Progress 09/15/07 to 11/14/11
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The main outputs from this project involved data collection and analysis. We completed a total of four waves of data collection from approximately 1,500 rural youth over a six year period. The fourth and final wave of data collection was just recently completed. These were entirely survey data collected through multiple methods (in school, mail home surveys, phone surveys, and internet surveys). We also organized and analyzed date from the 1979 and 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data files. This includes organizing and analyzing over 30 data files across over 30 years. The focus was on the migration data and used both the public and restricted data files. We have now coded migration variables (any moves, moves within counties, moved between counties, cumulative moves, return moves to the county of origin) for all respondents for all waves of data collection. PARTICIPANTS: Not relevant to this project. TARGET AUDIENCES: Community leaders, extension educators, educators and parents PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
The significant outcomes from this study mostly involve increased knowledge about life asipirations and future attainment. For example, prior to this study researchers assumed that educational and other aspirations were formed somewhere in mid adolescence and remained stable. Our study actually measured aspirations from age 12 until age 19 in the younger cohort and documents the stability and change in aspirations across adolescence and early adulthood, and also what factors are associated with stability and change in aspirations. This project also produced new knowledge about migration behavior in early adulthood. The NLSY79 and NLSY97 projects have been collection migration and residential mobility data for years now, but none have used these data to study migraion behvior. We've organized one of the most complete set of migration variables that allows us to document migration events throughout early adulthood in both the 1979 and 1997 samples.
Publications
- Snyder, A. 2011. "Patterns of Family Formation and Dissolution in Rural America and Implications for Well-Being." In, Smith, K. (ed) Economic Restructuring in Rural America, Penn State Press Rural Studies Series.
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Progress 09/15/09 to 09/14/10
Outputs
OUTPUTS: This project produced several outputs last year. First, we devoted time to analyzing the three waves of RYE data. This was used to develop research papers and also to determine questions for the wave 4 survey. We also focused time and resources organizing and recoding the NLSY79 and NLSY97 secondary data files that we're using as comparison data sets. Second, the RYE data were presented at a special session on rural youth development at the 2010 annual conference of the Society for Research on Adolescence, at an invited seminar presentation at Cornell University September 2011, and at an in-service workshop planned for 4-H extension educators in Ohio in April 2010. The findings from this study have been disseminated to 4-H extension educators in Ohio, several fact sheets have been produced using the RYE data that have been disseminated to RYE participants and are also available on the RYE project web site for the public. PARTICIPANTS: Anastasia Snyder, PI, has participated in all aspects of the project. This includes developing survey materials, analyzing data files, writing research papers and fact sheets. Diane McLaughlin, co-PI, has also participated in all aspects of the project. This includes developing survey materials, analyzing data files, writing research papers and fact sheets. Mary Ann Demi, graduate student, has analyzed data files and written research papers. Bohyun Jang, graduate research assistant, has focused her attention organizing and recoding the secondary data from the NLSY79 and NLSY97. She also conducts literature reviews. TARGET AUDIENCES: The target audience for the RYE project research findings are mainly educators who work directly with rural youth. We have suceeded in reaching 4-H educators in Ohio with an in-service workshop aboutyouth development that included a focus on educational aspirations in April 2010. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
The findings from the RYE study have increased the knowledge we have about how youth aspirations develop from early to late adolescence. This is new information provided by the RYE project because until now aspirations were assumed to form somewhere around age 15 and remain relatively stable thereafter. The RYE study finds that aspirations actually form as early as 12, and that those with relatively high aspirations (regarding education, careers, and migration) have more stable aspirations compared to those with lower aspirations. Extension educators, schools, and community groups can use this information when developing and implementing their educational programs for youth. This knowledge can change the content and timing of educational programs. For example, engaging youth in discussions about their future aspirations should probably occur earlier than is typically done, and even 12 year olds are capable of meaningful thinking and discussion about future life goals.
Publications
- Demi, M.A., McLaughlin, D.K., and Snyder, A.R. 2009. Rural Youth Residential Preferences: Understanding the Youth Development-Community Development Nexus. Community Development,40(4), 311-330.
- Demi, M.A., Coleman-Jensen, A., and Snyder, A.R. 2010. The Rural Context and Secondary School Enrollment: An Ecological Systems Approach. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 25(7).
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Progress 09/15/08 to 09/14/09
Outputs
OUTPUTS: This year we collected the third wave of data for the RYE project. The total sample size for wave 3 is XXXX. We now have a panel data base of the RYE participants from wave1--wave3. We also organized and analysed data from wave 1-wave 11 of the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997 Cohort. Three papers from the RYE project were presented at professional conferences this year. Two were presented at the 4th annual Emerging Adulthood conference in Atlanta, GA in October 2009, and another paper was presented at the National Conference on Rural Education at the University of North Carolina in November 2009. The project also presented at an extension in-service workshop in September, 2009 at the Ohio State University on helping tweens develop educational aspirations using data from the RYE study. PARTICIPANTS: Anastasia R. Snyder, Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies, Ohio State University Diane McLaughlin, Professor of Rural Sociology and Demography, Penn State University Mary Ann Demi, Research Associate, Penn State University TARGET AUDIENCES: Educators, community leaders and policy makers for rural schools and communities PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
The results of this project are relevant for rural families, communities and schools that are struggling with the competing demands of providing a good education to rural youth, and also maintaining their population base, in at least three ways. First, this project provides new information about how educational, migration and occupational goals develop, change through adolescence, and are acted upon by rural youth. Communities and schools can use this information to help shape these aspirations that are directly related to educational attainment of rural youth, and population change. Second, communities can think about local policies that can hopefully provide better opportunities for rural youth and young adults if they want to maintain a rural populations and not loose their best and brightest to out-migration. Two new applied research reports that aim to extend the research knowledge learned in this study to the general public, in collaboration with the Carsey Institute for Rural Families and Communities at the University of New Hampshire, provide several concrete suggestions in this area. Policies that promote economic development and access to higher education closer to home should reduce out-migration of youth with high aspirations. Third, because this study is occuring during a time of serious economic stress for many rural families in the U.S., our study provides current data on how youth aspirations and family plans for postsecondary education are affected by the current economic climate. This information can be used to inform programs and policies that provide financial support for college education, and help youth and their families make decisions about college, trade schools and other post secondary educational opportunities. The final wave of this study, to be collected next year, will provide insight into the decisions that youth make regarding work, schooling, or combining these two after leaving high school. These data will allow us to examine how youth educational aspirations and parental educational expectations change, if at all, as a result of the current economic crisis, and the implications of this change.
Publications
- Demi, M.A, McLaughlin, D.K. and Snyder, A.R. (2009) "Rural Youth Residential Preferences: Understanding the Youth Development-Community Development Nexus." Journal of Community Development, vol 40(4), pgs 311-330.
- Demi, M.A., Coleman-Jensen, A. and Snyder, A.R. (2010) "The Rural Context and Secondary School Enrollment: An Ecological Systems Approach." Forthcoming in Journal of Research in Rural Education.
- Snyder, A.R., McLaughlin, D.K., and Coleman-Jensen, A. (2009) "The New, Longer Road to Adulthood: Schooling, Work and Idleness among Rural Youth." (arsey Institute Report No. 9). Durham, new Hampshire: University of new Hampshire, The Carsey Institute.
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Progress 09/15/07 to 09/14/08
Outputs
OUTPUTS: This project has several outputs to report. First, we're 50% done collecting the wave 3 data from the rural youth. A total of 947 respondents particiated in the wave 3 from the younger cohort. We are in the process of collecting make-up surveys from approximately 75 students who were absent on the survey date. The older cohort is ready to got to the field for data collection. It will take approximately 6 weeks for the older cohort to be collected. Second, data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) has been extracted and organized for analysis. The restricted geocode files from the NLSY97 are also being organized. These files are being used to study migration patterns of rural and urban youth, comparisions by residential area, the and educational and work outcomes. PARTICIPANTS: Diane Mclaughlin is a co-investigator and also a collaborator on papers from this project. Mary Ann Demi is a graduate student and collaborator on the project. She conducts most of the data cleaning and management and also does data analysis for the RYE and NLSY97 data files. TARGET AUDIENCES: The results of this study inform extension and outreach work at Ohio State and Penn State Unviersity. Two web sites disseminate research findings from the study, and also develop related materials for outreach and extension audiences. These are: www.families.osu.edu www.rye.aers.psu.edu PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
We've learned that migration patterns are very different for nonmetro youth compared to youth from other residential areas. For example, 75% of nonmetro youth move out of their home county to either a suburban or central city county during early adulthood. This compares to approximately 20% of youth from metro counties. Thus, youth out-migration is a problem unique to nonmetro areas. This also sheds light on additional barriers to pursuing post-secondary education that could explain metro/nonmetro differences in educational attainment. We're also learning about how educational and work aspirations and expectations change during adolescence and early adulthood.
Publications
- Demi, M., McLaughlin, D., & Snyder, A. (2009). "Rural Youth Residential Preferences: Understanding the Youth Development-Community Development Nexus." forthcoming in, Community Development: Journal of the Community Development Society
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