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These questions are answered using data from the National Youth Survey (NYS) and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997. The NYS represents Baby Boomers who were born between 1959 and 1965 (N=1,036; N*T=6,741 person-waves). The NLSY97 represents the earliest Millennials, born between 1980 and 1984 (N=7,178; N*T=43,068 person-waves). Each data source follows respondents from adolescence through early emerging adulthood (up to age 24).

Analyses reveal two key findings with respect to the research questions investigated in this dissertation. Regarding the first research question, which seeks to understand the effects of social ties to parents on within-person changes in crime and drug use across generations, findings indicate that social ties to parents have a protective effect against crime in emerging adulthood for Millennials, but not for Baby Boomers. Further, predicted probabilities show that there is a generational difference in this relationship over time, as the probability of offending among those with weak ties to parents in the Millennial cohort increases over time compared to those with strong ties to parents. Among Baby Boomers, however, there is no real difference in offending over time between those with strong ties and weak ties to parents.

The second and third research questions center on the moderating effects of key adult transition events (i.e., marriage, employment, and college enrollment) on the influence of social ties to parents on emerging adults’ crime and drug use. Results show that marriage and college enrollment are not significant moderators for Baby Boomers or Millennials with respect to crime or drug use. Employment is not a significant moderator with respect to crime for Baby Boomers or Millennials either, but it is a statistically significant moderator of drug use among Millennials only. However, predicted probabilities estimated for each of these models indicate that the effects are marginal. Thus, it can be concluded that marriage, employment, and college enrollment have no substantively meaningful conditioning effects of crime or drug use among Baby Boomers or Millennials.

More broadly, these findings highlight the need for additional inquiry into the salience of social ties to parents during emerging adulthood and have implications for both theory and policy. Theoretical implications include expanding studies of parental attachment and support to incorporate measures of the quality of adult child-parent relationships, the continuation of the learning process between parents and their adult children, and the need to expand longitudinal research to accommodate multiple generations for theoretical testing. Findings also reveal the need to tailor policies to emerging adults in contemporary society, such as implementing programming that encourages prosocial parent-child relationships beyond adolescence.