Generational Change in Youth Behaviors and Attitudes: New Insights from the MTF Data, 1976–2019

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract/Description

This thematic panel includes four presentations that leverage the Monitoring the Future (MTF) 12th grade surveys (1976 to 2019) to examine generational changes in youth behaviors and attitudes related to crime and criminal justice. Two presentations examine the contextual effects of community disadvantages on offending and substance abuse: both suggest significant shifts in the effects of concentrated disadvantages on delinquent behaviors across cohorts coming of age in different eras. One presentation examined the changes in Black girls’ victimization across cohorts and how these changes are associated with school engagement. The last presentation explores an interesting phenomenon among recent cohorts: an increasing proportion of adolescents selecting “No opinion” when asked about their perception of the police. Together, these studies highlight the importance of historical context and generational variation in understanding adolescent behaviors and attitudes, and they offer important theoretical and methodological insights for future research.

Sub Unit

• Area IX. Comparative & Historical Perspectives:  / 69. Historical Comparisons of Crime & Justice

Individual Presentations

• Concentrated Disadvantage and Juvenile Delinquency across Generations in the U.S.: A Forty-Year Analysis - Yunmei Lu, State University of New York at Buffalo

• Victimization among Black Adolescent Girls: Examining School Engagement and Generational Changes from 1986 to 2019 - Makaela S. Brass, State University of New York at Buffalo

• Community Disadvantage and Substance Use among Rural and Urban Adolescents, 1976-2019 - Rachel Zhang, University of Tampa; Chandler Fairbanks, University at Buffalo; Sophia Olsinski, State University of New York at Buffalo

• The “Real Opinion” behind the Increasing “No Opinion” Responses Toward Police Perception Questions among American Adolescents - Luzi Shi, University of Rhode Island

Chair

• Yunmei Lu, State University of New York at Buffalo