Critical Choices at a Critical Age: Youth Emancipation Paths and School Attainment in Latin America

This paper discusses how young people become adults in Latin America and how that process affects educational attainment. An examination of four countries at three levels of development shows that individuals` educational attainment is closely linked to the decisions that young people make regarding adult roles, here referred to as emancipation patterns. The paper documents differences among countries in the age at which young people start working, marry and leave the educational system. Factor and hazard analyses further show how these dimensions vary according to gender and income within countries and how they affect the chances that young people will remain in the educational system. Findings indicate that countries` development levels strongly affect the modal ages at which people become adults, hastening the process in less-developed countries and delaying it at higher stages of development. Second, within countries males and females present distinct risk factors regarding educational attainment; public roles (work) increase the risk of drop-out for men and private roles (marriage) increase this risk for women. In addition, and as expected, lower income groups are more at risk and present earlier adoption of adult values than higher income groups. The interrelation of income and gender operate differently in emancipation patterns and in how public and private adult roles affect the chances of remaining in the educational system. Consequently, in order to increase educational attainment the sequence and timing of adult role adoption have to be factored into policies.