2023-02-23
Background
Transition to adulthood
Transition to adulthood can be measured in multiple domains, such as: residence, finance, school, employment, romance, and parenting.
How much responsibility and independence in each of the six domains can reflect a young youth’s experience in transitioning to adulthood.
However, the transition is not necessarily linear or isotonic; e.g.,
Scientific question: How do age, sex, race, and family socio-economic status (SES) influence young youth’s experience when transitioning to adulthood?
Method
Cohort
Community-based longitudinal study on 240 young participants who were age 17 at enrollment (1960s-1970s)
Participants were followed from age 17 to 27 on a monthly basis
In each of the follow-up visit, the qualitative data regarding six domains of person’s life were collected through phone calls
- residence, finance, school, employment or career, romance, and parenting
Multiple coders assess the level of independence and responsibility for the six domains, resulting quantitative measures
This analysis focuses on four domains: residence, finance, romance, and parenting
Education and employment were not included in the analysis due to rating difficulty.
Demographics as predicting variables
Snip of the longitudinal data at waves 1, 41, 81, and 121.
| wave | Overall, N = 8731 | 1, N = 2241 | 41, N = 2391 | 81, N = 2391 | 121, N = 1711 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| age | 20.3 (17.0, 23.7) | 17.0 (17.0, 17.0) | 20.3 (20.3, 20.3) | 23.7 (23.7, 23.7) | 27.0 (27.0, 27.0) |
| sex | |||||
| female | 454 (52%) | 113 (50%) | 125 (52%) | 125 (52%) | 91 (53%) |
| male | 419 (48%) | 111 (50%) | 114 (48%) | 114 (48%) | 80 (47%) |
| race | |||||
| white | 811 (93%) | 209 (93%) | 222 (93%) | 222 (93%) | 158 (92%) |
| black | 62 (7.1%) | 15 (6.7%) | 17 (7.1%) | 17 (7.1%) | 13 (7.6%) |
| sesp3 | 9.90 (9.28, 10.64) | 9.90 (9.40, 10.64) | 9.90 (9.28, 10.51) | 9.90 (9.28, 10.51) | 9.90 (9.28, 10.51) |
| 1 Median (IQR) or Frequency (%) | |||||
Outcome variables - transition level (TL)
Ranges between 0 (fully child-like role) and 99 (fully adequate adult role).
Residential TL: living in a parental home vs. fully responsible of establishing and maintaining an independent residence.
Financial TL: completely supported by others vs. stable, secure, and adequate provision for financial needs of the self and potential dependent.
Romantic TL: absence of interest in romantic involvement vs. sustained, reciprocal romantic commitment.
Parenting TL: no children and no interest in conceiving a child in the foreseeable future vs. high committed involvement in child rearing.
Residential TL
residential TL distribution by waves
summary statistics of residential TL
| wave | Overall, N = 873 | 1, N = 224 | 41, N = 239 | 81, N = 239 | 121, N = 171 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| residence | |||||
| Mean (SD) | 45 (22) | 26 (7) | 40 (17) | 54 (20) | 65 (19) |
| Median (IQR) | 38 (25, 68) | 25 (22, 28) | 36 (26, 51) | 60 (36, 70) | 72 (55, 78) |
| Range | 0, 97 | 5, 75 | 1, 90 | 0, 90 | 0, 97 |
Financial TL
financial TL distribution by waves
summary statistics of financial TL
| wave | Overall, N = 873 | 1, N = 224 | 41, N = 239 | 81, N = 239 | 121, N = 171 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| finance | |||||
| Mean (SD) | 42 (25) | 20 (11) | 40 (21) | 53 (21) | 57 (25) |
| Median (IQR) | 40 (25, 62) | 22 (12, 25) | 38 (25, 52) | 55 (40, 70) | 66 (42, 78) |
| Range | 0, 90 | 0, 52 | 0, 85 | 0, 90 | 0, 90 |
Romantic TL
romantic TL distribution by waves
summary statistics of romantic TL
| wave | Overall, N = 873 | 1, N = 224 | 41, N = 239 | 81, N = 239 | 121, N = 171 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| romantic | |||||
| Mean (SD) | 44 (31) | 24 (20) | 39 (28) | 52 (31) | 64 (30) |
| Median (IQR) | 44 (15, 70) | 20 (8, 40) | 40 (15, 58) | 55 (21, 80) | 72 (48, 90) |
| Range | 0, 99 | 0, 90 | 0, 94 | 0, 97 | 0, 99 |
Parenting TL
parenting TL distribution by waves
summary statistics of parenting TL
| wave | Overall, N = 873 | 1, N = 224 | 41, N = 239 | 81, N = 239 | 121, N = 171 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| parenting | |||||
| Mean (SD) | 14 (27) | 1 (6) | 9 (22) | 18 (30) | 32 (35) |
| Median (IQR) | 0 (0, 5) | 0 (0, 0) | 0 (0, 2) | 0 (0, 26) | 10 (0, 75) |
| Range | 0, 97 | 0, 52 | 0, 88 | 0, 97 | 0, 97 |
Models
Common unconditional model
SAS coding:
proc mixed data =tmp2.transition_cleaned method=ml noclprint covtest noitprint;
class id wave;
model Residence = agec sqagec
/solution ddfm=bw notest;
random intercept agec sqagec/ type=un subject=id;
repeated wave / type=ar(1) subject=id;
run;
- age/slope (centered) [
agec] - age squared (centered) [
sqagec] - auto-correlation [
type=ar(1)] - allowing dependence between the random effect terms [
type=UN]
Common unconditional model (continued)
SAS output:
Remarks:
Linear changes over age were not sufficient to describe the basic growth shape; quadratic term for age is needed.
The outcome variables (e.g., residence, finance, …) are not independent over adjacent months, thus autocorrelation needs to be accounted.
We cannot assume the covariance are independent.
Modeling procedure for fixed effects
Backward elimination process on the following terms.
Model 1 - residential TL
SAS output:
Interpretations:
- Age: Residential TL increased linearly at a pace of 4.25 per year.
- Sex and age: Women showed 10.83 higher mean TL than men, with greater annual increase at 0.62. However, when considering the interaction between sex and the quadratic term of age, men began to catch up in their mid 20s.
- Race and age: The main effect of race did not show significance, but White participants increased at a higher rate as compared with Black participants (beta=-1.32).
- SES: SES was not found to be significantly related to Residential TL.
Model 2 - Financial TL
Interpretations:
- Age: Financial TL showed an linear increase of 3.91 per year combined with a 0.36 de-celeration in this increase.
- Sex: The mean TL was higher for men than for women by 4.17.
- Age and SES: SES did not show a significant main effect. However, young people from high-SES families showed greater increase in TL per year than those from low-SES (beta=0.72), and such increase was gradually accelerated (beta=0.14).
- Sex and SES: Women from high-SES families had a higher mean TL than did women from low-SES families (beta=-3.35).
SAS output:
Model 3 - Romantic TL
SAS output:
Interpretations:
- Age: The romantic TL increased 4.09 per year.
- Sex and age: Men showed lower mean romantic TL as compared with female. Even considering the interaction between sex and squared age, female still showed consistently higher romantic TL.
- Race and age: The main effect of race was not significant. However, the linear increase in romantic TL per year was lower for Black as compared with White (beta=-1.70).
- SES and sex: Women from low-SES families showed higher romantic TL than those from higher SES families (beta=4.27).
- Race, sex, and age: Black male reached high romantic TL in early 20s, and move towards lower TL later. Black female initiated slowly, but tended to catch up faster with White female towards the end of youth.
Model 4 - Parenting TL
Interpretations:
- Age: The mean score increase greatly accelerated in the later period.
- Sex and age: Female showed higher mean parenting TL than male (beta=-8.75) with a greater annual increase (beta=-1.72).
- Race and age: Black participants showed lower mean parenting TL than white participants. Further, Black participants showed drastic decrease in parenting TL (beta=-0.65).
- SES and age: Participants from higher SES families showed lower parenting TL and the TL continue to decrease at a faster pace as compared with participants from low-SES families (beta=-0.94).
SAS output:
Conclusion
Summary of results
When considering the four domains that measure youth’s transitioning to adulthood, all demographic factors showed important effect with complex interplay.
Age generally drives the TL towards a higher grade.
Large sex differences were observed for each of the transition trajectories. Female often showed higher mean TL than that from male, except for financial TL. The impact of sex often interact with age, and sometimes in a non-linear fashion.
Summary of results (continued)
SES was found to impact financial TL, romantic TL, and parenting TL. One can argue that education could be an confounder in the relationship between family SES and financial TL. Further analysis is needed on whether and how education plays a role in this context.
Race was found to show impact on all measures of TL that were independent of family SES effect. Particularly when considering residential TL, black participants did not show similar level of independence and responsibility as compared with White participants, suggesting a potential racial bias. Further, Black participants were unlikely to make full romantic/parenting commitment.
References
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Arnett JJ. Emerging adulthood. A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. Am Psychol. 2000 May;55(5):469-80. PMID: 10842426.
Conger RD, Cui M, Bryant CM, Elder GH Jr. Competence in early adult romantic relationships: a developmental perspective on family influences. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2000 Aug;79(2):224-37. doi: 10.1037//0022-3514.79.2.224. PMID: 10948976.