Agency in the Transition to Adulthood: Historical Change in the Links between Adolescent Job Attribute Evaluations and Adult Attainment

Washington State University, Pullman WA

Investigators

Abstract

SES- 0647333 Monica Johnson Washington State University The world young people face as they leave high school has changed in important ways in recent decades. There are fewer life-long careers, institutions of higher education have expanded, and the relative wages of college graduates have increased. These changes represent a significant alteration in the context in which young people form and modify their ambitions for the future, and in which they attempt to make their dreams a reality. Sociologists have long looked to adolescents' work-related ambitions as important precursors to adult attainment and for what they say about how adolescents view their opportunities. And while such ambitions as educational aspirations, occupational aspirations, and job attribute evaluations are thought to be predictive of actual educational attainment and occupational placement, we do not yet understand the social conditions under which these relationships hold. Adolescents' ambitions bear the mark of these recent changes, but what they mean for the course of their lives is uncertain. This research studies historical change in how adolescents' work-related ambitions are related to early adult occupational outcomes. Its focus is on the importance young people place on a range of potential work rewards such as pay, job security, and autonomy. The primary objective of the study is to test two competing hypotheses about how the strength of the connection between adolescents' job attribute evaluations and their adult attainments have changed over time. These hypotheses will be tested with panel data for 15 consecutive cohorts of high school seniors, derived from the Monitoring the Future project, drawing also on contextual data from the Current Population Surveys and the U.S. Department of Education. The findings of the project will be valuable beyond their scholarly contribution. With an understanding of the changing nature of ambitions and their links to attainment, adults can assist youth in career choices that benefit both self and society. Youth that are inadequately prepared for such choices may experience frequent school and job changes with much personal cost. The benefit to young people in health and well-being is matched by that to society, which will be able to better capitalize on its youth's talents and more efficiently use educational and other resources.