Possible Research Agendas

• Introduction
• Exploring Cognitive and Socio-Emotional Trajectories
• Validity of Repeat Measures
• Early Family and Relationship Transitions and Behaviors
• Young Adult Schooling and Work Outcomes
• Geographic Moves, Location, and Employment
• Non-Normative Behaviors across Generations
• How Children Affect Mothers
• Variation in High School and College Attendance
• Within-Family Differences in Outcomes
• Child Health and Child/Young Adult Outcomes

Introduction

In this section we present examples of a number of research options for which the current data set is highly appropriate. Again we consider both within- and cross-generational research possibilities as we emphasize that a strength of these data is that not only can they be used to explore connections between childhood, adolescence and adulthood, but also to examine connections across generations going back to maternal ages that closely match the ages many of our young adults are now. Additionally, the NLSY79 has large samples at many ages, a large sibling sample, and substantial minority oversamples. 

The primary limitation to using the NLSY79 Child and Young Adult data is that these young adults cannot be generalized to the overall US population of similar ages. Although their mothers are representative of youth ages 14-21 who were living in the United States in 1979, the sample has not been refreshed to reflect changing population characteristics resulting from immigration. However, a subset of these children can be compared with members of the NLSY97 cohort as there is overlap in the years of birth between the two data sets, and the NLSY97 is nationally representative. Additionally, as pointed out earlier, the older young adults are primarily born to younger mothers. However, with every passing wave of data collection, this issue of heterogeneity at the older child ages becomes less of a limitation as the young adult sample is not only increasing in size, but the older young adults are becoming more representative of a broader spectrum of individuals in their twenties who have been born to a more representative group of women. And importantly, the older children at this time represent an ideal sample for exploring a wide range of programmatic and policy issues related to the adjustment process and mainstream economic and social assimilation of disadvantaged youth, while at the same time permitting comparisons with children who have been born to relatively younger but middle class mothers. Samples at the younger ages, however, are quite heterogeneous, especially when children from different birth cohorts are pooled. 

We present topical information pertaining to mothers and to their children in both childhood and young adulthood in Table 1. Information from this table will be selectively utilized in our research examples below.

Table 1.  Cross-Generational Research Possibilities