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Overview of MSALT
How do social and academic
experiences at school, at home, at work, and with one's
peers relate to work and educational options and to
psychological adjustment during adolescence and the
early twenties? We have used the Eccles Expectancy –
Value Model of Achievement-related Choices to study
questions such as these has been used over the last
fifteen years to study educational and role-related
choices among children and adolescents. In 1983, we
began a longitudinal study of adolescent development
with a group of fifth and sixth graders recruited from
10 different school districts in Southeastern Michigan.
In the spring of 1990, when the students were in the
12th grade, we collected the sixth wave of this study
for the 2,381 adolescents still remaining in our school
districts.
In 1992 and 1993, when our sample
was approximately 20-21 years old, we gathered the seventh
wave of information. We selected this age because it
is likely to be particularly stressful for those adolescents
not attending college. It is likely to be particularly
difficult for youth who have experienced less than optimal
development during early and middle adolescence. As
a result the poorest families in this country are the
families of non-college educated youth who dropped out
of high school prior to graduation. Employers are reluctant
to put these adolescents into career track jobs, and
society provides very few opportunities for post high
school vocational training and support other than college.
We know very little about how these youth cope with
this transitional period.
We recontacted our sample in 1995-1996
and again in 1999-2000 to update our information on
their occupational, educational and family status and
to maintain contact with the sample for future follow-ups.
Analysis of our longitudinal data set focuses on the
following general goals: (a) tracing the development
of achievement-related beliefs, self perceptions and
values, and psychological adjustment across the adolescent
and early adult years; (b) assessing the impact of these
beliefs, self perceptions, values, and psychological
resources on adolescents' educational, occupational,
and interpersonal life-task planning; on work and educational
achievements; on leisure activity choices and participation;
and on other life-role choices and outcomes during 18-29
year age period and (c) assessing the relation of social
experiences and individual characteristics to adolescents'
transition into young adulthood.
The Passages Through Adolescence:
Education Outcomes project uses MSALT data to identify
those aspects of the environment at Time 1 that are
associated with subsequent characteristics of both the
family and the adolescent. It focuses on which family
and/or personal characteristics are facilitative of
positive adaptation and growth and which are predictive
of less than optimal development. Because our longitudinal
design includes six waves of data and a rich array of
measures collected both from the parents and the adolescents
themselves, as well as from teachers and school records,
we are able to study complex, dynamic change. To understand
adolescent development, we need to understand the complex
interplay of changes within the family system and the
school. The course of adolescent development depends
on characteristics of the adolescent's family, the adolescent
him/herself, and the school environments in which the
adolescent develops. This data set provides information
on such influences.
msalt
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