Table 1.

Control variables

Construct	Indicators and response options
Demographic characteristics
Age	Continuous indicator; centered at 16 in multivariate analyses
Gender	Dummy variable for female (0/1)
Race/ethnicity	Dummy variables for (a) non-Hispanic White [reference], (b) Black, (c) Hispanic, (d) Asian, and (e) other (includes American Indian) races (0/1)
Immigrant status	Dummy variable for respondent not born in the USA (0/1)
Family SES	Combined scale of parent’s education and parent’s occupational level (0–9 [13])
Family structure and supervision
Family structure	Dummy variables for lived with (a) both biological parents [reference], (b) a single parent, (c) a stepparent, or (d) some other arrangement (0/1)
Parental supervision	7-Item count of whether parents let respondent make decisions (1 = yes, 0 = no) about their curfew, friends, clothing, TV, etc.
Disposition
Relative pubertal development	Self-rated physical development compared to same-aged peers (range − 2 = “I look younger than most” to 2 = “I look older than most”)
Marital expectations	“What do you think the chances are that you will be married by age 25?” (range 0 = almost no chance–4 = almost certain)
Depression	19-Item summated scale of frequency of past week feeling “bothered by things,” “unable to shake the blues,” “too tired to do things,” etc. (range 0 = never or rarely–3 = most or all of the time)
Self-esteem	6-Item summated scale of R’s agreement that they “have a lot of good qualities,” “have a lot to be proud of,” etc. (range 0 = strongly disagree–4 = strongly agree)
Low self-control	6-item summated scale of responses to items, e.g., “When you have a problem to solve one of the first things you do is get as many facts about the problem as possible”; “When you are attempting to find a solution to a problem you usually try to think of as many different ways to approach the problem as possible” (reverse-coded range 0 = strongly agree–4 = strongly disagree)
Attachment style
Anxious attachment	Dummy variable for endorsing (a) seeing less of friends, (b) telling partner I loved him/her, or (c) partner says he/she loves me as the ideal first thing to happen in a perfect romantic relationship; see text for additional details.
Avoidant attachment	Dummy variable for disagreeing that “I would tell my partner that I loved him or her” is characteristics of an ideal romantic relationship (0/1); see text for additional details
Deviant behavior
Lying to parents	Past year frequency of lying to parents/guardians about where respondent has been or with whom they were (range 0 = never–3 = 5 or more times)
Violent perpetration	4-item count of any past year perpetration (e.g., “been in a serious fight”; range 0–4)
Non-violent delinquency	10-item summated scale of frequency of past year perpetration (e.g., vandalism, theft; range 0 = never to 3 = 5 or more times)
Alcohol use	Past year frequency of alcohol use (range 0 = never–6 = every day or almost every day)
Childhood abuse
Physical abuse	Dummy variable for any parent/caregiver physical abuse experienced before 6th grade/age 12 (0/1); measured at either wave III or IV
Sexual abuse	Dummy variable for any parent/caregiver sexual abuse (including forced touching) experienced before 6th grade/age 12 (0/1); measured at either wave III or IV
Additional controls
Urban	Dummy variable for whether the respondent resided in an urban area
Region	Dummy variables for U.S. Census region of residence: West, Midwest, South, or Northeast
Number of interviews	Number of follow-up interviews respondent completed (1–3)

Unless otherwise noted, all indicators are measured at wave I; preliminary analyses considered additional indicators that were ultimately excluded from the final models. See text for details.

SES socioeconomic status