title: Parental and adolescent health behaviors and pathways to adulthood.
abstract: This paper examines associations among parental and adolescent health behaviors and pathways to adulthood. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we identify a set of latent classes describing pathways into adulthood and examine health-related predictors of these pathways. The identified pathways are consistent with prior research using other sources of data. Results also show that both adolescent and parental health behaviors differentiate pathways. Parental and adolescent smoking are associated with lowered probability of the higher education pathway and higher likelihood of the work and the work & family pathways (entry into the workforce soon after high school completion). Adolescent drinking is positively associated with the work pathway and the higher education pathway, but decreases the likelihood of the work & family pathway. Neither parental nor adolescent obesity are associated with any of the pathways to adulthood. When combined, parental/adolescent smoking and adolescent drinking are associated with displacement from the basic institutions of school, work, and family.
authors.affiliation: University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL, USA. Electronic address: sbauldry@uab.edu.
authors.forename: Shawn
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bauldry
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Shanahan
authors.affiliation: Universita Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, Italy.
authors.forename: Ross
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Macmillan
authors.affiliation: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA.
authors.forename: Richard A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Miech
authors.affiliation: University of Colorado, Boulder, USA.
authors.forename: Jason D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Boardman
authors.affiliation: Data Group, Microsoft, Cambridge, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Danielle
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: O Dean
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA.
authors.forename: Veronica
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Cole
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000067697:Adolescent Health; D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents; D012907:Smoking
keywords: Adolescent health behaviors; Parent health behaviors; Transition to adulthood