Hendrick C Emily, Cohen Alison K, Deardorff Julianna, Cance Jessica D
Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, Health Behavior Health Education Program, The University of Texas at Austin, 2109 San Jacinto Blvd., Austin, TX 78712.
Division of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, 50 University Hall #7360 Berkeley, CA 94720-7360.
J Sch Health. 2016 Mar;86(3):215-24. doi: 10.1111/josh.12368.
Lifetime educational attainment is an important predictor of health and well-being for women in the United States. In this study, we examine the roles of sociocultural factors in youth and an understudied biological life event, pubertal timing, in predicting women's lifetime educational attainment.
Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort (N = 3889), we conducted sequential multivariate linear regression analyses to investigate the influences of macro-level and family-level sociocultural contextual factors in youth (region of country, urbanicity, race/ethnicity, year of birth, household composition, mother's education, and mother's age at first birth) and early menarche, a marker of early pubertal development, on women's educational attainment after age 24.
Pubertal timing and all sociocultural factors in youth, other than year of birth, predicted women's lifetime educational attainment in bivariate models. Family factors had the strongest associations. When family factors were added to multivariate models, geographic region in youth, and pubertal timing were no longer significant.
Our findings provide additional evidence that family factors should be considered when developing comprehensive and inclusive interventions in childhood and adolescence to promote lifetime educational attainment among girls.
在美国，终身教育成就对女性的健康和幸福来说是一个重要的预测指标。在本研究中，我们考察了青少年时期的社会文化因素以及一个较少被研究的生物生命事件——青春期时间，在预测女性终身教育成就方面所起的作用。
利用1997年全国青少年纵向调查队列（N = 3889）的数据，我们进行了一系列多元线性回归分析，以探究青少年时期宏观层面和家庭层面的社会文化背景因素（国家地区、城市化程度、种族/族裔、出生年份、家庭构成、母亲的教育程度以及母亲首次生育时的年龄）和初潮过早（青春期早期发育的一个标志）对24岁之后女性教育成就的影响。
在双变量模型中，除出生年份外，青春期时间和青少年时期所有的社会文化因素都能预测女性的终身教育成就。家庭因素的关联最为强烈。当将家庭因素纳入多元模型时，青少年时期的地理区域和青春期时间不再具有显著性。
我们的研究结果提供了更多证据，表明在制定全面且具有包容性的干预措施以促进女孩终身教育成就时，应考虑家庭因素。
