Precursors of Young Women's Family Formation Pathways.
We used latent class analysis to create family formation pathways for women between the ages of 18 and 23. Input variables included cohabitation, marriage, parenthood, full-time employment, and attending school. Data (n = 2,290) came from Waves I and III of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). The analysis revealed seven latent pathways: college-no family formation (29%), high school-no family formation (19%), cohabitation without children (15%), married mothers (14%), single mothers (10%), cohabiting mothers (8%), and inactive (6%). Three sets of variables distinguished between the groups: personal and social resources in adolescence, family socioeconomic resources and adolescent academic achievement, and conservative values and behavior in adolescence.
Department of Sociology, 211 Oswald Tower, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802-6207.
Paul R
PR
Amato
Nancy S
NS
Landale
Tara C
TC
Havasevich
Alan
A
Booth
David J
DJ
Eggebeen
Robert
R
Schoen
Susan M
SM
McHale