Transition to Adulthood in the United States
This project addresses the question how and why youth of different social, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds master or fail in regulating the transition from high school to work life and/or college in a large metropolitan area of the US, Los Angeles. This transition is particularly risky in the US, because little institutional guidance is provided for starting and establishing a vocational career. We are tracking the progress of 1086 high-school graduates from the 2002 senior class in the Los Angeles Unified School Destrict across this important transition into adulthood. Which psychological (motivation, control striving), social support (family, friends), and socio-structural (parents' education, ethnicity) factors determine successful transitions into adult employment and/or higher education? In addition to motivational variables, we are investigating social networks, social support by peers, parents and very important adults, and the impact of parental educational background and the neighborhood.
The project profits from the expertise of three co-investigators on the faculty of the Department of PSB:
- Chuansheng Chen, Ph.D.
- David Dooley, Ph.D.
- Ellen Greenberger, Ph.D.
The following graduate students were/are involved in this project:
- Carrie Carmody, M.A.
- Esther Chang, Ph.D., now Assistant Professor at SOKA University
- William Chung, M.A.
- Jared Lessard, M.A.
- Laura Gil-Trejo, M.A.
- Michael Poulin, Ph.D., now at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Transition to Adulthood in Germany
This project addresses the transition from school to work in German middle-tier high-school (i.e., Realschule) seniors in a large metropolitan area of Germany, Berlin. The school-to-work transition in Germany is facilitated by the apprenticeship and dual-education (vocational school plus training in a company) system. We have been tracking 768 high-school seniors from two lower and two middle-class areas in East and West Berlin throughout 9th and 10th grade and for two years after middle-tier high-school graduation (end of 10th grade). Which psychological (motivation, control striving), social support (friends, family), and sociostructural (parents' education) factors determine whether adolescents attain a suitable apprenticeship and/or transition into higher education in a higher-tier school? Findings so far reveal the impressive ability of adolescents to adjust their goals and control strategies to the challenges and experiences during the transition into vocational training.
The project is profiting from the expertise and investment of several collaborators and graduate students:
- Olaf Köller, Ph.D., Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany
- Frieder Lang, Ph.D., University of Erlangen-Nuernberg, Germany
- Susan Farruggia, Ph.D., University of Auckland, New Zealand
- Claudia Haase, M.A., Universitaet Jena, Germany
- Gabriel Nagy, Ph.D., Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
- Michael Poulin, Ph.D., University of Buffalo, NY
- Martin Tomasik, M.A., Universitaet Jena, Germany
- Sam Hardy, Ph.D., Brigham Young University, UT
An Intervention Study of College Students' Academic Aspirations and Control Striving
This project investigates academic aspirations and control strivings in college freshmen who are struggling with the challenges of their majors. The effectiveness of intervention programs targeting goal adjustment and control strategies involved in goal engagement and disengagement are investigated.
Postdoctoral fellow co-directing this project:
Nathan Hall, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, University of Maryland
The Role of Depressed Affect as an Adaptive Trigger for Goal Disengagement
Evolutionary psychiatry and motivational psychology have proposed that depressed affect facilitates disengagement from unattainable goals. This project investigates this hypthesis using experimental and quasi-experimental approaches. The conceptual framework for investigating different action phases and the transition from goal engagement to goal disengagement is the life-span theory of control. In our current work, we induce low or depressed mood and study individuals’ persistence with difficult tasks. We will also explore the relevance of this phenomenon in youth psychopathology, particularly in Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD). Ultimately, we aim at developing intervention strategies based on the findings of our experimental and quasi-experimental work.
Carrie Carmody, M.A.
Shared Agency Among College Students and Their Parents: Ethnic Differences and Developmental Consequences
This project conceptualizes the relationship between college students and their parents as "shared agency". The nature of this "shared agency" as collaborative, in support of the child, or yielding to the child with regard to educational and career goals is examined and its influence on the development of both parents and older children is investigated. We are particularly interested in the similarities and differences across ethnic groups in the consequences of shared agency on students' academic achievement and psycho-social adjustment to college.
Esther Chang, Ph.D., now at SOKA University
Parent and Peer Influences on Health-Related Motivation
This project addresses implicit and explicit influences of parents and peers on adolescents’ health-related beliefs and values. Explicit social influences are those that a social partner intentionally directs at changing someone’s behavior, whereas implicit social influences work through mechanisms of incidental modeling, when the social partner does not actively attempt to change someone else’s behavior. Explicit social influences may elicit reactance and thus have inverse, unintended effects, particularly during developmental transitions into greater autonomy from the social partner (e.g., parents). In contrast, implicit social influences may have paowerful effects on behavior, particularly when the social partners represent desired developmental outcomes.
Jared Lessard, M.A.
Social Relationships and Academic Goal Pursuit in College
This project addresses the role of peer relationships for college-students’ academic goal engagement and academic performance. Previous research has addressed the influences of selecting peer friends with matching academic goals in middle and high-school contexts. Peer selection sets up a social ecology that can either promote or hinder a student’s academic goal attainment by way of socialization effects of the social partners. Little research as addressed such selection and socialization effects in college students. We expect that peer-group and friends’ influences may be particularly important for college students who are the first in their families to attend college. Data collection in this project is underway and will be completed by the end of spring quarter 2008.
Eileen Haddad, B.A.