Search Results

Author: Smith, Chelsea
Resulting in 9 citations.
1. Cavanagh, Shannon
Smith, Chelsea
Behler, Rachel
Ressler, Robert Wayne
Cozzolino, Elizabeth
Economic Volatility and Union Formation in Young Adulthood
Presented: Chicago IL, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2017
Cohort(s): NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Cohabitation; Economic Changes/Recession; Geocoded Data; Marital History/Transitions; Marriage

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The romantic lives of young adults have undergone profound change. Still, many continue to form unions during this life stage. Building on literature that highlights the significance of economic resources in shaping unions and life course theory's emphasis on linked lives and historical context, we consider how economic volatility, measured within families of origin, communities in which they live, and the historic moment (e.g., the Great Recession), can shape how young people's romantic lives unfolds. Using a sample drawn from the NLSY79-YA and geocode data, we estimated union formation sequences using person-month data and explored how sources of economic volatility shaped young people's romantic lives. Overall, three sequences emerged: mostly single, early cohabitation, and early and persistent marriage. Remaining single was the modal category. Income-to-needs volatility was associated with cohabitation, with young people raised in more volatile households, net of important covariates, more likely to cohabit than others.
Bibliography Citation
Cavanagh, Shannon, Chelsea Smith, Rachel Behler, Robert Wayne Ressler and Elizabeth Cozzolino. "Economic Volatility and Union Formation in Young Adulthood." Presented: Chicago IL, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2017.
2. Cozzolino, Elizabeth
Smith, Chelsea
Crosnoe, Robert
Family-related Disparities in College Enrollment across the Great Recession
Sociological Perspectives 61,5 (October 2018): 689-710.
Also: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0731121418760542
Cohort(s): NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: Pacific Sociological Association
Keyword(s): College Enrollment; Current Population Survey (CPS) / CPS-Fertility Supplement; Economic Changes/Recession; Family History; Family Income; Geocoded Data; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Unemployment Rate, Regional

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The economic crisis of the Great Recession in the late 2000s had implications for the intergenerational transmission of inequality within families. Studying patterns of college enrollment across the Great Recession among U.S. youth from diverse family contexts provides insight into how economic volatility can either compound or undercut the advantages that some parents can give their children. Although college enrollment among 18- to 21-year-olds did not decline during or after the Great Recession, analyses of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979-Young Adult cohort revealed that this general trend subsumed variability by family history, local economic conditions, and age. Histories of family stability and sufficiency were associated with higher odds of college enrollment over time and across age, but this advantage was largest during the Recession in high-unemployment communities. These results illuminate how life course consequences of early family life can fluctuate with volatility and opportunity in the broader economy.
Bibliography Citation
Cozzolino, Elizabeth, Chelsea Smith and Robert Crosnoe. "Family-related Disparities in College Enrollment across the Great Recession." Sociological Perspectives 61,5 (October 2018): 689-710.
3. Crosnoe, Robert
Smith, Chelsea
Structural Advantages, Personal Capacities, and Young Adult Functioning during the Great Recession
Presented: San Diego CA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April-May 2015
Cohort(s): NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Economic Changes/Recession; Family Formation; Family Structure; Grade Point Average (GPA)/Grades; Pearlin Mastery Scale; Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) (see Self-Esteem)

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Past research has demonstrated that severe economic downturns can have a major impact on the life course, and the Great Recession is unlikely to be an exception. Informed by life course theory, we describe how the transition into adulthood may have been sped up or slowed down by the Great Recession and how these effects may have varied according to family backgrounds and psychological/behavioral capacities. Historical comparisons of multiple cohorts of young adults in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth--Young Adult cohort revealed some evidence that the Great Recession slowed down school enrollment, labor force entry, partnering, and becoming a parent among 18-25 year olds. The prevalence was especially low in the supposed recovery year of 2010, and school enrollment was the least affected status. This slow-down was more age group-specific for family roles. Variation by family background and psychological/behavioral factors was minimal.
Bibliography Citation
Crosnoe, Robert and Chelsea Smith. "Structural Advantages, Personal Capacities, and Young Adult Functioning during the Great Recession." Presented: San Diego CA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April-May 2015.
4. Crosnoe, Robert
Smith, Chelsea
Strohschein, Lisa
Human Capital in the Family and Early Transitions into Parenthood in the United States and Canada
Presented: Dublin, Ireland, Society for Longitudinal and Life Course Studies (SLLS) International Conference, October 2015
Cohort(s): NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: Society for Longitudinal and Life Course Studies
Keyword(s): Age at First Birth; Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY); Cross-national Analysis; Educational Attainment; Human Capital; Parenthood

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Due to changing economic realities and evolving social norms, the age at which women and men transition in to parenthood is climbing in North America. Yet, despite this delayed parenthood, many men and women still become parents in their teens through early 20s, and these early transitions into parenthood are a window into both life course dynamics and societal inequality. Consider family human capital. The educational attainment of parents may factor into the timing of this transition because it is a marker of socioeconomic status, with all of the associated resources, opportunities, and norms, while the educational pathways of young people themselves may also matter because they shape current and future social and economic prospects. This multigenerational significance of human capital to the timing of parenthood, however, is likely structured by the broader institutional and cultural landscape. In Canada, the greater social safety net could blunt the degree to which human capital differentiates young people on early parenthood. At the same time, because of the greater prevalence of young parents in the U.S. (relative to Canada), early parenthood is less exceptional, possibly blunting the differentiating effects of human capital in that country. In this spirit, this study examines how transitions into parenthood are embedded in family histories within broader national contexts. We will apply event history analyses to the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979-Young Adult Survey (U.S.), examining the timing of births before the age of 22 (for women and men), how the educational attainment of parents and young people themselves predict this timing, and how these links between family human capital and the timing of parenthood vary between countries. Doing so will offer insights into the ways that societies reinforce and break intergenerational transmissions of inequality.
Bibliography Citation
Crosnoe, Robert, Chelsea Smith and Lisa Strohschein. "Human Capital in the Family and Early Transitions into Parenthood in the United States and Canada." Presented: Dublin, Ireland, Society for Longitudinal and Life Course Studies (SLLS) International Conference, October 2015.
5. Green, Michael J.
Stritzel, Haley
Smith, Chelsea
Popham, Frank
Crosnoe, Robert
Timing of Poverty in Childhood and Adolescent Health: Evidence from the US and UK
Social Science and Medicine 197 (January 2018): 136-143.
Also: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953617307347
Cohort(s): NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Adolescent Health; British Household Panel Survey (BHPS); Childhood Adversity/Trauma; Children, Poverty; Family Income; Health, Mental/Psychological; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Poverty; Smoking (see Cigarette Use)

Childhood poverty is associated with poorer adolescent health and health behaviours, but the importance of the timing of poverty remains unclear. There may be critical or sensitive periods in early life or early adolescence, or poverty may have cumulative effects throughout childhood. Understanding when poverty is most important can support efficient timing of interventions to raise family income or buffer against the effects of low income, but answers may vary across social contexts. The US and the UK are a useful comparison with similar liberal approaches to cash transfers, but very different approaches to healthcare provision. Utilising data from large population studies in the US (n = 9408; born 1979-1996) and UK (n = 1204; born 1991-1997), this study employs a structured life course approach to compare competing hypotheses about the importance of the timing or pattern of childhood exposure to poverty in predicting adolescent health limitations, symptoms of psychiatric distress, and smoking at age 16 (age 15/16 in US). Household income histories identified experience of poverty (measured as <60% of the national median equivalised income for a given year) in early life (ages 0-5), mid-childhood (ages 6-10) and early adolescence (ages 11-15). The Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) compared fit across models with variables representing different life course patterns of exposure to poverty. Adolescent distress was not associated with poverty in either country. In both countries, however, variables representing cumulative or persistent experiences of poverty exhibited optimal fit of all poverty exposure variables in predicting adolescent smoking and health limitations. There was also evidence of an early life sensitive period for smoking in the US. Poverty was more persistent in the US, but associations between poverty and outcomes were consistent across countries. Although poverty can have cumulative effects on health and behaviour, early interventions may offer the best long-term protection.
Bibliography Citation
Green, Michael J., Haley Stritzel, Chelsea Smith, Frank Popham and Robert Crosnoe. "Timing of Poverty in Childhood and Adolescent Health: Evidence from the US and UK." Social Science and Medicine 197 (January 2018): 136-143.
6. Smith, Chelsea
Family, Academic, and Peer Group Predictors of Adolescent Pregnancy Expectations and Young Adult Childbearing
Journal of Family Issues 39,4 (March 2018): 1008-1029.
Also: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0192513X16684894
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Sage Publications
Keyword(s): Age at First Birth; Childbearing, Adolescent; Expectations/Intentions; Parenthood; Peers/Peer influence/Peer relations

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Compared with previous generations, today's young people increasingly delay parenthood. Having children in the late teens and early 20s is thus a rarer experience rooted in and potentially leading to the stratification of American families. Understanding why some adolescents expect to do so can illuminate how stratification unfolds. Informed by theories of the life course, social control, and reasoned action, this study used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort (n = 4,556) to explore outcomes and antecedents of adolescent pregnancy expectations with logistic regressions. Results indicated that those expectations--including neither low nor high (i.e., split) expectations--predicted subsequent childbearing. These apparently consequential expectations were, in turn, most closely associated with youth's academics and peer groups. These findings illustrate how different domains can intersect in the early life course to shape future prospects, and they emphasize split pregnancy expectations reported in a nationally representative sample of young women and men.
Bibliography Citation
Smith, Chelsea. "Family, Academic, and Peer Group Predictors of Adolescent Pregnancy Expectations and Young Adult Childbearing." Journal of Family Issues 39,4 (March 2018): 1008-1029.
7. Smith, Chelsea
The Push and the Pull: Adolescents' Expectations for Early Pregnancy
Presented: New York NY, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2013
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Adolescent Behavior; Adolescent Sexual Activity; Life Course; Pregnancy, Adolescent; Risk-Taking; Substance Use

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Expecting to become pregnant in the near future―a major influence on later behavior—separates adolescents in terms of both their current circumstances and future prospects. The author used categorical measures and multinomial logistic regression to examine expectations for pregnancy within the next 5 years using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort (NLSY97). The sample consisted of respondents in late adolescents, a critical age period when young people’s future plans begin to change from hypothetical ideas to actual realities. With a foundation in theories of the life course, social control, and reasoned action, the goals of this study were: to determine how risky behavior may increase (“push up”) pregnancy expectations and academic success may decrease (“pull down”) expectations, and to examine how such associations may differ by gender and age. Overall, results suggested that risky behavior did act as a push factor and academic success did act as a pull factor, but gender differences were more pronounced for push factors and age differences were more pronounced for pull factors (though not always in the hypothesized direction). Substance use was a common factor whereas delinquency and early sexual activity mattered only for adolescent boys. Academically, gifted classes indeed acted a pull factor for boys but GPA was associated with higher pregnancy expectations for girls. Interaction effects demonstrated that these associations tended to be strongest among younger adolescents. This study revealed that the most disadvantaged young people held higher expectations for experiencing early pregnancy, especially among boys.
Bibliography Citation
Smith, Chelsea. "The Push and the Pull: Adolescents' Expectations for Early Pregnancy." Presented: New York NY, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2013.
8. Smith, Chelsea
Crosnoe, Robert
Chao, Shih-Yi
Family Background and Contemporary Changes in Young Adults' School-Work Transitions and Family Formation in the United States
Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 46,A (December 2016): 3-10.
Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0276562416300099
Cohort(s): NLSY79, NLSY97
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Family Background and Culture; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Labor Force Participation; Marriage; Parenthood; Transition, Adulthood; Transition, School to Work

The oft-discussed lengthening of the transition into adulthood is unlikely uniform across diverse segments of the population. This study followed youth in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and 1997 cohorts (n = 12,686 and 8,984, respectively) from 16 to 32 years old to investigate this trend in the United States, examining cross-cohort changes in transitions with a focus on differences by family background. Logistic regressions revealed that young adults in the most recent cohort were less likely to have completed schooling, fully entered the labor force, married, or become parents by their 30s than those in the older cohort. The cross-cohort drop in young adults completing schooling was more pronounced among youth from more disadvantaged family backgrounds, the drop in entering the labor force and having children was more pronounced among those from more advantaged backgrounds, and the drop in marriage did not differ by family background.
Bibliography Citation
Smith, Chelsea, Robert Crosnoe and Shih-Yi Chao. "Family Background and Contemporary Changes in Young Adults' School-Work Transitions and Family Formation in the United States." Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 46,A (December 2016): 3-10.
9. Smith, Chelsea
Strohschein, Lisa
Crosnoe, Robert
Family Histories and Teen Pregnancy in the United States and Canada
Journal of Marriage and Family 80,5 (October 2018): 1244-1258.
Also: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jomf.12512
Cohort(s): NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing, Inc. => Wiley Online
Keyword(s): Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY); Childhood Adversity/Trauma; Cross-national Analysis; Family Circumstances, Changes in; Family Structure; Poverty; Pregnancy, Adolescent

Objective: This study took a long view of childhood experiences that can contribute to the risk of teen pregnancy in the United States and Canada, two countries with different norms and policies surrounding family life and inequality.

Background: Teenage pregnancy is a major life experience arising from life course trajectories unfolding during a young woman's childhood. Cross‐national comparisons can elucidate family‐based pathways while embedding youth within broader national contexts of the United States and Canada, which are similar in some respects yet different in others.

Method: Longitudinal data from the U.S. National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Young Adult Survey (n = 3,122) and the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (n = 2,517) connected childhood histories to teenage pregnancy. Competing risk models estimated the risk of teenage pregnancy with family structure changes and episodes in poverty during childhood.

Results: Teenage pregnancy, family change, and poverty were more common in the United States. In the United States, only multiple experiences of instability and poverty were associated with greater risk of teenage pregnancy, but, in Canada, any experience of childhood disadvantage was associated with elevated risk.

Bibliography Citation
Smith, Chelsea, Lisa Strohschein and Robert Crosnoe. "Family Histories and Teen Pregnancy in the United States and Canada." Journal of Marriage and Family 80,5 (October 2018): 1244-1258.