Transitions to Adulthood: A Comparative Analysis of Mexican-Origin Populations in the United States and Mexico

René Zenteno, University of Texas at San Antonio
Fatima Frausto, University of Texas at San Antonio

This study proposes a comparative analysis of the transition to adulthood among Mexican-origin populations in the United States and Mexico, utilizing data from the Add Health (2016-2018) and the Mexican Retrospective Demographic Survey (EDER, 2017). By analyzing these datasets, we seek to explore differences in the timing and sequence of crucial life course events, including school completion, employment, marriage, and parenthood. Our research will focus on three main objectives: first, to investigate how the transition to adulthood differs between these populations; second, to assess the influence of early socioeconomic conditions on these transitions; and third, to examine how immigrant status and gender shape life trajectories in the U.S. versus Mexico. The study leverages the overlapping birth cohorts of both surveys (1976-1982) and accounts for key demographic variations such as educational attainment and fertility rates. Notably, disparities in educational access are significant: while 89.7% of Mexican-origin individuals in the U.S. completed high school, only 20.4% did so in Mexico. Additionally, fertility rates are lower in the U.S. cohort (1.6 children per woman) compared to Mexico (2.2 children). Discrete-time event-history models will be employed to estimate the transitions for men and women, providing insight into the life course trajectories of these populations.

Keywords: Children, Adolescents, and Youth, Human Capital, Education, and Work, Fertility, International Migration

See extended abstract.