Studies of early-career teachers in the 1970s-1990s find that one-quarter to one-half of teachers who left the classroom eventually returned and that returning was associated with teachers' gender and their child-rearing responsibilities. However, much has changed in the last forty years. Women are more likely to continue to participate in the…

Undergraduate college-going is now undertaken well into adulthood, but knowledge about what leads individuals to enroll derives nearly entirely from the study of the "traditionally-aged". I examine whether and how predictors of enrollment vary as individuals progress through the life-course using nationally representative data from the…

While research consistently finds positive earnings returns to educational attainment, there is little evidence on postsecondary education's impact on other employment-related outcomes. Yet nonpecuniary returns to schooling are particularly important in the United States, where fringe benefits are typically tied to employment and there is a great…

This study examines a range of GED recipients' life course contexts and experiences and their relationship with long-term outcomes. Using descriptive comparisons, bivariate tests, and propensity-score matched regression models to analyze data from rounds 1-15 of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997, analyses aim to examine: (1)…

Why do men in the United States today complete less schooling than women? One reason may be gender differences in early self-regulation and prosocial behaviors. Scholars have found that boys' early behavioral disadvantage predicts their lower average academic achievement during elementary school. In this study, I examine longer-term effects: Do…

Often in sociology, researchers are confronted with nonnormal variables whose joint distribution they wish to explore. Yet, assumptions of common measures of dependence can fail or estimating such dependence is computationally intensive. This article presents the copula method for modeling the joint distribution of two random variables, including…

This study estimates the high school dropout rate in rural and urban areas, the determinants of dropping out, and whether the differences in graduation rates have changed over time. We use geocoded data from two nationally representative panel household surveys (NLSY 97 and NLSY 79) and a novel methodology that corrects for biases in graduation…

Longitudinal data from the children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) were used to assess how well measures of short-term and working memory and attention in early childhood predicted longitudinal growth trajectories in mathematics and reading comprehension. Analyses also examined whether changes in memory and attention were more…

The purpose of this study was to predict occupational choices based on demographic variables and high school curriculum tracks. Based on an analysis of the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) data set that examined high school graduates' occupational choices in 2006, findings indicated that CTE graduates were 2.7 times more likely to…

Data on psychological influences of financial behaviors has not been well addressed in student populations, which is concerning given the high levels of general and financial stress experienced by college students. The findings of this study indicate that college students with an external locus of control exhibit the worst financial behaviors.…

This study investigated the relation between building human capital of former dropouts and their occupational standing and the interaction effects with individual characteristics. By applying the growth curve model, this study highlighted the factors that lead high school dropouts to enhance their occupational standing. An increment in the work…

Duncan et al. (2007) presented a new methodology for identifying kindergarten readiness factors and quantifying their importance by determining which of children's developing skills measured around kindergarten entrance would predict later reading and math achievement. The main objectives of this paper are threefold: (a) provide new empirical…

This research investigates causes of the widening Black-White gap in dropout rates during the 2000s using two cohorts of National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth, NLSY79 and NLSY97. The authors found four factors which contributed to the widening of the Black-White gap: school suspension policies, peer impact, fatherless households, and the…

Background: Sexual risk taking during adolescence such as failure to use contraception or condoms is associated with premature parenthood and high rates of sexually transmitted infection. The relation of childhood personality to sexual risk taking during adolescence has been largely unexplored. Methods: Using data collected from participants in…

Corporal punishment has been the focus of considerable study over the past decade. Some recent research suggesting that the use of corporal punishment may have significant long-term negative effects on children has prompted increasing exploration and interest in the issue. We used tobit regression analysis and data from the 2000 National…