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This book places career development into the mainstream of human development research and theory. The result is a powerful synthesis of vocational psychology and the most recent advances in lifespan developmental psychology, thus offering a developmental-contextual framework for guiding theory and research in career development.

The purpose of this study was to examine how successes and difficulties with various developmental tasks of early adulthood relate to the course of well-being. Three waves of national panel data spanning ages 18–26 were drawn from the Monitoring the Future study (N = 3518). Based on self-reports, respondents were assigned scores (succeeding, maintaining, or stalling) to reflect progress in seven domains of developmental tasks: education, work, financial autonomy, romantic involvement, peer involvement, substance abuse avoidance, and citizenship. We identified trajectory groups of well-being (based on self-esteem, self-efficacy, and social support) that reflect diverging trajectories during the transition: steady–high versus high–decreasing, and low–increasing versus steady–low. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to predict membership in the diverging well-being trajectory groups as a function of developmental task domain scores. Maintaining or gaining a salutary trajectory of well-being across the transition was found to be a function of more success and less stalling across the developmental tasks, specifically in the work, romantic involvement, and citizenship domains. Compensatory effects (e.g., succeeding in education compensated for not succeeding in work) and threshold effects (e.g., succeeding in both achievement and affiliation domains was necessary for a salutary trajectory) were also found.This study was supported in part by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA01411). The authors thank Dante Cicchetti, Kate Fiori, Jennifer Maggs, Wayne Osgood, and Arnold Sameroff for helpful comments and suggestions and Ginny Laetz and Tanya Hart for assistance with the preparation of this article.

Objectives Longitudinal survey data allow for the estimation of developmental trajectories of substance use from adolescence to young adulthood, but these estimates may be subject to attrition bias. Moreover, there is a lack of consensus regarding the most effective statistical methodology to adjust for sample selection and attrition bias when estimating these trajectories. Our objective is to develop specific recommendations regarding adjustment approaches for attrition in longitudinal surveys in practice. Methods Analyzing data from the national U.S. Monitoring the Future panel study following four cohorts of individuals from modal ages 18 to 29/30, we systematically compare alternative approaches to analyzing longitudinal data with a wide range of substance use outcomes, and examine the sensitivity of inferences regarding substance use prevalence and trajectories as a function of college attendance to the approach used. Results Our results show that analyzing all available observations in each wave, while simultaneously accounting for the correlations among repeated observations, sample selection, and attrition, is the most effective approach. The adjustment effects are pronounced in wave‐specific descriptive estimates but generally modest in covariate‐adjusted trajectory modeling. Conclusions The adjustments can refine the precision, and, to some extent, the implications of our findings regarding young adult substance use trajectories.

Historical analyses based on US data indicate that recent cohorts engage in lower binge drinking at age 18 relative to past cohorts, but by the mid- to late-20s the reverse is true: recent cohorts engage in higher binge drinking relative to past cohorts. We pinpoint when – both developmentally and historically – this reversal manifested, examine possible reasons for this reversal, and examine sex convergence in these developmental and historical patterns. As part of the US national Monitoring the Future Study, over 75,000 youths from the high school classes of 1976–2006 were surveyed biennially between ages 18 and 30. We found that the reversal primarily manifested between ages 18 and 24 for men and 18 and 22 for women. We also found that the reversal emerged gradually across the last three decades, suggesting it is the result of a broad and durable historical shift. Our findings indicated that historical variation in social roles and minimum legal drinking age collectively accounted for only a modest amount of the reversal, although marriage was the most influential among the factors examined here. Finally, we found evidence that sex convergence in binge drinking was developmentally limited and far more pronounced at the beginning of the transition to adulthood.

Substance use is a major contributor to morbidity and mortality among American adolescents. Conduct problems and depressive symptoms have each been found to be associated with adolescent substance use. Although they are highly comorbid, the role of the interaction of conduct problems and depressive symptoms in substance use is not clear. In national samples of 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students from the Monitoring the Future study, latent moderated structural equation modeling was used to estimate the association of conduct problems, depressive symptoms, and their interaction to the use of alcohol (including binge drinking), cigarettes, and marijuana. Moderation by age and sex was tested. The interaction of conduct problems with depressive symptoms was a strong predictor of substance use, particularly among younger adolescents. With few exceptions, adolescents with high levels of both conduct problems and depressive symptoms used substances most frequently. Conduct problems were a strong positive predictor of substance use, and depressive symptoms were a weak positive predictor. Whereas conduct problems are often thought to be a primary predictor of substance use, this study revealed that depressive symptoms potentiate the relation of conduct problems to substance use. Therefore, substance use prevention efforts should target both depressive symptoms and conduct problems.

This study used national multicohort panel data from the Monitoring the Future study (N = 25,536 from senior year classes 1977–1997 followed up to the age of 35 years in 1994–2014) to examine how early midlife (age 35 years) alcohol use disorder (AUD) and cannabis use disorder (CUD) are associated with adolescent and adult sociodemographics and health and well-being risk factors. Survey items adapted from DSM-5 diagnostic criteria were used to identify individuals who (a) showed symptoms consistent with criteria for AUD or CUD at age 35 years, (b) used the substance without qualifying for a disorder (nondisordered users), and (c) abstained from using alcohol or marijuana during the past five years. At age 35 years, the estimated prevalence of past five-year AUD was 28.0%, and that of CUD was 6.1%. Multinomial logistic regressions were used to identify variations in the relative risk of disorder symptoms as a function of sociodemographic characteristics, age 18 educational and social indices and substance use, and age 35 health and satisfaction indices and substance use. In the full models, age 18 binge drinking and marijuana use were found to be among the strongest predictors of age 35 AUD and CUD, respectively. Among age 35 health and well-being indicators, lower overall health, more frequent cognitive difficulties, and lower satisfaction with spouse/partner were consistently associated with greater risks of AUD and CUD. Some evidence was found for a J-shaped association between age 35 AUD or CUD status and health and well-being indices, such that nondisordered users were sometimes better off than both abstainers and those experiencing disorder. Finally, nondisordered cannabis use, but not CUD, was found to be more common in more recent cohorts. Implications are discussed regarding the importance of placing early midlife substance use disorder within the context of both adolescent substance use and adult health and well-being.

During adolescence, sensation seeking is linked to several adverse outcomes including substance use, risk taking, and psychopathology. Recent empirical interest in the construct of boredom has revealed that some similar associations may exist for boredom during adolescence. Both boredom and sensation seeking peak during adolescence, and yet, research on boredom and its interaction with sensation seeking are limited. In a multi-cohort, US nationally representative sample of 8th and 10th grade students from the monitoring the future study, latent-moderated structural equation modeling was used to estimate the association of boredom, sensation seeking, and their interaction, to substance use, externalizing behavior, and depressive affect. Moderation by gender was also tested. Boredom and sensation seeking were both significantly associated with most dependent variables. Significant interaction effects were found wherein individuals high on both boredom and sensation seeking reported the highest levels of depressive affect and externalizing behavior. There were no significant interaction effects for substance use indices. Gender moderation was found for depressive affect. The results of this study demonstrate the generalizability of boredom associations and the significance of boredom by sensation-seeking interactions across multiple mental health domains during adolescence. Prevention efforts that attend to both boredom and sensation seeking may be particularly effective for promoting mental health and preventing externalizing behavior.

Substance use changes rapidly during late adolescence and early adulthood. This time in the life course is also dense with social role changes, as role changes provide dynamic context for individual developmental change. Using nationally representative, multiwave longitudinal data from age 18 to 28, we examine proximal links between changes in social roles and changes in substance use during the transition to adulthood. We find that changes in family roles, such as marriage, divorce, and parenthood, have clear and consistent associations with changes in substance use. With some notable exceptions, changes in school and work roles have weaker effects on changes in substance use compared to family roles. Changes in socializing (i.e., nights out for fun and recreation) and in religiosity were found to mediate the relationship of social role transitions to substance use. Two time-invariant covariates, socioeconomic background and heavy adolescent substance use, predicted social role status, but did not moderate associations, as within-person links between social roles and substance use were largely equivalent across groups. This paper adds to the cascading effects literature by considering how, within individuals, more proximal variations in school, work, and family roles relate to variations in substance use, and which roles appear to be most influential in precipitating changes in substance use during the transition to adulthood.

Few students of psychopathology and mental health would argue that the period between adolescence and adulthood is simply a passive medium through which individuals pass untouched, a segment of the life span that has no unique impact on ongoing trajectories of functioning and adjustment. Yet the relative lack of attention given to this period in theoretical conceptualizations and empirical investigations suggests an assumption that the events and experiences constituting the transition to adulthood are relatively inconsequential to the course of psychopathology and mental health. In comparison, far more attention has been given to childhood effects on adult psychopathology. Early experiences may be critical, and deserve all the attention they are given; however, their influences on later psychopathology and mental health are likely mediated and sometimes reversed by later experiences (Cicchetti & Tucker, 1994; Curtis & Cicchetti, 2003; Sroufe, 1997; Sroufe, Carlson, Levy, & Egeland, 1999; Sroufe, Egeland, & Kreutzer, 1990). There is a clear need to devote equal attention to more developmentally proximal influences (Cairns, 2000; Lewis, 1999; Schulenberg, Maggs, & O'Malley, 2003). This is especially true from a systems perspective, where development is viewed as a function of strong person–context interactions with a temporal course given to fits and starts that correspond, at least in part, to shifts in the individual, the context, and the interaction between the two (Cicchetti & Rogosch, 2002; Sameroff, 2000). More specifically, developmental transitions, representing major life changes within individuals and in social roles and contexts, can contribute to alterations in the course of mental health and psychopathology.John Schulenberg's work on this Special Issue was supported, in part, by grants from the National Institute on Mental Health (NIMH, MH59396) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA, DA01411), Arnold Sameroff's work was supported by a grant from NIMH (MH59396), and Dante Cicchetti's work was supported by grants from NIDA (DA12903) and the Spunk Fund, Inc. This Special Issue is based, in part, on the Michigan Symposium on Development and Psychopathology: Continuity and Discontinuity during the Transition to Adulthood, held at the University of Michigan in June 2002, chaired by John Schulenberg and Arnold Sameroff, and sponsored by the NIMH-funded Center for Development and Mental Health, the Institute for Social Research, Office of the Vice President for Research, and Center for Human Growth and Development.

Although more than 1 in every 3 US individuals will develop a substance use disorder (SUD) in their lifetime, relatively little is known about the long-term sequelae of SUD symptoms from adolescence through adulthood. To evaluate the longitudinal associations between adolescents' SUD symptom severity with later medical use of prescription drugs (ie, opioids, sedatives, and tranquilizers), prescription drug misuse (PDM), and SUD symptoms at ages 35 to 50 years. Eleven cohorts of US 12th grade students were followed longitudinally from age 18 years (1976-1986) to age 50 years (2008-2018) in the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study. Baseline surveys were self-administered in classrooms, and follow-ups were conducted by mail. Data were analyzed from June 2021 to February 2022. Response to MTF study between 1976 and 2018. Sociodemographic variables were measured at baseline. All bivariate and multivariate analyses use attrition weights to adjust for attrition by age 50 years within the sample. SUD symptoms, prescription drug use, and PDM were measured at baseline and every follow-up. The sample of 5317 individuals was 51.2% female (2685 participants; 95% CI, 49.6%-52.6%) and 77.9% White (4222 participants; 95% CI, 77.6%-79.1%). Participants were surveyed beginning at age 18 years and ending at age 50 years. The baseline response rate ranged from 77% to 84%, and the 32-year retention rate was 53%. Most adolescents with most severe SUD symptoms at age 18 years had 2 or more SUD symptoms in adulthood (316 participants [61.6%]; 95% CI, 55.7%-66.9%), and this association held for baseline alcohol, cannabis, and other drug use disorder symptoms. Adolescents with the highest SUD symptom severity at age 18 years had the highest adjusted odds of prescription drug use and PDM in adulthood (4-5 symptoms, adjusted odds ratio, 1.56; 95% CI, 1.06-2.32; ≥6 symptoms, adjusted odds ratio, 1.55; 95% CI, 1.11-2.16). The majority of adults using prescribed opioids, sedatives, or tranquilizers (568 participants [52.2%]; 95% CI, 48.4%-55.9%) in the past year had multiple SUD symptoms at age 18 years. These findings suggest that most adolescents with severe SUD symptoms do not transition out of symptomatic substance use, and the long-term sequelae for adolescents with more severe SUD symptoms are more deleterious than those for adolescents with no or low severity. Prescribers should be aware that many adults prescribed opioids, sedatives, or tranquilizers had multiple SUD symptoms during adolescence and require careful assessment and monitoring.