Current trends have allowed some youth a lengthened transition to adulthood, in part because of demographic shifts that delay the time until adolescents assume adult roles. Although these trends are well documented, less research has examined how this impacts vulnerable subgroups. Using a sample of predominantly White youth (ages 18-33) from the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 1,517), this study traces the timing of critical events in emerging adulthood. Using survival analysis, results suggest poverty impacts youth experiences of home leaving, marriage, and parenthood. Low-income youth are at greater risk of early home leaving but less likely to leave after age 18. They are less likely to marry, though they have a greater risk of parenthood prior to age 25. Taken as whole, these outcomes can set youth up for negative trajectories throughout adulthood and may not allow poor youth the same opportunity for an extended period of emerging adulthood.
Allison, P.D. ( 1995). Survival analysis using SAS: A practical guide. Cary, NC: SAS Institute Inc.
2.
Aquilino, W.S. ( 1991). Family structure and home-leaving: A further specification of the relationship. Journal of Marriage and Family, 53, 999-1010.
3.
Arnett, J.J. ( 2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through early twenties. American Psychologist, 55, 469-480.
4.
Arnett, J.J. ( 2001). Conceptions of the transition to adulthood: Perspectives from adolescence through midlife. Journal of Adult Development , 8, 133-143.
5.
Arnett, J.J. ( 2004). Emerging adulthood: The winding road from the late teens through the twenties. New York: Oxford University Press.
6.
Badger, S., Nelson, L.J., & Barry, C.M. ( 2006). Perceptions of the transition to adulthood among Chinese and American emerging adults. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 30, 84-93.
7.
Bitler, M.P., Gelbach, J.B., Hoynes, H.W., & Zavodny, M. ( 2004). The impact of welfare reform on marriage and divorce . Demography, 41, 213-236.
8.
Borkowski, J. G., Farris, J. R., Whitman, T. L., Carothers, S. S., & Weed, K. (Eds.). (2007). Risk and resilience: Adolescent mothers and their children grow up. Philadelphia: Lawrence Erlbaum.
9.
Bramlett, M.D., & Mosher, W.D. ( 2002). Cohabitation, marriage, divorce, and remarriage in the United States (No. Series 23, No. 22). Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics.
10.
Brown, B.V., & Emig, C. ( 1999). Prevalence, patterns, and outcomes. In D. J. Besharov (Ed.), America’s disconnected youth (pp. 101-116). Washington, DC: Child Welfare League of America.
11.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2002). College enrollment and work activity of year 2001 high school graduates. Retrieved April 22, 2003, from http://www.bls.gov/news.release/hsgec.nr0.htm
12.
Chen, H., Cohen, P., Kasen, S., Johnson, J.G., Ehrensaft, M., & Gordon, K. ( 2006). Predicting conflict within romantic relationships during the transition to adulthood. Personal Relationships, 13, 411-427.
13.
Clarke-Stewart, A., & Brentano, C. ( 2006). Divorce: Causes and consequences. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
14.
Corcoran, M., & Adams, T. ( 1997). Race, sex, and the intergenerational transmission of poverty. In G. J. Duncan & J. Brooks-Gunn (Eds.), Consequences of growing up poor (pp. 461-517). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
15.
Darroch, J.E., Frost, J.J., Singh, S., & The Study Team. (2001). Teenage sexual and reproductive behavior in developed countries: Can more progress be made? (No. Occasional Report No. 3). New York: The Alan Guttmacher Institute.
16.
DeMarco, A.C., & Berzin, S.C. ( 2008). The influence of poverty on home leaving patterns during emerging adulthoood. Families in Society, 89, 208-218.
17.
Fergusson, D.M., Boden, J.M., & Horwood, J. ( 2007). Exposure to single parenthood in childhood and later mental health, educational, economic, and criminal behavior outcomes. Archives of General Psychiatry, 64, 1089-1095.
18.
Fox, M.A., Connolly, B.A., & Snyder, T.D. ( 2005). Youth indicators 2005: Trends in the well-being of American youth. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.
19.
Gassonov, M.A., Nicholson, L.M., & Koch-Turner, A. (2008). Expectations to marry among American youth: The effects of unwed fertility, economic activity, and cohabitation . Youth & Society, 40, 265-288.
20.
Goldscheider, F.K., & Goldscheider, C. (1999). The changing transition to adulthood: Leaving and returning home. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
21.
Grubb, W.N. ( 2002). Learning and earning in the middle, Part I: National studies of pre-baccalaureate education. Economics of Education Review, 21, 299-321.
22.
Haskins, R., & Sawhill, I. ( 2003). Work and marriage: The way to end poverty and welfare . Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.
23.
Jordyn, M., & Byrd, M. ( 2003). The relationship between living arrangements of university students and their identity development. Adolescence, 38, 267-278.
24.
Kirby, D. ( 2001). Emerging answers: Research findings on programs to reduce teen pregnancy. Washington, DC: The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.
25.
Kowaleski-Jones, L., & Dunifon, R. ( 2006). Family structure and community context: Evaluating influences on adolescent outcomes. Youth & Society, 38, 110-130.
26.
Ku, I., & Plotnick, R.D. (2000). Do children from welfare families obtain less education? (No. Discussion Paper no. 1217-00). Madison, WI: Institute for Research on Poverty.
27.
Levine, J.A., Pollack, H., & Comfort, M.E. ( 2001). Academic and behavioral outcomes among the children of young mothers. Journal of Marriage and Family, 63, 355-369.
28.
Lichter, D.T., Graefe, D.R., & Brown, J.B. ( 2003). Is marriage a panacea? Union formation among economically disadvantages unwed mothers. Social Problems, 50, 60-86.
29.
Mahaffy, K.A. ( 2003). Gender, race, class, and the transition to adulthood: A critical review of the literature. Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, 9, 15-47.
30.
Manning, W.D., & Smock, P.J. ( 1995). Why marry? Race and the transition to marriage among cohabitors. Demography, 32, 509-520.
31.
Mauldon, J. ( 2003). Families started by teenagers. In M. Mason, A. Skolnick, & S. D. Sugarman (Eds.), All our families: New policies for a new century (2nd ed., pp. 40-65). New York: Oxford University Press.
32.
Maynard, R. ( 1996). Kids having kids: A Robin Hood foundation special report on the costs of adolescent childbearing. New York: Robin Hood Foundation.
33.
Mitchell, B.A. ( 2006). The boomerang age: Transitions to adulthood in families . New Brunswick, NJ: Aldine Transaction .
34.
Morris, P.A., Scott, E.K., & London, A.S. ( 2005). Effects on children of parents’ transitions from welfare to employment: Integrating quantitative and qualitative research. In J. D. Berrick & B. Fuller (Eds.), Good parents or good workers? How policy shapes families’ daily lives (pp. 87-116). New York: Palgrave Macmillon.
35.
Mouw, T. ( 2004). Sequences of early adult transitions: How variable are they, and does it matter? In R. A. Settersten , Jr., F. F. Furstenberg, & R. G. Rumbaut (Eds.), On the frontier of adulthood: Theory, research and public policy (pp. 256-291). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
36.
Musick, K., & Bumpass, L. ( 1998). How do prior experiences in the family affect the transition to adulthood? Madison, WICenter for Demography and Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
37.
Ooms, T. ( 2002, April). Marriage plus. The American Prospect , 13(7). Retrieved from http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=marriage_plus
38.
Pallas, A.M. ( 1993). Schooling in the course of human lives: The social context of education and the transition to adulthood in industrial society. Review of Educational Research, 63, 409-447.
39.
Powell, B., Steelman, L.C., & Carini, R.M. ( 2006). Advancing age, advantaged youth: Parental age and the transmission of resources to children. Social Forces, 84, 1359-1390.
40.
Ribar, D.C. ( 2004). What do social scientists know about the benefits of marriage? A review of quantitative methodologies (Discussion Paper No. 998). Washington, DC: George Washington University and the Institute for the Study of Labor.
41.
Ricciuti, H.N. ( 2004). Single parenthood, achievement, and problem behavior in White, Black, and Hispanic children. Journal of Educational Research, 97, 196-206.
42.
Rosenzweig, M.R., & Wolpin, K.I. ( 1993). Intergenerational support and the life cycle incomes of young men and their parents: Human capital investments, coresidence, and intergenerational financial transfers. Journal of Labor Economics , 11, 84-112.
43.
Schemper, M. ( 1992). Cox analysis of survival data with non-proportional hazard functions. Statistician, 41, 455-465.
44.
Schoeni, R., & Ross, K. ( 2005). Material assistance received from families during the transition to adulthood. In R. A. Settersten , Jr., F. F. Furstenberg, & R. G. Rumbaut (Eds.), On the frontier of adulthood: Theory, research, and public policy (pp. 396-416). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
45.
Shanahan, M.J. ( 2000). Pathways to adulthood in changing societies: Variability and mechanisms in life course perspective. Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 667-692.
46.
State Policy Documentation Project. (2004). Categorical eligibility: Definition of child/temporary absence. Washington, DC: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities .
47.
Sweet, J.A., & Bumpass, L. ( 1996). The National Survey of Families and Households-Waves 1 and 2: Data description and documentation. Madison, WI : Center for Demography and Ecology, University of Wisconsin.
48.
Sweet, J.A., & Bumpass, L. ( 2002). The National Survey of Families and Households-Waves 1, 2, and 3: Data description and documentation. Madison, WI: Center for Demography and Ecology, University of Wisconsin.
49.
Sweet, J.A., Bumpass, L., & Call, V.R.A. ( 1988). The design and content of the national survey of families and households. Madison,WI: Center for Demography and Ecology, University of Wisconsin.
50.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2000). Census 2000 PHC-T-41. A half-century of learning: Historical statistics on educational attainment in the United States, 1940 to 2000, statistical abstract of the United States. Washington, DC: Bureau of Labor Statistics.
51.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2002). Annual demography survey: March supplement. Washington, DC: Bureau of Labor Statistics and Bureau of the Census .
52.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2003). Percent childless and births per 1,000 women in the last year: Selected years, 1976 to present. Retrieved October 15, 2005, from http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/fertility/tabH1.pdf
53.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2004). Age and sex of all people, family members, and unrelated individuals iterated by income-to-poverty ratio and race: 2004 below 100% of poverty. Washington, DC: Author.
54.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2005, June 29). Estimated median age at first marriage, by sex: 1890 to the Present. Retrieved September 20, 2005, from http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/hh-fam/tabMS-2.pdf
55.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2006). Living arrangements of children under 18 years old: 1960 to present: Statistical abstract of the United States. Washington, DC: Bureau of Labor Statistics.
56.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2008). Prior HHS poverty guidelines and federal register references. Retrieved November 10, 2008, from http://aspe.hhs.gov/POVERTY/figures-fed-reg.shtml
57.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ( 2006). Employment rates for single mothers under 200% of poverty 1996-2003: Temporary assistance for needy families program (TANF) seventh annual report to Congress. Washington, DC: Author.
58.
Walsh, S., & Shulman, S. ( 2006). Gender-related needs, challenges, and dangers in the immigration experience in Israel of emerging adults from the former Soviet Union. Sex Roles, 54, 533-546.
59.
Wood, R.G., Rangarajan, A., & Deke, J. ( 2003). Marriage patterns of TANF recipients: Evidence from New Jersey. Mathematic Policy Research, 5, 1-4.
