered nonadherent if their overall MRA was less than 80%. Food insecurity status in the 30 days prior to the survey was modeled as the effect modifier. Inverse probability of treatment (IPT) weighting was used to control for measured confounding effects of baseline covariates. A probit model was used, weighted by the product of the computed IPT weights and MEPS weights, to estimate the population average treatment effects (PATEs) of SNAP benefit receipt on nonadherence. A stratified analysis approach was used to assess for potential effect modification by food insecurity status. This analysis involved 6692 antihypertensive medication users, of whom 1203 (12.8%) reported receiving SNAP benefits and 1338 (14.8%) were considered as food insecure. The mean (SD) age was 63.0 (13.3) years; 3632 (51.3%) of the participants were women and 3060 (45.7%) were men. Although SNAP was not associated with nonadherence to antihypertensive medications in the overall population, it was associated with a 13.6-percentage point reduction in nonadherence (PATE, -13.6 [95% CI, -25.0 to -2.3]) among the food-insecure subgroup but not among their food-secure counterparts. This analysis of a national observational dataset suggests that patients with hypertension who receive SNAP benefits may be less likely to become nonadherent to antihypertensive medication, especially if they are experiencing food insecurity. Further examination of the role of SNAP as a potential intervention for preventing nonadherence to antihypertensive medications through prospectively designed interventional studies or natural experiment study designs is needed.

Impatience and crime. Evidence from the NLSY97

We empirically test the relationship between crime and impatience at the individual level, exploiting data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97). Besides providing information on violent, property, and drug crimes, NLSY97 allows us to observe different behaviors, sharing impatience as a common latent factor. We use factor analysis to extract this common factor as a measure of impatience. Estimates from a Logit model suggest a positive association between impatience and crime. This relationship differs across violent, property, and drug crimes, but we do not find significant heterogeneities when comparing individuals according to gender, parental education, and ethnic groups. The main result is robust to different factor analysis specifications and controls for risk preferences. Our findings support policies aimed at influencing individual time preferences as an indirect way to combat crime.

Disparities in the impact of economic well-being on self-esteem in adulthood: Race and ethnicity.

Most studies have defined economic well-being as socioeconomic status, with little attention given to whether other indicators influence self-esteem. Little is known about racial/ethnic disparities in the relationship between economic well-being and self-esteem during adulthood. To explore the impact of economic well-being on self-esteem in adulthood and differences in the association across race/ethnicity. The current study used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979. The final sample consisted of 2267 African Americans, 1425 Hispanics, and 3678 non-Hispanic Whites. Ordinary linear regression analyses and logistic regression analyses were conducted. African Americans and Hispanics were more likely to be in poverty in comparison with non-Hispanic Whites. More African Americans were unemployed than Whites. Those who received fringe benefits, were more satisfied with jobs, and were employed were more likely to have higher levels of self-esteem. Poverty was negatively associated with self-esteem. Interaction effects were found between African Americans and job satisfaction predicting self-esteem. The role of employers is important in cultivating employees' self-esteem. Satisfactory outcomes or feelings of happiness from the workplace may be more important to non-Hispanic Whites compared to African Americans and Hispanics.

COVID-19 induced shocks and its implications for human capital development

BackgroundCOVID-19 has delivered an enormous shock to the global economy, triggering the deepest recession in eight decades, almost three times as deep as the 2009 global recession. Of all the nations in Africa, Nigeria remains one of the nations with a huge and significant impact on the human capital.MethodsHence, here we employed the recent nationally representative data from Nigeria - the COVID-19 National Longitudinal Phone Survey 2020-World Bank Living Standards Measurement Study Integrated Agriculture Survey (LSMS-ISA), a harmonized dataset to explore how the COVID-19 induced shocks affected households’ human capital development (using health and education outcomes).ResultsThe results indicate that the COVID-19 induced shocks impact on both health and education in Nigeria. Interestingly, access to social safety nets had a positive association with the health and education outcomes. The study concludes that households’ access to social safety nets, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic aids in the development of the nation’s human capital. Therefore, effectively enhancing household’s resilience and strengthening human capital development require positive and considerable innovation, maybe over a period of years. Hence, just an access to the national social safety nets programs or social programs may not be as effective as expected. Therefore, it may not be as successful as intended to just have access to national social safety net programs or social programs that contribute or transfer negligible amounts to the vulnerable recipients over short time frames.

Parental involvement and education outcomes of their children

ABSTRACT This study investigates the impact of parental involvement on the education outcomes of their children, specifically focusing on the completion of high school. It extends the existing literature by considering the characteristics of both children and parents, and by examining non-school-related parental involvement in a child’s everyday life. The analysis utilizes a publicly available database, the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, with a sample of American respondents born between 1983 and 1984 who lived with both birth parents during their early teenage years. The study employs simple logistic regression and subclassification on propensity score to estimate causal treatment effects. The results indicate that higher parental involvement is associated with an increased probability of high school graduation, while stricter parental behaviour is found to decrease the expected likelihood of completing high school.

Twentieth-Century Change in the Educational Costs of Adolescent Childbearing.

Although studies observe heterogeneity in the effects of adolescent childbearing on schooling, little is currently known about when this pattern emerged or how it changed across cohorts of women who lived in distinct periods of US history. This article identifies the potential origins of effect heterogeneity in the educational costs of adolescent childbearing and extends recent advances in causal inference to detect group differences in heterogeneity. The analysis applies this approach to four cohorts of women from the National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS) who entered adolescence before, during, and after expansive economic, demographic, and cultural change in the twentieth century. Results suggest that the educational costs of adolescent childbearing, as well as heterogeneity in those costs, increased for women in the latter half of the twentieth century, especially for millennial women born 1980-84. The authors conclude that midcentury social changes fundamentally altered the educational costs of adolescent childbearing for women.

Differences in Time to Reported First Arrest by Race, National Origin, and Immigrant Generation: A Test of Assimilation Theories

This study examines immigrant assimilation theories by focusing on arrest during adolescence and adult life using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, a nationally representative panel study that follows children from adolescence through adulthood. The analysis compares outcomes for the first and second-generation of Mexican origin and other parts of Latin America to third- and fourth-plus generation (1) non-Hispanic white, (2) non-Hispanic black, and (3) Hispanic respondents. This investigation employs survival analyses to account for the timing of arrest and other events (e.g., graduation, childbirth, and employment). Results indicate the first generation, both of Mexican and Other Hispanic origin, are less likely to experience arrest than their higher-generation counterparts, regardless of race/ethnicity of the comparison group.