Assessing the Benefits of the Success Sequence for Economic Self-Sufficiency and Family Stability

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report is a quantitative analysis of the “success sequence” as an approach to reduce poverty and improve economic opportunity among adolescents and young adults. (“Success sequence” refers to a series of milestones associated with escaping poverty and joining the middle class: high school completion, full-time employment, and waiting for marriage to have children.) The report uses longitudinal data to evaluate the order and combination of milestones and to assess the associations between completing the success sequence milestones by the age of 30 and economic self-sufficiency and family stability outcomes in the late 30s.