Effects of early marriage and marriage deferment on educational attainment and occupational achievement of black and white youth were investigated in a longitudinal study of 1,052 rural youth from Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas. Data were obtained from the larger Southern Youth Study, 1966-72. Within the…

A process model which included the influences of social origin, encouragement, and the formation of adolescent period attitudes as antecedents of early marital and fertility behavior was constructed and evaluated using three-wave panel data obtained from 176 nonmetropolitan females from selected Alabama, Georgia, Texas, and South Carolina high…

Career and career related preference expressed by a number of rural Southern high school youth were found to moderately predict their early adult behaviors. Preferences for post high school education were the dominant influence and single best predictor of subsequent educational attainment. Moderate linkages were also found to exist between…