Session: Raising Healthy Adults: Identifying pathways from risk to success (Research that Promotes Sustainability and (re)Builds Strengths (January 15 - 18, 2009))

The transition out of high school is one of the most critical passages in life due to pronounced changes in social environment and role responsibilities. Arnett (2005) has argued that this stage of the life cycle, which he has termed “emerging adulthood,” provides more freedom and less social control than during the high school years. Social networks change rapidly due to involvement in work or school and changes in residence. During this period, young people increase independence, are under less supervision by parents, initiate new roles, develop new friendship networks, and face more school or work and social demands. Past research has identified important childhood and adolescent predictors that influence success during emerging adulthood including substance use, delinquency, and family and school environmental variables. This presentation focuses on risk and protective factors predicting educational attainment, positive functioning and satisfaction with intimate relationships during emerging adulthood. Analyses are theoretically guided by the Social Development Model (SDM) (Catalano & Hawkins, 1996; Catalano et al., 2005) a theoretical framework that embraces a contextualized understanding of human development. Analyses for this panel will use SDM specific mediators from mid-adolescence to predict educational, civic and relationship outcomes during emerging adulthood. Data come from the Raising Healthy Children (RHC) study. RHC is a 15-year longitudinal study of a preventive intervention and the etiology of substance use based on a community sample from 10 public schools in a suburban school district in the state of Washington. The sample consists of 441 girls and 510 boys. The participants were in 1st or 2nd grade at the inception of the study and most are currently two or three years post high school. Data has been collected annually, using surveys of parents, teachers, and the participants themselves as well as school records.