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This document examines three important national surveys that provide periodic longitudinal data on the transition to adulthood during the late 1960s and 1970s: (1) the Parnes Young Men and Women Panels, initiated in 1966 and 1968; (2) the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, initiated in 1968; and (3) the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972. Section I of this paper provides an introduction to the three datasets and describes two projects in the Rand Corporation Labor and Population Program which build on the complementarities of these datasets. Section II outlines the special characteristics of each survey that affect the construction of appropriate cohorts for comparison and compares them on such background characteristics as age at survey, race and parental education. Section III presents the constructions of the four measures of life-cycle progress: first marriage, leaving the parental home, school enrollment, and military service. Section IV shows how the four measures compare across surveys. Section V discusses the results and their implications for the complementary use of these datasets and for the prospective collection of information on life-cycle transitions. Background tables are appended and references are given. (NRB)

Living independently before marriage is part of a broader pattern of family and demographic change characterizing modern societies since World War II. This study examined expectations about premarital residential independence among young adults. Data were obtained from 28,240 high school seniors who participated in the High School and Beyond study of the class of 1980. Students were asked at what age they expected to get married and at what age they expected to live in their own home or apartment. Those who gave an expected age at residence younger than an expected age at marriage were defined as expecting independent residence before marriage. The results revealed that approximately 70% of young adults surveyed expected to move out of their parental home before marriage, suggesting that new norms are emerging which fit into patterns of independence in the transition to adulthood. There was substantial variation in factors affecting expectations about premarital residential independence. Young men more than young women, those with more parental resources, those who expected to marry at older ages, and those who did not have ethnic and religious ties that linked them to their parental home until marriage expected to live independently. Religious, racial, and ethnic differences interacted in complex ways with gender and socioeconomic status to influence expectations about premarital residential independence. (Author/NB)

Compared influence of expectations of young adults and their parents on leaving home. Used data from High School and Beyond surveys to model odds of leaving home to establish new home while unmarried or in context of marriage. Both generations' expectations strongly influenced later residential behavior, with parental expectations having more impact than those of young adults themselves. (Author/NB)