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Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), this study aimed to disentangle problem behavior syndrome by identifying the unique developmental pathways of adolescent sexual risk, alcohol use and delinquency. This study also investigated how early adolescent processes of risk and protection were associated with the growth of these risk behaviors during adolescence. Using a developmental psychopathology and resilience framework, risk trajectories were measured with adolescents aged 15 to 24, and antecedents were measured with early adolescents ages 10 to 14 ( N = 1778). Using Latent Class Growth Analyses (LCGA), joint trajectory analyses revealed five distinct adolescent risk taking groups: high sex and alcohol, moderate problem behavior, problem behavior, alcohol-only, and alcohol and delinquency experimentation. Early adolescent externalizing problems were particularly important in understanding adolescent risk group membership. The co-occurrence between sexual risk and alcohol use, the diversity of problem behavior syndrome, and potential intervention and prevention efforts are discussed.

CHAPTER 2: Strategic Parenting, Birth Order and School Performance. Interest on the effects of birth order on human capital accumulation has recently reemerged. The debate about its existence seems to be settled, but identification of the main mechanisms remains somewhat elusive. While the latest research aims at rediscovering dilution theory, we advance complementary economic hypotheses regarding the causal mechanisms underlying birth order effects in education. In particular, we entertain theories of differential discipline in which those who are born later face more lenient disciplinary environments. In such contexts, the later born sibling will be likely to exert lower school effort, thus reaching lower performance levels. We provide robust empirical evidence on substantial attenuation parental restrictions for those with higher birth order (born later). We speculate this may arise a) as a result of parental reputation dynamics and/or b) because of the changing relative cost of alternative monitoring and punishment technologies available to parents as well as increasing enforcing costs that must be afforded when multiple children must be monitored at the same time.

This dissertation has three main findings. First, the effects of non-normative childbearing are different across health outcomes, although some overlap does exist. Second, more extreme deviations from normative reproductive patterns have negative consequences for later life indirectly through social, economic, and health statuses. In particular, an early initiation of childbearing coupled with high parity is associated with an elevated mortality risk and worse self-rated health through the mechanism of lower educational attainment. Mothers who delay childbearing until at least the later twenties and achieve high parity tend to be more depressed and have worse self-rated health, but these effects are mediated by other health outcomes. Finally, I find that extending childbearing into the last decade of the reproductive period can be detrimental for the well-being of mothers in terms of their self-ratings of health. However, this is also accounted for by late life health, depression in particular. The findings of this dissertation highlight the need to consider multiple dimensions of reproductive patterns because of the demonstrated differences in their effects on later well-being, as well as multiple dimensions of life course correlates and consequences of reproductive patterns and health because of the demonstrated differences in the mediation of relationships of non-normative reproductive patterns and indicators of well-being.

Individual differences are found in both simple and compound rates of growth. BPI and gender have different relationship with simple rates of growth at different ages. BPI is also found to be negatively related to compound rates of growth. Finally, a systematic simulation study is conducted to validate the results from the analysis of the NLSY data and to investigate the performance of two main models, the quadratic growth rate model and the random coefficient latent difference score model. The simulation results support the validity of the results from the empirical data analysis. It is further found that the parameter estimates for both models are unbiased and the standard error estimates are consistent.