The college-educated are more likely to vote than are those with less education. Prior research suggests that the effect of college attendance on voting operates directly, by increasing an individual's interest and engagement in politics through social networks or human capital accumulation. College may also increase voting indirectly by leading…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediation effects of children's cognitive and noncognitive traits on the relationship between dropout mothers' traits and their children's educational expectations and to examine the interaction effects of dropout mothers' General Education Development (GED) on children's traits and educational…

Over half of the children in the U.S. experience adversity early in childhood. These experiences, along with conditions in their families and neighborhoods, have profound developmental effects. The bioecological model of development includes these proximal contexts in a theory of development that incorporates the threats and supports present in…

This study examined achievement trajectories in mathematics and reading from school entry through the end of middle school with linear and nonlinear growth curves in 2 large longitudinal data sets (National Longitudinal Study of Youth--Children and Young Adults and Early Childhood Longitudinal Study--Kindergarten Cohort [ECLS-K]). The S-shaped…

The authors investigated the relationship between adolescent occupational aspirations and midlife career success. The model for adolescent occupational aspirations was derived from Gottfredson's (1981) theory of circumscription and compromise. The authors hypothesized that parental socioeconomic status (SES), ability, and gender predict adolescent…

This paper examines the effect of oral health on labor market outcomes by exploiting variation in fluoridated water exposure during childhood. The politics surrounding the adoption of water fluoridation by local governments suggests exposure to fluoride is exogenous to other factors affecting earnings. Exposure to fluoridated water increases…

This article provides new estimates of the causal effect of cultural capital on academic achievement. The author analyzes data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth--Children and Young Adults and uses a fixed effect design to address the problem of omitted variable bias, which has resulted in too optimistic results in previous research.…

As young people progress with their education and their early careers, they find themselves pushed forward or held back at critical junctures without full regard for their individual capabilities. Their paths are too often defined less by their talents and more by characteristics such as their race/ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic or class…

Educational attainment sits at the core of research on social stratification in the United States. An extensive literature details the inequalities in access to levels of education, the socioeconomic rewards conferred upon those reaching higher levels of schooling, and the prospects for social mobility among those able to attain a college degree.…

Longitudinal links between childhood family income and adult outcomes are well documented. However, research on childhood income volatility and young adult outcomes is limited. This study utilizes data from the NLSY (N = 6,410) to examine how childhood family income and income volatility relate to socioeconomic outcomes and mental/behavioral…

A long-standing consensus among sociologists holds that educational attainment has an equalizing effect that increases mobility by moderating other avenues of intergenerational status transmission. This study argues that the evidence supporting this consensus may be distorted by two problems: measurement error in parents' socioeconomic standing…

This dissertation consists of three chapters that examine the effects of school and students improvement interventions. The first chapter investigates whether, for whom, and under which conditions high school mathematics and science course graduation requirements (CGRs) affect student achievement and educational attainment. Drawing on data from…

Numerous studies show large differences between economically advantaged and disadvantaged parents in the quality and quantity of their engagement in young children's development. This "parenting gap" may account for a substantial portion of the gap in children's early cognitive skills. However, researchers know little about whether the…

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, a nationally representative cohort of young adults, the authors analyzed relationship type at the time of a first birth (N = 4,044). More than 10% of births were to a postconception cohabiting household (cohabitations that were initiated between conception and birth), a higher…

Research on family background and educational success focuses almost exclusively on two generations: parents and children. This study argues that the extended family contributes significantly to the total effect of family background on educational success. Analyses using the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study show that, net of family factors shared by…