MAGNUSON, KATHERINE A.
DUNCAN, GREG J.
KALIL, ARIEL
Contribution of Middle Childhood Contexts to Adolescent Achievement and Behavior
In: Developmental Contexts in Middle Childhood: Bridges to Adolescence and Adulthood. Aletha C. Huston and Marika N. Ripke, eds., New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006: 150-172.
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
ID Number: 6144
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

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

Our chapter seeks to assess the extent to which the diverse contexts experienced during middle childhood matter for children’s subsequent well-being. Given the established importance of genetic factors and pre-school family background conditions, the extent to which contexts during the middle childhood years play a role in shaping – the achievement and behavior trajectories established during the preschool years is far from clear.

We address three specific questions. First, how much variation in adolescents’ academic achievement and problem behaviors are uniquely explained by the contexts they experience in middle childhood? Second, to the extent that middle childhood contexts matter, which contexts matter the most? And third, are the effects of contexts in middle childhood on early adolescents’ outcomes different for boys and girls and for poor and middle class children?

Our answers to these questions are based on an analysis of data from a national sample of over 2,000 children followed from birth until adolescence. Family poverty, structure and home environments are measured throughout this time, enabling us to both describe the stability of contexts between early and middle childhood and assess the extent to which middle childhood contexts add to the explanation of adolescent achievement and behavior over and above early environments.

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