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Cigarette smoking causes serious complications and diseases in a person's life, such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and some cancers, including lung cancer. On the other hand, studies have shown that smokers do not have a real understanding of the health hazards of smoking. This study was conducted to determine the perceived risk of lung cancer and COPD in current smokers. This cross-sectional study which was conducted between January-May 2023, recruited 380 current smokers by convenience sampling in community setting. The data were collected face to face using three questionnaires (1) the risk perception for lung cancer and COPD questionnaire, (2) the smoking stage of change questionnaire, and (3) the Fagerström test for nicotine dependence. We examined the relationship between the included variables and the smokers' perceived risk of lung cancer and COPD by using multiple linear regression. We found that lower education (coefficient = 3.60, 95%CI [1.00, 6.19], P < 0.0001) for elementary level and (coefficient = 2.81, 95% CI [0.36, 5.26], P < 0.05) for secondary level had greater lung cancer perceived risk. Besides, smoking age onset for 20 + years (coefficient=-1.36, 95%CI [-2.42, -3.17], P < 0.0001) lower than those who started before the age of 20 were associated with lower perceived risk for lung cancer. Regarding COPD, results indicated that lower education (coefficient = 4.54, 95% CI [1.87, 7.21], p < 0001) for elementary level (coefficient = 3.35, 95% CI [0.83, 5.87], p < 0.001) for secondary level and (coefficient = 3.03, 95% CI[-0.67, 4.25], P < 0.05) for high school dropout, and employment status (coefficient = 3.62, 95% CI[0.66, 6.59], p < 0.05) of employer and (coefficient = 3.23, 95% CI [0.14, 6.33], p < 0.05) for homemaker reported greater perceived risk. This study's results showed that participants' perceived risk was relatively low. It seems necessary to carry out interventions to inform about the harms of smoking and to enhance public awareness about the heightened risks of diseases such as lung cancer and COPD among cigarette smokers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its proven success in various fields such as engineering, business, and healthcare, human–machine collaboration in education remains relatively unexplored. This study aims to highlight the advantages of human–machine collaboration for improving the efficiency and accuracy of decision-making processes in educational settings. High school dropout prediction serves as a case study for examining human–machine collaboration's efficacy. Unlike previous research prioritizing high accuracy with immutable predictors, this study seeks to bridge gaps by identifying actionable factors for dropout prediction through a framework of human–machine collaboration. Utilizing a large dataset from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), two machine learning models were developed to predict 9th-grade students' high school dropout history. Results indicated that the Random Forest algorithm outperformed the deep learning algorithm. Model explainability revealed the significance of actionable variables such as students' GPA in the 9th grade, sense of school belonging, self-efficacy in mathematics and science, and immutable variables like socioeconomic status in predicting high school dropout history. The study concludes with discussions on the practical implications of human–machine partnerships for enhancing student success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political sophistication systematically affects the structure, crystallization, and use of political values, but it remains unclear if sophistication manifests similar effects on human values. This paper integrates Shalom Schwartz (Adv Exp Soc Psychol 25:1–65, 1992, J Soc Issues 50:19–45, 1994) theory of human values with sophistication interaction theory to examine the degree to which education and political interest condition the structure, crystallization, and use of an important subset of values. We theorize that human values are (1) identically structured and equally crystallized in sophistication-stratified populations and (2) that relationships between human values and ideological judgments grow stronger at higher levels of sophistication. Using data from a nationally representative sample of 10,765 Americans, we compare extremely sophisticated individuals (e.g., people with doctorates) and extremely unsophisticated individuals (e.g., high school dropouts) to demonstrate that neither education nor political interest affect value structure and crystallization. Sophistication has real, if somewhat limited, effects on value usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effectiveness of bullying prevention programs has led to expectations that these programs could have effects beyond their primary goals. By reducing the number of victims and perpetrators and the harm experienced by those affected, programs may have longer-term effects on individual school performance and prevent crime. In this paper, we use Norwegian register data to study the long-term impact of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP) on academic performance, high school dropout, and youth crime for the average student, which we call population-level effects. The OBPP program is widely acknowledged as one of the most successful programs reducing school-level bullying; yet, using a difference-in-difference design, no statistically significant population-level effects of the OBPP were found on any of the long-term outcomes in this study. When studied at the population level, as in the current project, the base rate prevalence of bullying is a major explanatory factor for these results. Earlier studies have shown that OBPP reduces bullying prevalence by 30–50%. This decrease translates into absolute reductions in bullying victimization and perpetration at the population level of "only" four and two percentage points, respectively. Our results suggest the average causal effects of school bullying involvement are too small to translate this reduction in bullying into a sizeable population-level impact on students' long-term outcomes. However, a limited potential of anti-bullying programs to prevent population-level adversity can very well be compatible with substantial program effects for individual bullies and victims. Further, our results do not speak to the main objective of anti-bullying programs of limiting childhood abuse and safeguarding children's human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The school-to-prison pipeline is a theoretical construct that explains how disproportionate discipline and exclusionary punishment of Black and Brown students ultimately pushes youth out of mainstream schools and into the criminal justice system (Basford and Lewis in From education to incarceration: dismantling the school to prison pipeline, Peter Lang Publishing, New York, 2018; Heitzeg in Forum Public Pol Online, 2009; Lewis and Basford in Six lenses for anti-oppressive education (counterpoints: studies in the postmodern theory of education), Peter Lang Publishing, New York, 2014; Morris and Perry in Soc Probl 63(1):68–86, 2016). While the research has documented the existence of the school-to-prison pipeline and its impact on families, less has been done to study schools that have worked to successfully interrupt the pipeline. The authors respond to this void in the literature by using Maslow's hierarchy of needs (Motivation and personality, Harper, New York, 1987) and Noddings' ethic of care (Caring: a feminine approach to ethics and moral education, University of California Press, Berkely, 2003) to interpret the successful efforts of one charter high school focused on dropout recovery, specifically targeting youth who have experienced or are at risk for the school-to-prison pipeline. Findings from this case study suggest that the school embodies what we call institutional plasticity through innovative programming, carefully selected and trained staff, a family-like atmosphere, wrap-around services, and flexible planning for intermittent attendance. Implications identify elements of institutional plasticity for consideration in other settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study examines: (a) whether the association between juvenile delinquency and educational attainment differs by gender, and (b) which factors underlie such gender differences. Methods: In order to account for the influence of unobservable family-background factors, this study applies sibling fixed-effects models on the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). As a sensitivity check, I explore whether observed gender differences are robust to different measurements of delinquency and the potential presence of sibling spillover effects. Results: Nearly half of the association between juvenile delinquency and educational attainment is attributable to unobservable factors related to family background. This study finds that controlling for unobserved family-level heterogeneity substantially attenuates the association between juvenile delinquency and educational attainment among females, making it no longer statistically significant. Among males, sibling fixed-effects estimates suggest that a one-standard-deviation increase in delinquent involvement is associated with a reduction in 0.23 years of schooling and a 4.6 percentage point increase in the probability of high school dropout. Supplementary analyses show that male delinquents face major disadvantages in social relationships in school settings and display lower levels of educational aspirations as well as effort. No such patterns are found among female delinquents. Conclusions: This study finds a negative association between delinquency and educational attainment only for males but not for females. Results suggest that failure to account for unobserved family-level heterogeneity spuriously inflates the delinquency–education association to a larger extent among females than males. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spite of a peculiar pattern of the age at first birth in Latin America, there is little research about the long-term trends in the timing of transition to motherhood at all stages of women's reproductive lives and across countries in the region. This paper examines the evolution of educational disparities in the age at first birth during the fertility transition in three Andean region countries: Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru. Using birth history information available in the latest Population and Housing Censuses, I estimate the first-birth age-specific rates disaggregated by various measures of education level, for cohorts born between 1945 and 1980. In all countries, educational expansion was accompanied by increasing rates of first birth before the age of 20 among women with below completed higher education, but the most drastic change occurred among women who dropped out of secondary school. Concurrently, the first-birth rates at the age of 20–29 decreased for women who achieved higher education; an evidence of an increase in the rates above the age of 30 among them started to emerge. A pronounced divergence in the first-birth timing between the educational groups occurred during the fertility transition. Comparison of a relative and an absolute educational level classification shows that the increasing disparities between the lowest and the highest educated women were similarly pronounced even when accounting for the changes in educational composition across cohorts. This paper discusses the potential factors behind the polarization in the age at first birth in the region. It argues that there is a need for policies encouraging not only secondary school entrance but also secondary school completion in the context of substantial educational expansion and high levels of school dropout observed in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To determine whether dropping out of high school is associated with living in a non-intact family household, having an employed mother, active smoking, alcohol use, sexual activity at an early age and pregnancy in a broad population sample of female Mexican adolescents between 17 and 19 years old. Methods: We studied 765 adolescents from a total sample of 2034 young people who were high-school dropouts using a cross-sectional study and applying a self-administered questionnaire. The association between the independent variables and the outcome variable was determined by multivariate logistic regression analysis. Results: The prevalence of non-intact families was 34.8%. The percentages of active smoking and drinking alcohol were 18.3% and 52.0%, respectively. Sexual activity at an early age was reported by 59.8% of the female adolescents, and 33.5% of the participants were pregnant during adolescence. The multivariate logistic regression analysis shows that living in a household with an incomplete family, engaging in sexual activity at an early age, and being pregnant during adolescence are associated with dropping out of high school, but having an employed mother, active smoking and alcohol use are not. Conclusions: Living in a non-intact family household, engaging in sexual activity at an early age and being pregnant during adolescence are associated with dropping out of high school. According to the analysis, having an employed mother appears to prevent dropping out of high school among adolescents. The results of this study have important implications for parents, educators, researchers and adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender differences in exposure and reactivity to specific stressful life events (SLE) contribute to explaining adolescent boys' and girls' differential susceptibility to common adjustment difficulties like depression and behavioral problems. However, it is unclear whether these gender differences are also relevant to understanding another key marker of adolescent maladjustment: high school dropout. A state-of-the-art interview protocol was used to assess recent SLE in a sample of academically vulnerable Canadian adolescents (N = 545, 52% boys). The sample was comprised of three groups in approximately equal proportions: 1) students who had recently dropped out; 2) matched students at risk of dropping out but who persevered nevertheless; and 3) "normative" students with an average level of risk. When SLE of all types were considered together, overall exposure was similar for adolescent boys and girls, and the SLE-dropout association did not vary as a function of gender. However, gender differences emerged for specific events. Boys were especially exposed to SLE related to performance (e.g., school failure, suspension) and conflicts with authority figures (e.g., with teachers or the police), whereas girls were particularly exposed to SLE involving relationship problems with family members, peers, or romantic partners. In terms of specific SLE-dropout associations, one consistent result emerged, showing that performance/authority-related SLE were significantly associated with dropout only among boys. It therefore seems that considering gendered exposure and sensitivity to SLE is important for understanding the emergence of educational difficulties with long-ranging consequences for future health and well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1950 and 1970, the number of public housing units in the United States grew nearly sixfold, and the percentage of births to unmarried women almost tripled. We provide the first estimates of the effect of public housing on single motherhood, using individual-level data to assess whether young women living near higher concentrations of public housing were more likely to have children out of wedlock. We find a strong and positive relationship between public housing and single motherhood for black high school dropouts. This link is larger when we use lagged measures of public housing, which suggests that exposure during childhood may be driving the result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies at a detailed geographical level the relation between cultural capital and high school dropout. Bronfenbrenner’s systemic theory and Heckman’s perspective on cognitive/non-cognitive skills are considered as theoretical framework. We analyzed data from 103 Italian provinces employing Covariance Structure Analysis and spatial indices of autocorrelation. We found a consistent protective effect of cultural capital on dropout, independently of economic performance, in Central and Southern provinces, but not in Northern provinces. Spatial analyses showed very heterogeneous patterns of autocorrelation for dropout (especially across Southern provinces) even between neighboring areas, in spite of a more compact clustering when considering cultural and economic indicators. These results indicate that living in an environment with animated cultural life might enhance students’ non-cognitive skills, thus fostering their involvement in formative activities and the development of their human capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high school education prepares young people to participate positively in the economy and in civic life, among other positive life outcomes. However, nearly one in five American high school students does not graduate from high school on time, if ever. Progress has been made on understanding why students fail to complete high school and on raising graduation rates. Previous reviews and syntheses of this literature have focused on identifying factors that put students at risk for dropping out of school. Less is understood regarding what assets can promote high school graduation. Therefore, we reviewed research from the past 25 years on high school graduation, focusing on longitudinal, US-based studies of malleable factors that predict graduation. Through this systematic search, we identified 12 assets in individual, family, school, peer, and community contexts, which predict high school graduation, as well as identified assets for which more research is needed. Implications for policy and practice and directions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Administrative data from multiple sources are combined to measure pregnancy (excluding those ending in abortion or miscarriage) and high school dropout in a cohort of girls who were 9th graders in the 1994-1995 academic year. Rates of pregnancy (as identified in the data) and dropout are substantially higher among Hispanic high school students than among African-Americans or non-Hispanic whites. Previous studies of teen pregnancy and dropout typically focus on pregnancy rates conditional on dropout status, or dropout rates conditional on fertility. This paper presents estimates of pregnancy and dropout as a joint-dependent variable. Estimates of their joint probability distribution conditional on individual, family, neighborhood, and high school characteristics are reported. The estimates use longitudinal administrative data collected as annual censuses of all public school students in Texas with individual-level ids. Neighborhood characteristics (from the US Census data geographically linked to Texas high schools) have large effects on pregnancy and dropout. Immigrant Hispanic girls' pregnancy rates are significantly lower than native-born Hispanic girls' pregnancy rates. Above-normal-age status in the 9th grade is among the strongest predictors of pregnancy and dropout in later years. Ethnic differences in age distributions within grade level appear to explain a large share of ethnic differences in pregnancy and dropout rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes how parental investment responds to a low birth weight (LBW) outcome and finds important differences in investment responses by maternal education. High school dropouts reinforce a LBW outcome by providing less investment in the human capital of their LBW children relative to their normal birth weight children whereas higher educated mothers compensate by investing more in their LBW children. In addition, an increase in the number of LBW siblings present in the home raises investment in a child, which is consistent with reinforcement, but this positive effect tends to be concentrated among high school dropouts. These results suggest that studies analyzing the effects of LBW on child outcomes that do not account for heterogeneity in investment responses to a LBW outcome by maternal education may overestimate effects of LBW on child outcomes for those born to low-educated mothers and underestimate such effects for those born to high-educated mothers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the distribution of substance use, mental health, and criminal behavior among dropouts derived from a nationally representative sample of 18-25 year old (N = 19,312) emerging adults in the United States. Using public-use data from the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, this study employed multiple logistic regression with adjustments for complex survey sampling and compared high school dropouts with graduates with respect to substance use, mental health, and criminal behavior. After controlling for the effects of age, gender, race/ethnicity, family income, receipt of government assistance, employment status, and metropolitan population density, dropouts were more likely to meet criteria for nicotine dependence and report daily cigarette use, and more likely to report having attempted suicide in the previous year, been arrested for larceny, assault, drug possession or drug sales relative to their high school graduate counterparts. The findings of this study provide important insights and an initial epidemiologic portrait of mental health, substance use, and criminal behaviors of dropouts during emerging adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a multi-year, random assignment design, this study evaluated the effects of the National Guard Youth Challenge Program (NGYCP), an intensive residential intervention program for youth ages 16-18 who have dropped out of high school. The sample included 1,173 youth (predominantly male) of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds from ten NGYCP sites across the country. Positive impacts on educational and employment outcomes were sustained 3 years after entering the program, with older participants generally showing greater benefits than younger participants. Implications for research and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent review of the research by the U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences has resulted in the recommendation of six promising practices to ensure that all students are actively engaged in school and on a path to post-secondary success (Dynarski et al. in Dropout prevention: A practice guide (NCEE 2008-4025)). The purpose of this study was to explore the experience and perspective of an Asian American high school dropout and the extent to which his story aligns with dominant thinking, including the six recommended dropout prevention practices and the model minority myth (MMM) of Achievement Orientation, a common belief that Asian Americans exhibit greater success than any other minority ethnic group. The adolescent dropout was interviewed on eight occasions. Findings revealed that the MMM may have contributed to the lack of intervention provided to this student and that the most worthwhile recommendations from his perspective include: assigning adult advocates to at-risk students, the use of a systematic data-tracking system to target and individualize interventions, and the ability of the school to provide academic support and a personalized learning environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both early teen marriage and dropping out of high school have historically been associated with a variety of negative outcomes, including higher poverty rates throughout life. Are these negative outcomes due to preexisting differences, or do they represent the causal effect of marriage and schooling choices? To better understand the true personal and societal consequences, in this article, I use an instrumental variables (IV) approach that takes advantage of variation in state laws regulating the age at which individuals are allowed to marry, drop out of school, and begin work. The baseline IV estimate indicates that a woman who marries young is 31 percentage points more likely to live in poverty when she is older. Similarly, a woman who drops out of school is 11 percentage points more likely to be poor. The results are robust to a variety of alternative specifications and estimation methods, including limited information maximum likelihood (LIML) estimation and a control function approach. While grouped ordinary least squares (OLS) estimates for the early teen marriage variable are also large, OLS estimates based on individual-level data are small, consistent with a large amount of measurement error [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using three waves of data (1998, 2000, 2002) on 1,325 emerging adults, we examined depressive symptoms and life satisfaction among a diverse group of high school dropouts and graduates. Emerging adults who left school without graduating were significantly more depressed and reported lower life satisfaction than graduates at the time of their expected graduation (T1), but these differences were nonsignificant 4 years later (T3). Working within an ecological developmental framework (Bronfenbrenner , ), we found that graduation status, household composition, family general and transition specific support, peer support, and adolescent attachment styles protected against adverse mental health consequences at T1. However, only parent and peer support and attachment predicted changes in depressive symptoms and life satisfaction from T1 to T3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We estimate the effect that dropping out of high school has on 8 outcomes pertaining to wages, employment and subsequent skill acquisition for youths. Our analysis is based on the older cohort of the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS) for 2003, an ideal data set because it contains a rich array of outcome measures and characteristics on individuals when they are in high school and a few years later. Our analysis indicates that dropouts have poorer wage and employment outcomes, and they do not make up for their lack of education through additional skill acquisition and training. The analysis thereby suggests that policies to curb dropping out could have both desirable efficiency effects (high returns) as well as distributional effects (high returns to otherwise more disadvantaged groups) and potential social spillover effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to describe how dropouts navigate their educational journeys. Eighty dropouts participated to individual interviews which were recorded and transcribed. The data analysis yielded three broad categories in answering the research question. Setting the stage in the family and the school, the dropouts described their teetering between in and out of school contexts and proceeded to explain how they ended their educational journey. For 20 dropouts, family turmoil represented a pervasive force negatively influencing their schooling. For 24 dropouts, problems in school set the stage for dropping out. Teetering represented juggling strategies to prolongand to sabotage the journey, while the end of the journey occurred as a result of a pivotal moment (48%) or a gradual fade out (52%) from the school context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A systematic review of peer-reviewed, empirical literature published between 1990 and 2006 was undertaken to determine whether existing research could provide evidence, and a deeper understanding of the relationship between dropping out of high school and the use of substances such as tobacco, alcohol, cannabis/marijuana and other illicit drugs. Forty-six articles were reviewed. The review describes the heterogeneity of theoretical frameworks employed, as well as the limited ability of any one to adequately explain the relationship between high school dropout and substance use. A refinement of the many confounding and mediating variables into coherent conceptual categories would aid more robust theory building and theory integration. In spite of differences in dropout definitions and diverse measures of substance use across studies, the main findings point to a largely consistent relationship between dropping out of high school and substance use. However, socially disadvantaged and poor persons, dropouts, and drug users are over-represented in some of the loss to follow-up groups in longitudinal studies surveyed. More rigorous mechanisms to retain participants in longitudinal studies should be employed. Suggestions for future research include comparisons between urban and rural populations, employing qualitative research methods, and research in developing countries, which have the least favourable school outcomes and a dearth of research on high school dropout. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyse part-time employment of teenagers still in full-time education, their academic performance, and their school leaving decisions. Our estimation strategy takes account of the possible interdependencies of these events and distinguishes between two alternative states to full time education: entering the labour force full time and going on to further training. We model this decision in a flexible way. Our analysis is based on data from the UK National Child Development Study, which has an unusually rich set of variables on school and parental characteristics. Our main finding is that working part time while in full-time education has only small adverse effects on exam performance for females, and no effects for males. The effect of part-time work on the decision to stay on at school is also negative, but small, and marginally significant for males, but not for females. Other important determinants of exam success as well as the continuation decision are parental ambitions about the child’s future academic career. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we find that first-generation youth of Hispanic, Asian, and African heritage obtain more education than their parents, but the second generation and third or higher generations lose ground. Differences in dropout rates by race-ethnicity and immigrant generation are driven by differences in human, cultural, and social capital. Low levels of family human capital, school social capital, and community social capital place the children of immigrants at risk of dropping out. However, cultural capital and immigrant optimism buffer first-generation Hispanic youth and the children of Asian immigrants from the risk of dropping out of high school. While human and social capital resources improve with immigrant generation, cultural capital diminishes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We compared family risk and protective factors among potential high school dropouts with and without suicide-risk behaviors (SRB) and examined the extent to which these factors predict categories of SRB. Subjects were randomly selected from among potential dropouts in 14 high schools. Based upon suicide-risk status, 1,083 potential high school dropouts were defined as belonging to one of four groups; 573 non-suicide risk, 242 low suicide risk, 137 moderate suicide risk and 131 high suicide risk. Results showed significant group differences in all youth self-reported family risk and protective factors. Increased levels of suicide risk were associated with perceived conflict with parents, unmet family goals, and family depression; decreased levels of risk were associated with perceived parental involvement and family support for school. Perceived conflict with parents, family depression, family support satisfaction, and availability of family support for school were the strongest predictors of adolescent SRB. Our findings suggest that suicide vulnerable youth differ from their non-suicidal peers along the dimensions of family risk and protective factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using interviews, focus group discussions, and case histories, the lived experiences of female adolescents in oil-producing communities of the Niger Delta region show the negative outcomes of crude oil explorations and petroleum refinery. For many female adolescents, petroleum activities translate into multiple sexual partners, teenage pregnancy and illegal abortion, high exposure to STDs including HIV/AIDS, increasing rate of high school drop-out, and impoverishment due to high unemployment, and low education. Strategies recommended to improve the lived experiences of female adolescents include the protection and defense of the sexual and reproductive rights of female adolescents, which require policies and programs to improve education about adolescents' sexuality, encourage schooling, and reduce adolescents' vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper maps patterns of public assistance receipt for 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth female high school dropouts between 1984, when they were 19–27 years old, and 1998 when they reached their early 30s and 40s. Using latent class cluster models, I test whether obtaining a GED, occupational training, work experience, marriage, and delayed parenthood reduce the probability of receiving public assistance. I find that dropouts who earn their GEDs within 4 years after leaving high school have a high probability of never receiving public assistance across the 14-year period. Those who earn GEDs 5 or more years after dropping out have a sharply reduced risk of welfare use in mid-adulthood, suggesting that a late GED may act as a turning point for those formerly reliant on public assistance. Although work experience is the strongest predictor of avoiding public assistance, marriage and education provide a more effective route off of welfare for some recipients. On-the-job training and earning a GED later in life increase the likelihood that chronic recipients will permanently exit welfare. Highlighting the diversity within the welfare population, I conclude that no single approach to ending reliance on public assistance will lead to economic self-sufficiency among the undereducated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conditions that foster and hinder participatory research are examined, using examples from one such research project aimed at dropout reduction undertaken with students in a "last chance" high school. Student researchers sometimes used racial, gender, and social class differences to gain power and display undemocratic behavior within the group. Dilemmas arose as small-scale actions were implemented that seemed to threaten the power and authority of teachers and administrators both within the alternative school and the traditional high schools that fed into it. The limits to extending democracy to students through research are identified, drawing upon recent theoretical work on feminist pedagogy and participatory research. The conclusion is that youths need to be taken seriously as knowers and potential agents of change and that adults who want to work with adolescent researchers need to model democratic teaching and leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses several theories on unemployment and disadvantaged workers. Topics discussed include the job search theory of unemployment, the teenagers and women workers, and the role of public employment agencies. In addition, reference is made to racial trends in unemployment rates due to discrimination, together with the labor market, rates of school dropouts, and inflation. Finally, the article concludes by mentioning the higher levels of joblessness for workers in general, and mostly for disadvantage workers, and the imperative of implementing measures on fiscal and monetary stimulation.

The article examines some of the demographic and social factors related to the school retention of children and youth in the U.S. to older ages and higher educational levels. The ability of a nation to increase its scientific and technological capacity, raise its standard of living, and provide the basis for participation of the population in the affairs of the country and its communities is closely related to the development of its educational system and to the opportunity for individuals to continue their schooling to levels adequate for their needs and desires. In the U.S., the educational system has developed to the point at which these abilities are essentially met; but not all young persons persist in their schooling to the same educational level, and school retention rates are found to vary for different segments of the population. Data on which the analysis is based come principally from the decennial censuses and sample surveys of the U.S. Bureau of the Census. These sources provide much of the information needed to answer the questions raised.

The article discusses reports related to social science research in the U.S. Topics discussed include the National Academy of Medicine's report about the need for a national birth cohort study in the U.S., the high school dropout rates according to the Child Trends Data Bank, and a review of the book "$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America" by Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer.

Presents an abstract of the article `High School Dropouts: Human Capital Investment Decisions Among Discouraged Youths,' by Hyung C. Chung. High school dropout rate among minority and white youths in the United States.