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Title: Childhood Family Structure and the Transition to Adulthood
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. VanOrman, Alicia
Childhood Family Structure and the Transition to Adulthood
Presented: Washington, DC, Population Association of America Annual Meetings, March 31-April 2, 2011
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Childhood; Educational Attainment; Family Structure; Fertility; Modeling, Growth Curve/Latent Trajectory Analysis; Schooling, Post-secondary; Transition, Adulthood

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

Family structure research typically examines single outcomes (e.g., fertility, educational attainment) during young adulthood, while an emerging literature on the ‘transition to adulthood' views outcomes as a developmental process with significant heterogeneity across individuals. This study links these literatures by investigating family structure as a determinant of the pathway to adulthood with family income as a potential mechanism. The data come from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) and use latent class analysis to model the transition to adulthood. Results suggest family structure differentiates broad types of pathways: nonmarital union formation and childbearing pathways from post-secondary educational attainment or marital family formation pathways. Family income partially mediates the relationship between family structure and the pathway to adulthood for youth originating from marital family structures. Income does not mediate the relationship for youth from nonmarital family structures.
Bibliography Citation
VanOrman, Alicia. "Childhood Family Structure and the Transition to Adulthood." Presented: Washington, DC, Population Association of America Annual Meetings, March 31-April 2, 2011.