The Long Term Impact of Adolescent Risky Behaviors and Family Environment

Chapter V:
The Relationship of Adolescent Risky Behaviors and Family Environment to Adult Outcomes

[ Main Page of Report | Contents of Report ]

Contents

1. Distributions
2. Regression Analysis
   1. Introduction
   2. The Relationship of Adolescent Risky Behaviors to Adult Outcomes
   3. The Relationship of Adolescent Family Structure to Adult Outcomes
   4. The Relationship of Parents' Education (SES) to Adult Outcomes
   5. The Relationship of Parental Alcohol Problems to Adult Outcomes

We turn now to the central focus of this study, relating adolescent risky behaviors and family environment to long-term adult outcomes. Chapter III described the ten outcomes of interest in this study. We first show the distributions of these outcomes by sex, race/ethnicity, and educational attainment in Table 6.

A. Distributions

Nearly 14 percent of adults suffer from alcohol abuse or dependence as measured around the age of 30 while about 11 percent are using drugs at that age. The prevalence rate of past-year alcohol use disorder is comparable to that (14 percent) found by Harford and Grant (1994) using 1989 NLSY79 data. Both past-year alcohol use disorder and recent drug use are associated more with males than females and are inversely related to educational attainment. Whites have the highest rates of alcohol problems, blacks the lowest. Hispanics use drugs the least at age 30.

By the age of 33, 3.7 percent of adults have spent some time in jail, primarily males who have a rate of about 6.5 percent. Blacks are the most likely to have been in jail at nearly 9 percent, with Hispanics second at 5.8 percent. Going to jail is inversely associated with educational attainment.

Approximately one-quarter of the adults were in poverty between ages 25-29 and about the same fraction were on welfare between ages 21-33. Poverty and welfare prevalence is higher for females than males and again inversely associated with educational attainment. Blacks are more likely than Hispanics, who, in turn, are more likely than whites to have been in poverty or on welfare. Similarly, employment outcomes are typically best for males, whites, and more educated individuals.⁽¹³⁾

More than three-quarters of thirty-three year olds have been married (either currently or in the past) and about two-thirds have had children. While on average 6.4 percent have never married but have children at that age, the rate for blacks is nearly 26 percent. Although marriage is not very different among educational groups (a little higher for high school dropouts), having children is much less prevalent as education increases. About one-fifth of high school dropouts have not had children by age 33 compared with about one-quarter of high school graduates, and over two-fifths of those who have had some college education. Since marriage and fertility are not complete for everyone at age 33, this comparison reflects both delayed childbearing and childlessness among more educated people. Some of this difference will probably erode as the sample continues to age.

It should be noted that the category "never married, with children" is a subset of all non-marital births. Since we measure family status at age 33, those who may have had a non-marital birth, but married before age 33, will not be in this category. Although the percentage who at age 33 had a child but had never been married is only 6.4 percent, the percentage of those whose first birth preceded their first marriage is 19.3 percent.⁽¹⁴⁾

By measuring marriage and fertility status at age 33, we are implicitly considering a pre-marital birth that is later followed by a marriage to be a transition comparable to those who had their children after marriage. We selected this measure to be consistent with our goal to look at long-term outcomes.

Table 7 shows the relationship between the age of initiation into risky behaviors and adult outcomes. A clear relationship is seen between each adolescent risky behavior and each adult outcome. The earlier one engages in any given risky behavior or the more delinquent acts committed, the greater prevalence of bad adult outcomes. For both health outcomes and for spending time in jail, the relationship is perfectly consistent for all five adolescent risky behaviors. For example, the rates of adult drug use are 17.88 percent, 14. 19 percent, 7.62 percent, and 3.01 percent for initiation between ages 11-15, 16-17, 18-19, and after 19, respectively.

For economic outcomes the relationship generally holds though there are some anomalies. In particular, those who report not initiating alcohol, marijuana, or cocaine use by age 19 do not necessarily have the best outcomes; nor is the number of delinquent acts perfectly connected with bad adult outcomes in all cases. In fact, for the outcome, "age at which obtained a steady job", those who commit more crimes find a steady job sooner. The notion of adolescent risky behavior leading to precocious transitions into adult roles may account for part of this result. For example, Newcomb and Bentler (1988) found that adolescents who used substances were more likely to enter the workforce early and thus had higher incomes as young adults, albeit they also showed more job instability. In our study, adolescents who initiated alcohol early showed a slight tendency toward this precocious transition pattern on the same employment outcome, however, later cocaine and sex initiation both were associated with earlier maintenance of a stable job.

Excluding those who have not initiated by age 19, we nearly always see later initiation associated with better adult outcomes. For example, 29.86 percent of those who initiate into alcohol between ages 11-15 spend time on welfare between ages 21-33 compared with 24.04 percent of those who initiate at ages 16-17 and 20.87 percent of those who initiate at ages 18-19. Similar welfare participation rates exist for age of marijuana initiation at 31.37 percent, 26.41 percent, and 20.39 percent, respectively.

Certain relationships stand out in the adult family formation outcomes. The later one initiates a risky behavior (or the fewer delinquent acts one commits), the more likely one will be married with children at age 33 and the least likely one will have been married with children but divorced at age 33. Not surprisingly, early sex initiation is associated with never being married with a child (13.12 percent) and least associated with never being married without children (12.01 percent).

Section Summary

• Adult alcohol disorders and drug usage is more prevalent among males, whites, and those with less education.
• Males, blacks, and less educated individuals are the most likely to spend time in jail.
• Poverty and welfare receipt are more prevalent among females, blacks, and those with less education.
• Adult employment outcomes are best for males, whites, and those with more education.
• Those with more education are less likely to have children by age 33.
• Earlier initiation into adolescent risky behaviors or committing more delinquent acts is associated with having more bad adult outcomes.

Adult Outcomes by Adolescent Risky Behaviors

Adult Outcomes by Adolescent Risky Behaviors

[Go To Contents]

B. Regression Analysis

1. Introduction

These cross-tabulations do not hold anything constant, including the effect of the other adolescent behaviors on each adult outcome. The anomalies observed may reflect some other factor correlated with late initiation or delinquent behavior. To hold constant other factors that influence these adult outcomes, we estimate a set of regressions. These regressions take the general form

y = f(B,F,X)+ g,

where y is one of the ten outcomes of interest, B represents the five adolescent risky behaviors, F represents the three family environment variables, X represents all the other control variables and is a random error term.

The other control variables include sex, race/ethnicity, educational attainment, and Rosenberg's measure of self-esteem (measured in 1980).⁽¹⁵⁾ The regressions are estimated unweighted and each regression includes all the behaviors, family environmental variables, and control variables. The regressions allow us to examine the relationship of the adolescent risky behaviors, family structure, parents' education, and parental alcoholism to the adult outcomes while holding each set of variables constant. The regressions also allow us to control for participation in all five adolescent risky behaviors so that the impact of any particular behavior can be identified separately from the others. We might expect, similar to Newcomb and Bentler's (1988) findings, that each adolescent behavior may show a unique pattern of influence on adult outcomes. We now examine sequentially the relationship of the four sets of adolescent factors to the adult outcomes. The full set of regressions with all variables is shown in Appendix B.

2. The Relationship of Adolescent Risky Behaviors to Adult Outcomes

With ten regressions, examining the impact of five different adolescent risky behaviors with four different age categories each can be daunting. Seeming inconsistencies must be considered in the broad scheme; many of these are due to small cell sizes. We interpret the findings with an eye toward the big picture. To draw conclusions, we look at patterns of relationships across the different outcome domains. Most of the findings we cite in this report have p-values of 0.1 or less, a conventional level of statistical significance. However, while we consider statistical significance important, we do not rely on statistical significance alone. Because this study is exploratory in nature, we use p-values of 0.1 as a guideline.

Our techniques generally compare outcomes for three age of initiation groups (or numbers of delinquent/criminal acts) with a reference group (ages 11-15 or 9 or more acts). We base our judgments on whether a set of odds ratios or marginal effects generally go in the same direction when compared with the reference group, i.e. if the outcomes for each group are all better or worse than the reference group. Generally, if all the values are going in the same direction, then if the comparison for at least one of the other groups achieves significance we consider the relationship to hold. In the economic domain, where there are multiple outcomes, we see common relationships across the different outcome variables. When they all are nearly the same, we consider this confirming evidence of a relationship for the entire domain. We attempt to notify the reader when we are describing a general pattern, but where statistical significance does not always hold. It is important to note that all estimated relationships are associations between variables; nothing should be construed as a causal relationship. To understand causality would require an extensive model of behavior with many more measures than are available to us.

Despite some occasional oddities, a clear picture emerges as to the relationship of these five behaviors to the various outcomes. We report our findings by looking at the relationship of various adolescent risky behaviors to each adult outcome.

Adolescent alcohol usage. As seen in Figure 1, age of initiation into alcohol consumption is very much associated with having an alcohol abuse or dependence problem as an adult in the past year. To interpret Figure 1, recall that ages 11-15 are the reference group. Their odds ratio is set equal to one. Odds ratios for other age groups are relative to those who initiated between ages 11-15. Thus, those who initiated at ages 16-17 are only 88 percent as likely to have an adult alcohol abuse or dependence problem compared with those who initiated between ages 11=15. Those who initiated at ages 18-19 are only 56 percent as likely, and those who had not initiated by age 19 are only 23 percent as likely.

It is not too surprising to find such a strong relationship since adolescent use of alcohol is clearly the most closely related behavior to the possible consequence. Quite clearly, the earlier one initiates into alcohol use, the more likely one has an alcohol problem as an adult. This result is consistent with other research that has found a link between early alcohol initiation and adult alcohol problems (Chou and Pickering, 1992; Grant and Dawson, 1997).

Figure 1.
Odds Ratios for Age of Alcohol Initiation As it Relates to Alcohol Abuse or Dependence

The use of alcohol and drugs are different behaviors among adolescents. Adolescents consuming alcohol may never use drugs. Although early adolescent alcohol use may increase the likelihood of an adult alcohol problem, it may imply nothing about adult drug problems. In our findings, there are no real differences in the likelihood of an adult drug problem among the three lower age groups. However, not using alcohol by age 19 is associated with much lower likelihood of having a drug problem as an adult. Thus those who do not engage in alcohol use as teenagers are those most likely to avoid both long-term alcohol and long-term drug problems.

Although alcohol consumption in adolescence is associated with negative health outcomes, it generally is not associated with bad economic, family formation, or incarceration outcomes. Compared with all the other behaviors we study, adolescent alcohol usage has the least association with long-term outcomes. These findings together with those from Newcomb and Bentler (1988) point to the idea that the impact of early alcohol use may portend less serious adult consequences than does engaging in other forms of risky behavior as an adolescent. On the other hand, we have measured only the direct effects of adolescent alcohol initiation. If early alcohol use increases the likelihood of other risky behaviors such as sexual activity, then there may be an indirect relationship with adult outcomes.

Adolescent marijuana usage. Like adolescent alcohol use, engaging in marijuana use as an adolescent has a strong relationship with the adult outcome of most direct consequence. That is, earlier use of marijuana implies a greater likelihood of using drugs as an adult. As seen in Figure 2, those who initiate marijuana usage at ages 16-17 are 76 percent as likely to use drugs as an adult compared with those who initiated before age 16. Those who initiated at ages 18-19 are 88 percent⁽¹⁶⁾ as likely and those who did not initiate by age 19 are only 28 percent as likely.

Figure 2.
Odds Ratios for Age of Marijuana Initiation As it Relates to Past Month Drug Use at Age 30

Initiation as a teenager implies greater likelihood of adult alcohol abuse or dependence, but within the teenage years there is little distinction. Unlike alcohol, engaging in marijuana use as an adolescent is generally associated with bad economic outcomes. For example, Figure 3 shows the relationship between age of marijuana initiation and the likelihood of being in poverty between ages 25-29.

Figure 3.
Odds Ratios for Age of Marijuana Initiation as it Relates to Ever Being in Poverty Between Ages 25-29

Those who initiate in the 18-19 age group are 79 percent as likely to be in poverty as those who initiate between ages 11-15. This age group is consistently less prone to incur bad outcomes for the other economic measures than those who initiate earlier. Oddly, those who have had not initiated by age 19 are statistically no different than the earliest initiators. This is true nearly always across the economic outcomes. We do not have an explanation for this. Since late initiators are combined with those who never initiate, there may be some impact of late initiation that is pulling down the average outcome for this group. Late initiation is likely a different phenomenon than early initiation, perhaps resulting from bad economic circumstances rather than preceding them.⁽¹⁷⁾

The pattern for the likelihood of spending time in jail, however, is consistent; the earlier one initiates marijuana use, the more likely they spend time in jail.

For the relationship between age of initiation into marijuana use and adult family formation, only one odds ratio achieves a reasonable level of statistical significance. Overall this implies that the relationship is the same regardless of age of initiation.

Adolescent cocaine usage. Many young people experiment with both alcohol and marijuana, but cocaine use is rarer (see Table 2). Its usage also tends to begin at later ages. As a result some of the cell sizes in our estimations are small. However, a clear pattern emerges showing that those who begin using cocaine as teenagers have worse economic, health, and incarceration outcomes. It is more difficult to interpret the results for family formation. Teenage cocaine users are no more likely than non-users to end up as single parents or divorced. However, it is clear that they are the most likely to end up as never having married without children and least likely to end up married with children. This implies that teenage cocaine users do not have non-marital births or get divorced primarily because they are least likely to be able to form solid relationships in the first place. Overall they are the least likely to marry and the least likely to have children (regardless of marital status) than those who do not use cocaine as teenagers.

Adolescent sexual activity. Age of initiation into sexual intercourse is perhaps the most consistent predictor of poor adult outcomes across nearly every domain. Unlike any other behavior studied, the results have near perfect consistency with no anomalies. Not only is engaging in sex as a teenager associated with bad outcomes in general, earlier ages of initiation are consistently increasingly associated with poorer outcomes. This is true for all six measures of economic success and for the probability of spending time in jail. Similarly, early sex initiators have poorer family formation outcomes. The predicted probabilities of each outcome for each age group are shown in Figure 4. The earlier a youth begins engaging in sexual activity, the more likely he or she ends up never married with a child. Specifically, we predict 11.2 percent of those who initiated sex between ages 11-15 to be never married with children at age 33. Of those who initiate at ages 16-17, we predict 8.7 percent will be never married with children at age 33; 7.5 percent of those who initiate at ages 18-19 and 4.2 percent of those who do not initiate by age 19. In general, early sex initiators are more likely to marry by age 33 than are those who wait. Over 79 percent of those who initiated by age 17 had married while about 76 percent of those who initiated at ages 18-19 and 67.4 percent of those who had not initiated by age 19 had married by age 33. Of those who marry by age 33, divorce rates are predicted to be higher the earlier there had been sex initiation. 36.2 percent of those who initiated between ages 11-15, 31.1 percent of those who initiated at ages 16-17, 23.5 percent of those who initiated at ages 18-19, and 14.2 percent of those who had not initiated by age 19 are predicted to be divorced by age 33.⁽¹⁸⁾ Not surprisingly, those who initiated sex earlier are predicted to be more likely to have children by age 33, regardless of their marital history. By age 33, 77.1 percent of those who initiated sex between ages 11-15 are predicted to have children; 72.6 percent of those who initiated at ages 16-17; 67.4 percent of those who initiated at ages 18-19; and 53.3 percent of those who had not initiated by age 19.

Figure 4
Predicted Probabilities of Marriage-Fertility Outcomes At Age 33 as They Relate to Age of Sex Initiation

The health domain as measured by adult alcohol and drug problems is least related to early sexual activity. Those who do not engage in sex as teenagers are less likely to have an adult alcohol problem, but there is no distinction in the likelihood across the teenage years. Those who initiate after age 17 are less likely to use drugs as an adult; those who initiate after 19 are least likely. There is no distinction for those who initiate before age 18. Although there isn't as strong a relationship between age of sex initiation and the two health measures, it is still the case that teenage sex initiators are more likely to have adult alcohol and drug problems.

Adolescent delinquency. Committing delinquent and criminal acts as an adolescent is associated with mostly bad adult outcomes. As expected, the more delinquent acts committed, the more likely the youth spends time in jail by age 33. A similar result is found for the likelihood of having an adult alcohol or drug problem. These results are comparable with Windle's (1990) where, even when controlling for early substance use, early delinquency was predictive of later substance use. These three adult outcomes have consistent results across the levels of delinquency.

Some of the other results bounce around a bit, possibly a consequence of noise in our measure. However, isolating those who committed nine or more delinquent or criminal acts shows they definitely have worse economic outcomes than do others. This holds true across all six economic measures. One of the stronger relationships is with the likelihood of ever being on welfare between ages 21-33, shown in Figure 5. Those who did not commit any delinquent acts are 69 percent as likely to ever be on welfare during those ages compared to those who committed nine or more delinquent acts; those who committed one or two delinquent acts are 80 percent as likely; and those who committed 3-8 delinquent acts are 83 percent as likely. All three differences are statistically significant at the 90 percent confidence level or higher. Past research on the connection between delinquency and economic outcomes has been mixed. After controlling for education and other background variables, Monk-Turner (1989) could find no relationship between delinquency and adult occupational status. In our study, when holding education and other variables constant, we were able to observe a significant impact of delinquency on a variety of economic measures.

Figure 5.
Odds Ratios for Number of Delinquent Acts as it Relates to Ever Being on Welfare Between Ages 21-33

In terms of family formation, there are some consistent results. The more delinquent acts performed, the more likely the person ends up never married with a child and the least likely they are to end up married with children. In general, they are less likely to marry and more likely to divorce if they marry.

To summarize, we have examined the relationship between five adolescent risky behaviors and ten adult outcomes. There is a fairly consistent pattern that engaging

in risky behaviors as a teenager is associated with less successful adult outcomes. For many, the relationship is such that the earlier one engages in the behavior, the more likely they face a bad outcome as an adult. The most consistent predictor of a bad adult outcome is age of initiation into sexual activity. Alcohol usage, on the other hand, is perhaps the one teenage behavior least associated with bad adult outcomes. Age of initiation into alcohol usage is, however, associated with adult alcohol abuse or dependence. These relationships should not be interpreted as causal, but only as associations. Other factors that are not controlled for may influence these outcomes. Age of initiation may be capturing unmeasured adolescent characteristics or circumstances that are related to the transition into adulthood. The summary below provides a more detailed description of the findings in this section.

Section Summary

• Age of initiation into adolescent alcohol use is associated with adult alcohol disorders and teenage use is associated with adult drug usage. However, there is no relationship between adolescent alcohol use and adult economic, family, or incarceration outcomes.
• Age of initiation into marijuana use is associated with adult drug usage, bad adult economic and incarceration outcomes. Teenage usage is associated with adult alcohol disorders but adolescent marijuana use is not associated with any specific adult family formation outcomes.
• Teenage cocaine use is associated with worse economic, health, and incarceration outcomes. They are the least likely to marry or have children by age 33.
• Age of initiation into sexual intercourse is the most consistent predictor of poor adult outcomes across nearly every domain, especially economic and incarceration outcomes. They are the most likely to have never married but have a child by age 33. Those who marry by age 33 are the most likely to divorce.
• Committing more delinquent acts is associated with bad adult alcohol, drug, and incarceration outcomes. Committing nine or more delinquent acts is associated with worse economic outcomes. Those committing nine or more delinquent acts are also the least likely to marry, the most likely to divorce, and the most likely to have never married but have a child at age 33.

[Go To Contents]

3. The Relationship of Adolescent Family Structure to Adult Outcomes

In the previous section we found that engaging in adolescent risky behaviors generally is associated with diminished adult outcomes; the earlier the initiation, the worse the outcome. In this section we examine the role played by adolescent family structure in the relationship to the adult outcomes. As noted in Chapter II, much of the research on family structure has focused on the association between family structure and adolescent risky behaviors where participating in the behavior is the outcome. Few other outcomes have been studied. Those that have been tend to be adolescent outcomes such as high school graduation. Very little has been examined with regard to long-term adult outcomes. We estimate the relationship of adolescent family structure to long-term adult outcomes, holding constant the adolescent's engagement in risky behaviors.

Family structure may have impacts on children that follow them well into adulthood and perhaps their entire lives. The reduced economic circumstances following a divorce can reduce the resources available to invest in the child's future. Acrimony between divorced parents, the divorce itself, changes in living arrangements, or the death of a parent may contribute to psychological problems for the children. Re-marriages may improve economic conditions, but create additional stress on family relationships.

Living in an intact family (two biological parents) is almost universally associated with having a better chance at economic success, and our results are no exception. In general, we find that living in an intact family at age 14 is associated with better outcomes in the economic domain. This is consistently true across all six economic measures. For example, Figure 6 shows the relative likelihood of being in poverty between ages 25-29 for each family type. Those living with both biological parents at age 14 have the lowest probability of being in poverty between ages 25-29. The odds ratios for other family types range between 1.12 for those living with their father and a stepmother to 2.73 for those living in single father families. Individuals living with a single mother at age 14 are 32 percent more likely to spend time in poverty between ages 25-29 than individuals in intact families.

Figure 6

Two biological parent households also see their children with the lowest probability of spending time in jail. There is not much of a clear pattern for either the health or family formation measures. Intact families are neither the best nor worst at preventing poor outcomes in these domains. However, they are generally neutral, not having strong effects either way. For example, they have neither the highest nor lowest rates of marriage, divorce, or childbearing.

Single mother households, the second most common type of family structure, fare worse on the economic outcomes. Compared with intact families, those who lived only with their mother at age 14 do not do as well in the labor market and are more likely to spend time in poverty and on welfare. This is not surprising given that single mother households typically have lower income than intact families. Therefore the likelihood of not achieving economic success as an adult is probably more a function of fewer resources than it is a function of single motherhood per se. This general pattern of the negative relationship between single-mother families and successful economic outcomes is consistent with past research (Amato, 1999; McLanahan, 1999). Even when holding school dropout constant, McLanahan (1999) found higher labor market detachment rates among men from single-parent homes as compared to those from intact homes.

As with intact families, there is not much of a pattern in adult family formation for adolescents living in single mother families. However, those who lived with a single mother (or single father) at age 14 are less likely to have married by age 33 when compared with those who lived in either intact or re-married households. Adolescents in single mother households at age 14 are no more likely than adolescents in intact families to spend time in jail or use drugs as an adult. Interestingly, they are only 71 percent as likely to have an alcohol problem as an adult. These results imply that single mothers may lack the income of intact families, but are still capable of raising children who do not end up as alcoholics, drug users, or in jail.

Because of small cell sizes, we do not emphasize the results for other family types. However, certain findings are worth noting. Adolescents with the least likelihood of having an alcohol or drug problem as an adult are those who live with their father and stepmother at age 14 (42 percent as likely as those in intact families). They are also the most likely to be married, the most likely to be married with children, and the least likely to have divorced at age 33. Paradoxically, they are also the most likely to spend time in jail, spend the most years on welfare, and take the longest to find a steady job.

Those living in a single father household at age 14 are less likely than those in intact families to have adult alcohol or drug problems. They are the least likely to marry and the most likely to not be married but have a child at age 33. They have the highest likelihood of being in poverty, spend the most years in poverty, are the most likely to spend time on welfare, and take the longest to find a steady job. They also have a higher likelihood of spending time in jail than those in intact or single mother households.

In summary, like most literature we find that growing up in an intact family leads to the best outcomes overall, particularly in the economic domain. Growing up in a single mother household makes children more vulnerable to poor economic outcomes, but does not increase the likelihood of other bad outcomes. Those who grow up in either single mother or single father households have the least likelihood of marrying by age 33. In general, it appears that fathers are important for children avoiding adult alcohol and drug problems. But outside intact families, living with a biological father is associated with worse economic, family formation, and incarceration outcomes. One should be cautious about drawing conclusions from these associations. Children are not distributed across different family types randomly. In particular, adolescent behavior may influence reasons for living with a father but not a mother, rather than the other way around. The summary below provides a more detailed description of the findings in this section.

Section Summary

• Adolescents living in intact families at age 14 have the best adult economic outcomes and are the least likely to spend time in jail. However, intact families are generally neutral in the adult health and family formation outcomes as the adolescents from these families have neither the best or worst outcomes in these domains.
• Adolescents living in single mother families at age 14 have worse adult economic outcomes than those in intact families, but show no difference in adult drug usage or likelihood of spending time in jail. Adolescents from single mother families have lower likelihood of an adult alcohol disorder than adolescents from intact families.
• Adolescents living with a single mother or single father at age 14 are less likely to have married by age 33 compared with those who lived in either intact or re-married households.
• The presence of a biological father in the household at age 14 is associated with lower levels of adult alcohol disorders or drug usage.

[Go To Contents]

4. The Relationship of Parents' Education (SES) to Adult Outcomes

Parents' socioeconomic status (SES) can play a major role in a variety of ways. Higher income, higher education, and increased access to resources allow parents to invest more in their children's future. They have more access to information about education, jobs, and other opportunities. Furthermore, higher SES parents likely have better information and better access to means of preventing negative consequences such as counseling, drug rehabilitation programs, or good lawyers.

Socioeconomic status is a combination of various attributes including education, occupation, and income. We proxy for SES by using parents' education. While data limitations motivate our choice of education as the variable to study, education is highly correlated with the other attributes and should proxy well for general SES. It should be recognized, though, that our results are specific to parents' education. Had measures of other dimensions of SES been available, we might have obtained different results.

The relationship between parents' education and adult outcomes is fuzzy, but basically follows expected patterns. Mothers' and fathers' education has similar effects for most outcomes, but contradictory for some. They are particularly contradictory for the health outcomes. Higher levels of mother's education are associated with lower likelihood of adult alcohol problems (Figure 7a). For example, those with college graduate mothers are only 69 percent as likely to have an adult alcohol abuse or dependence problem compared with those whose mothers are high school dropouts. Conversely, higher levels of fathers' education are actually associated with greater likelihood of an adult alcohol problem (Figure 7b). For example those with college graduate fathers are 33 percent more likely to have an alcohol abuse or dependence problem compared with those whose fathers are high school dropouts.

Figure 7a

Figure 7b

While mothers' education has a negative relationship with adult alcohol abuse or dependence, it has a somewhat positive relationship with the likelihood of adult drug usage. Fathers' education has no relationship with adult drug usage. Conversely, while no relationship exists between mother's education and the likelihood of going to jail, higher levels of fathers' education are associated with a lower probability of spending time in jail.

The two parents' education levels have more similar associations in the economic domain. More education for either parent is generally associated with better economic outcomes, though there are some minor inconsistencies. It is clear that those with mothers who are high school dropouts nearly always fare worst and those with college graduate mothers typically fare best. For example, adolescents with mothers who are high school graduates are 71 percent as likely to be in poverty between ages 25-29 (Figure 8) compared to those whose mothers are high school dropouts; those with mothers who are college graduates are only 55 percent as likely. For fathers, whenever significance is achieved, there is a positive association between fathers' education and the economic outcome.

Figure 8

Few associations between either parent's education and the marriage/fertility outcomes achieve statistical significance. One notable exception shows children of college graduate mothers are less likely to be never married with children at age 33. Although generally not statistically significant, we see a consistent relationship between higher levels of parents' education and delayed childbearing. Although children of more educated parents are no less likely to have married by age 33, they are more likely to be never married without children. Children of more educated mothers show higher rates of being married without children, though this relationship does not show up for fathers' education. Individuals with more education typically show rates of later marriage and childbearing. Since there is a positive correlation between an individual's education and his/her parents' education, we are capturing a similar relationship.

Section Summary

• Higher levels of mothers' education are associated with fewer adult alcohol disorders and better economic outcomes, but more adult drug usage. There is little relationship with either incarceration or adult family formation.
• Higher levels of fathers' education are associated with good economic and incarceration outcomes, but more adult alcohol disorders. There is little relationship between fathers' education and adult drug use or family formation.

[Go To Contents]

5. The Relationship of Parental Alcohol Problems to Adult Outcomes

As noted earlier, parent's alcoholism is unlikely to have positive effects on a child's development. The regressions bear this out strongly. Compared with individuals who do not grow up with an alcoholic parent, a child of an alcoholic parent is 33 percent more likely to have an adult alcohol problem, 21 percent more likely to use drugs as an adult, and 32 percent more likely to spend time in jail. They do not fare any better on the economic front. They are 22 percent more likely to spend time in poverty and 41 percent more likely to receive welfare at some point. Although they do not have lower percent time employed, they take nearly ten months longer to find a steady job. The p-values indicate that these results have relatively low probabilities of occurring by chance.

On the other hand, few relationships between parental alcohol use and marriage/fertility outcomes are significant. There is no difference in the likelihood of being married at age 33.⁽¹⁹⁾ However, consistent with the literature, we find that ACOAs are more likely to divorce (Parker and Harford 1988). In fact, the only category that achieves statistical significance is married and divorced with children. About 30 percent of those who marry are divorced by age 33, while about 27 percent of those without an alcoholic parent who marry are divorced.

Section Summary

• Compared with individuals who do not grow up with an alcoholic parent, a child of an alcoholic parent is more likely to have an adult alcohol problem, is more likely to use drugs as an adult, and is more likely to spend time in jail.
• Adult children of alcoholics are more likely to spend time in poverty and are more likely to receive welfare at some point. Although they do not have lower percent time employed, they take longer to find a steady job.
• Few relationships between parental alcohol use and marriage/fertility outcomes are significant; however, adult children of alcoholics are more likely to divorce.

[Go To Contents]

Endnotes

13.  The one exception is the measure of age when first held a job for at least two years. The fact that this age is higher for those with some college most likely reflects the fact that these individuals were in school longer and began their transition to a steady job later.

14.  This does not include pre-marital births which occurred before second or later marriages, nor does it include other non-marital births.

15.  In earlier estimations we included several other variables. However, their inclusion did not change the results so we settled on a more parsimonious specification to aid interpretability.

16.  Not statistically significant.

17.  Alternatively, the result may merely reflect the timing of our measurement. If bad economic outcomes dissipate over time, then the measured impact for late initiators would have had less time to diminish.

18.  Those who initiated sex later may also have married later, leaving less time in which to have gotten divorced.

19.  Since we measure marriage at age 33, we are not able to replicate the finding in the literature that ACOAs are likely to marry early.

Where to?

Top of Page | Contents

Main Page of Report | Contents of Report

Home Pages:
Human Services Policy (HSP)
Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)