TY  - JOUR
A1  - Hasl, Andrea
A1  - Kretschmann, Julia
A1  - Richter, Dirk
A1  - Voelkle, Manuel
A1  - Brunner, Martin
T1  - Investigating Core Assumptions of the "American Dream": Historical Related to Key Life Outcomes in Adulthood
JF  - Psychology and aging
N2  - The present study examines how historical changes in the U.S. socioeconomic environment in the 20th century may have affected core assumptions of the "American Dream." Specifically, the authors examined whether such changes modulated the extent to which adolescents' intelligence (IQ), their grade point average (GPA), and their parents' socioeconomic status (SES) could predict key life outcomes in adulthood about 20 years later. The data stemmed from two representative U.S. birth cohorts of 15- and 16-year-olds who were born in the early 1960s (N = 3,040) and 1980s (N = 3,524) and who participated in the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (NLSY). Cohort differences were analyzed with respect to differences in average relations by means of multiple and logistic regression and for specific points in each outcome distribution by means of quantile regressions. In both cohorts, IQ, GPA, and parental SES predicted important educational, occupational, and health-related life-outcomes about 20 years later. Across historical time, the predictive utility of adolescent IQ and parental SES remained stable for the most part. Yet, the combined effects of social-ecological and socioeconomic changes may have increased the predictive utility (that is, the regression weights) of adolescent GPA for educational, occupational, and health outcomes over time for individuals who were born in the 1980s. Theoretical implications concerning adult development, aging, and late life inequality are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record.
KW  - cohort differences
KW  - intelligence
KW  - grade point average
KW  - socioeconomic status
KW  - life span research
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1037/pag0000392
SN  - 0882-7974
SN  - 1939-1498
VL  - 34
IS  - 8
SP  - 1055
EP  - 1076
PB  - American Psychological Association
CY  - Washington
ER  -