​I’ve been in HDFS at Penn State for more than 17 years, and one thing we do well is advanced developmental methodology. Indeed, I have my share of papers with multilevel or growth curve modeling, latent class analysis, and APIM.

But I sometimes find myself coming back to the basics. And one procedure I return to again and again is straight out asking participants how they feel about something, with open-ended responses. In the University Life Study, we tracked college students for 7 semesters, and each semester asked about their engagement in 6 different sexual behaviors. Thus, we could catch the first time they engaged in any of these behaviors.  When they reported engaging in any behavior for the first time, we asked them how they felt about it. We then put together a team to code the emotions expressed in these responses. Sara Vasilenko (lead author), Megan Maas, and I reported the findings in a recent paper in Journal of Adolescent Research. In the end, because the data were nested, we had to use MLM, but I think the true story is in the simplicity.

Across the different behaviors (kissing, touching, performing oral sex, receiving oral sex, vaginal sex, and anal sex) the most commonly expressed emotions after first experience were happy, excited, fearful, and indifferent. One of my favorite quotes, reported in the paper, was a young woman describing her first experience of vaginal sex during her first year of college: “It felt awesome and I’m happy I lost my virginity to my boyfriend and I am happy I did it at the time I did. I had a great time and I don’t think I will ever regret it.” I can just picture her saying that (or texting that) to a friend. Another favorite is this young man’s description of his first experience of kissing in his third year of college: “Heart racing—disbelief. Very exhilarating.” Reponses were not all positive though; this one, by a young woman who experienced first vaginal sex in her second year, is heartbreaking: “I felt like I had made a horrible mistake. I felt ill and sick with myself. I was depressed.”

Emotions varied by type of behavior. Overall, students reported more positive than negative emotions. Students were generally more excited and less negative about kissing than about vaginal sex. Less positivity was expressed about anal sex and performing oral sex than about vaginal sex. Overall, emotions seemed to be more positive if individuals perceived low risk/threat, and/or received more direct stimulation.

There were also some gender differences, with young men more likely to report feeling happy and excited than young women about all behaviors. Young women felt more negative about vaginal sex, anal sex, and performing oral sex than young men did. It may be that young women feel more pressure to comply with behaviors before they feel ready, and also put more emphasis on foreplay than men do.

Overall, the findings highlight the positive feelings that many young adults have about sexual experiences that first occur in late adolescence/early adulthood.

“The post College students’ first experiences of six different sexual behaviors first appeared on Eva Lefkowitz’s blog on December 14, 2015.”

As the semester wraps up, I wanted to say a few words about effective studying.

A New York Times article did a great job of summarizing research on studying, and why some traditional advice may actually be incorrect

Four more tips that you may find useful over the next 2 weeks:

• Retrieval is a potent learning event. Recognition is not. This is the #1 thing I learned from my graduate course on memory (and I still remember, more than 20 years later). If you just look at a fact or definition over and over, or keep reading it, you are unlikely to learn it well. If you actually make yourself remember it without looking at it (e.g., cover up the definition and produce it from memory), you are improving your ability to remember it at a much greater rate.
• Use review questions. Many professors provide review questions, at least in undergraduate courses. Don't just skim them. Make yourself answer them to be certain you truly know the answers. If your professor doesn't provide review questions, go through the textbook and your notes and write your own.
• If you didn't do well on an earlier exam or quiz, ask to meet with the professor to go over it. Even if the material on the next quiz/exam does not overlap at all, seeing the questions you got wrong, and understanding why, will help you approach the next exam. Maybe you struggle more with multiple choice problems and you can talk through strategies for answering them. Maybe you forget to read the full question. Maybe you have trouble recalling material. You won't know until you see your past performance.
• Take breaks, please! Yes, you have limited time left before your exams. Of course you want to do well. But you will be more functional if you take occasional breaks to eat, stretch, sleep, etc. Don't just eat while you study -- take 15 minutes to eat and chat with a friend or watch a bit of TV. Have a dance party. Stretch every hour. Make sure you get enough rest. Really, these things will help you be able to study better, and think better the day of the exam.

 
“The post Effective study habits first appeared on Eva Lefkowitz’s blog on December 8, 2015"

(Note: Most of my blog writing has been geared to graduate students, but I’m starting a new series geared toward undergraduate students thinking about graduate school).
 
Maybe you know exactly what you want to do after you finish your education. You want to be a clinical social worker. A doctor. A lawyer. An elementary school teacher. A chef. An underwater basket weaver. You love going to classes, reading textbooks and articles, and writing papers. You do not feel at all burnt out by being a student. You don't want to waste one second between today and the moment you start the job you've dreamed about since you were 5 and wrapped a toy stethoscope around your neck. Fine, then. Go to grad school immediately after graduation.

But if you are at all uncertain about what you want to do. If you are feeling tired of attending classes and studying. If you are feeling burnt out by being a student, and the idea of evenings to read novels, or time to travel, or doing something completely different seems appealing, then please consider taking some time off.

Here's why.

You have your whole life to work. Seriously. Many students are around 22 when they graduate. That means that best case scenario, you have more than 40 years left before retirement. You've spent the last 16+ years in school. Even if you decide to take 6 years to get a PhD, that still leaves you 35+ years left to work. Today, you may feel burnt out by classes and studying. In 2 or 5 years, it may seem new and exciting again. Why not break up the schooling with a few years of work?

Graduate school is generally expensive. There are some research-oriented PhD programs where you can be supported with an assistantship, though depending on the stipend amount and the local cost of living, you may still need loans. Otherwise, graduate school is going to involve little to no income, and spending a lot of money. Why do that unless you're absolutely certain it's what you want to do? I know many people who started (or finished) graduate school, only to discover it was not the best choice for them. Most of those people took no time off after graduation. Give yourself some time to figure out what you want to do. If you're not certain, you might as well earn money, rather than spend it, while you figure it out.

What kind of job should you find after graduation if you don't go straight to graduate school?

Option 1: Find a job relevant to what you think you want to do. If you're interested in social work, find a job in human services. Interested in law school, work as a legal assistant. Think you want to be a professor? Get a job as a research assistant. This experience will help you determine if you really want to spend the rest of your life in this type of career. And, you will improve your chances to get into graduate school if you have relevant work experience, plus letters of recommendation from people who REALLY know you. You will have more time to prepare for the GREs because you will not be studying for other things. And you're earning money, rather than spending it, figuring out what you want to do. I chose this option. I worked for two years as a research assistant before starting a PhD program, and I'm certain that my work experience and letters of recommendation helped me get into UCLA. Plus in my life, I've never read more novels than I did those two years, because it's the only time in my life from kindergarten through today that I didn't have homework.

Option 2:
first, a tangent.
I have a PhD. I have been a professor for 12 1/2 years. I have a husband and two kids. If I woke up tomorrow and announced that I wanted to take a year off and be an au pair in Europe, well, people would think I was strange, and I'd probably get sued for child support.

But if you are 22, and you do not have to worry about supporting other people, then you can take off to Europe and be an au pair for a year. Or work on a cruise ship. Teach for America, even if it's not your ultimate goal to be a teacher. Join the Peace Corps. Join Americorps. There are many options of interesting things to do that may not be exactly what you want to do for the rest of your life, but may give you unique experiences that will be more difficult in later phases of your life.

You may be thinking: But if I don't go to graduate school right away, I'll never go. So what? If you finish college and find a job that you like, for which you don't need a graduate degree, more power to you. No need for graduate school. If after 1 or 5 or 10 years you decide you want a different job, or that you need more training, you will be motivated to return. And you will have a very fresh perspective on it.

You may be thinking: How can I tell my parents I want to take time off? They will be mad. Your parents want you to be happy. And not broke. If you explain to them clearly why you are making this decision, they should understand. You can even tell them I suggested it. You would not be the first to do so. In fact, when I was Adviser for the HDFS Life Span Developmental Sciences option, multiple students went to their parents and said, my adviser said I should take time off. Everyone survived.

Two final things. First, as I said at the start, taking time off before grad school is not the correct decision for everyone. But it is an under-considered decision because students sometimes become set on what they think is the "correct" path and have trouble considering alternatives. So please, consider your alternatives.

Second, I recognize that not everyone graduates at 22. There are students who are returning adult students, students who have already worked or raised a family before coming for an undergraduate education. Some of these suggestions may be less relevant for you if you already have spent a number of years in the workforce or have other constraints that make time between schooling less ideal.

My main point, though, is that graduate school isn’t right for everyone, and if you’re not yet sure what you want to do, it’s definitely not right for you now.
 
“The post, Maybe you shouldn’t go to grad school… yet, first appeared on Eva Lefkowitz’s blog on December 2, 2015.”