ABSTRACT
Trivariate analysis can be used to test a bivariate relationship by introducing a third variable and examining the bivariate relationship within each category of the control variable. This chapter discusses a high-prestige academic curriculum in high school has a strong positive impact on college attendance and moderately favorable influence on employment outcomes during the first two years after high school. The data are from a large national longitudinal survey—the High School and Beyond, and measures of curriculum are derived from course credits as recorded on student transcripts rather than from the traditional nominal scale consisting of self-report academic, vocational, or general curriculum. The original sample consists of some 30,000 youth who were enrolled in 1015 US high schools as sophomores in 1980. This sample of respondents was followed up on two occasions, once in 1982 when most sample members were seniors in high school and once in 1984 when most respondents had been out of high school nearly two years.
