"...[A]ccording to the results of UCLA's annual survey of the nation's students entering undergraduate classes...[t]he importance of raising a family ranks highest among the survey's list of 21 values, with a record 74.8 percent of freshmen noting it as a very important or essential life goal, compared with 73.6 percent last year and a record low of 58.8 percent reported in 1977.

(Source: Shaena Engle, "Political Interest on the Rebound Among the Nation's Freshmen, UCLA Survey Reveals," January 26, 2004, http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/heri/03_press_release.pdf; press release for: Sax, L.J., Astin, A. W., Lindholm, J. A., Korn, W.S., Saenz, V. B. and Mahoney, K.M., "The American Freshman: National Norms for Fall 2003," Higher Education Research Institute, UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, 2003)  

"...[S]tudents' political views also have shifted to the right. Liberals still outnumber conservatives, but just barely: 24% say they hold liberal political views; 21% call themselves conservatives...

'It's a more conservative generation,' says Paul Houston of the American Association of School Administrators. 'They just don't do things that are dangerous to themselves.'"

(Source: Greg Toppo, "Survey: Freshmen more political-and more conservative," USA Today, January 25, 2004; http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2004-01-25-freshmen-politics-usat_x.htm.)   

Teens who grow up in a single-parent home experience so much stress that they suffer from poor health well into their early adult years. The reasons for the health problems found among young adults who have grown up with only one parent recently received attention from a team of researchers at Iowa State University and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Examining data collected for 485 youth surveyed as part of the Iowa Youth Families Projects, the authors of the new study identified "a significant increase in health problems...during the transition from adolescence to early adulthood." This increase was particularly pronounced among young adults whose families of origin had exposed them to "social disadvantage" because the parents were poorly educated or because one of the parents was missing from the home.

"When parents have less education and when only one parent is available in the home," the researchers remark, "the adolescent is more likely to experience conduct problems, school failures, a precocious entry into family responsibilities, a more limited education, and early stresses and strains in their work life. This accumulating process of disadvantage produces a consequent increase in risk for poor health."

In the researchers' statistical model, living in a single-parent family as an adolescent predicted "early problem behavior," "school failures," "stressful work and economic events," all of which were in turn linked to subsequent "poor physical health" in young adulthood (p < .05 for all relationships).

In other words, "the social disadvantage" of adolescents whose parents are poorly educated or are single leads to "poor physical health of young adults through their stressful transitions into adulthood."

The researchers interpret their findings in light of previous research demonstrating that "social disadvantage in the family of origin contributes to adverse child-rearing practices of parents and in turn partially determines child adjustment problems."

(Source: K.A.S. Wickrama et al., "Linking Early Social Risks to Impaired Physical Health during the Transition to Adulthood," Journal of Health and Social Behavior 44[2003]: 61-74.)