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A Cohort Comparison of the Transition to Adulthood in the United States DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Bohyun Jang, M.S. Graduate Program in Human Development and Family Science The Ohio State University 2014 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Anastasia Snyder, Advisor Dr. John Casterline Dr. Claire Kamp Dush Dr. Zhenchao Qian Copyrighted by Bohyun Jang 2014 Abstract The transition to adulthood is a critical period of human development when young adults gain a sense of independence and accumulate human capital through various life experiences. Demographically, this is also an important period when many major life transitions occur. With economic globalization and rapid technological changes, young adulthood has extended and become diverse in recent years. Although studies on the transition to adulthood are abundant, some dynamics of the life course during this period are not completely understood. Studies on this topic are often limited because most only consider one or two domains of the life course, even though complexity among various life events has increased during young adulthood. The current study, therefore, investigates changes in the transition to adulthood by comparing two cohorts in the U.S. Various life course events, including family formation, education, employment, and home-leaving, are taken into consideration to account for complexity of life course events. Particularly, this study includes geographic mobility which has been understudied but has significant implications for obtaining independence and future outcomes. I use data from the public and geocode files from both the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 Cohort (NLSY97) to examine the transition to adulthood and compare it across cohorts. These data are well suited for this dissertation because both contain a wide range of life ii course information, and respondents from each dataset have undergone the same developmental stages at different historical times (i.e. their 20s during 1980s and in the 2000s for the NLSY79 and 97 respectively). This dissertation is separated into three independent studies; first, in chapter 2, I use Latent Class Analysis to investigate distinct patterns in the transition to adulthood for men and women. Results show that young adults in the NLSY97 are more disproportionately distributed to different classes, which indicates their diverse paths to adulthood compared to those of the NLSY79. In the following chapter, I examine the complexity of life course transitions by focusing on mobility and union formation. Findings reveal that life course events are closely related to each other but the relationship differs by cohort, pointing to contextual influence on young adults’ life courses. As a decision on the life course is likely made in concert with other life events, chapter 4 examines endogeneity between life course transitions. I find that unobserved characteristics affect the estimation of life course events in both cohorts, and therefore ignoring the factors could misrepresent the actual relationship between life events. From these findings, I address implications of theory, methodology, and social policy for those in the transition to adulthood in chapter 5. iii Acknowledgements I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to my advisor, Dr. Tasha Snyder, for her continued mentorship, patience, and support throughout my graduate career. From the very beginning of my graduate program at OSU, she has provided me with great opportunities for research and career. Her guidance and encouragement has helped me develop my professional expertise and navigate research paths. I particularly thank her for believing in my ability and giving such endless support and encouragement. It was at times hard for me to deal with challenges but she was always accountable. She offered me intelligent advice and opportunities to facilitate external resources to pass through the challenges. Further, she helped me adapt to a new environment in the United States which is different than my home, South Korea. It is not sufficient to express my gratitude to her in the space allotted here. I am sincerely grateful to you, Tasha! I also wish to thank my dissertation committee members, Drs. John Casterline, Claire Kamp Dush, and Zhenchao Qian, for their continuous support and guidance. John has given me such great advice to write down my idea in a ‘do’ file and sharpen my analytic skills. He also provides insightful advice for my short- and long- term careers, which I deeply appreciate. Claire has inspired me to develop professional expertise by offering great amount of feedback and practical tips. I have learned tremendously from working with her, both her expertise and passion. Further, I am grateful to Zhenchao who iv facilitated my understanding of advanced statistical methods. I took his method course in my first year at OSU. I remember him taking me a tour to a researcher lab and making sure that I do not have any problem to do a research project. Until now, he has given me continuous support. I truly appreciate all of their advice and support. I am grateful to my friends from HDFS, IPR, and church and academic colleagues who supported and encouraged me over the years. They are good friends, counselors, and consultants. I also want to thank my friends in Korea who have been there for me whenever I need them. Although we have a time difference of 14 hours, they have shown great amount of support for me. Further, I thank the Institute for Population Research and Department of Human Sciences at the Ohio State University for giving me various research opportunities and a space to grow as a scholar. I express heartfelt gratitude to my family - mom, dad, sister, brother, and husband-to-be, Hong-Min. Without their love, prayer, and support, I would have not made it. They made me laugh and smile. Even though I do not see you as often as I used to, I still love you and miss you so much every day. Thank God for giving me this great opportunity to do my Ph.D. at OSU and having all these wonderful people in my life! v Vita February 2000 ................................................Hye-Sung High school, Seoul, S. Korea 2004................................................................B.S. Human Development and Family Science and Sociology, Kyung-Hee University, Seoul, S. Korea 2006................................................................M.S. Family Studies, Kyung-Hee University, Seoul, S. Korea 2009 to present ..............................................Graduate Research and Teaching Associate, Graduate Fellow, Department of Human Sciences, The Ohio State University Publications Jang, B., Casterline, J., & Snyder, A. (2014). Migration and marriage in the United States: Modeling the Joint Process, Demographic Research, 30(47), 1339-1366. Fields of Study Major Field: Human Development and Family Science vi Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iv Vita ..................................................................................................................................... vi Table of Contents .............................................................................................................. vii List of Tables ................................................................................................................... viii List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... x Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: Differences in the transition to adulthood by gender and cohort .................... 14 Chapter 3: Moving and union formation: a cohort comparison of the association between life course events .............................................................................................. 45 Chapter 4: Modeling the joint process between life course events ................................... 76 Chapter 5: Conclusions ................................................................................................... 120 Appendix A: Measurement of cohabitation in the NLSY79 .......................................... 128 References ....................................................................................................................... 129 vii List of Tables Table 2.1 Model Fit Information used in selecting the LCA model ................................. 40 Table 2.2 Item-response probabilities for men (a) and women (b) ................................... 41 Table 2.3 Multinomial logistic regressions for predicting latent class membership ........ 43 Table 3.1 Description of sample by first union formation ................................................ 71 Table 3.2 Description of mobility by first union formation.............................................. 72 Table 3.3 Comparison of mobility in the NLSY97 by different measurement units ........ 73 Table 3.4 Cox proportional hazard models predicting first union .................................... 74 Table 3.5 Cox competing risks models predicting