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Author: Boyd, Emily
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Reynolds, John R.
Boyd, Emily
Burge, Stephanie
Harris, Brandy
Robbins, Cheryl
Does Being Planful Always Pay Off? Agency, Economics, and Achievements by Midlife
Working Paper, Department of Sociology, Florida State University, May 2004.
Also: http://garnet.acns.fsu.edu/~jreynold/nlsy.pdf
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Department of Sociology, Florida State University
Keyword(s): Educational Aspirations/Expectations; Educational Attainment; Life Course; Occupational Aspirations; Occupational Attainment

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Drawing from life course research on agency and structural constraint in the transition to adulthood, this paper measures the influences of planful competence and labor market conditions on adolescents' educational and occupational plans, changes in their career plans over three years, and their achievements at midlife. Adolescents with a purposive orientation toward life combined with general and practical knowledge have more ambitious career plans, more stable plans in young adulthood, and greater educational and occupational achievements by early midlife. Local labor markets are not strongly associated with plans or achievements, though poor local economic conditions do decrease the positive impact of planful competence on early plans for schooling and on occupational attainment at midlife. Important incongruities between early expectations and achievements at midlife exist across race/ethnic groups and between women and men; however, the benefits of adolescent planful competence are comparable across race, class, and gender....This study uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), a multistage, stratified, national random sample of non-institutionalized young men and women living in the United States who were ages 14 to 22 years in 1979....We use data from the 1979, 1982, and 1992 waves to study planful competence and career expectations in late adolescence, changes in career expectations from late adolescence to early adulthood, and achievements in work and schooling by early midlife.
Bibliography Citation
Reynolds, John R., Emily Boyd, Stephanie Burge, Brandy Harris and Cheryl Robbins. "Does Being Planful Always Pay Off? Agency, Economics, and Achievements by Midlife." Working Paper, Department of Sociology, Florida State University, May 2004.