Finding their Way: The Developmental Work Trajectories of Non-College Youth

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD

Investigators

Abstract

SES-0845537 Karl Alexander Doris Entwisle Johns Hopkins University The purpose of this project is to understand how youth, especially those at-risk and not bound for college, build human capital by means other than schooling. This project views human capital enhancement as a form of learning and examines its impact on employment, earnings and other adult work outcomes. It draws on an existing data archive, the Baltimore-based Beginning School Study (BSS), which has monitored the life progress of a group of typical urban youth since age 6 (in 1982) through age 28. Work trajectories starting at age 6 will be constructed and then analyzed in relation to a well-specified set of developmental precursors, including measures of so-called "soft skills." The trajectories will connect measures of youths' 1) home chores; 2) their early paid work outside the home (age 14); 3) their paid work during high school; 4) their employment and vocational training between high school departure and age 22; and, ultimately, 5) their employment outcomes at age 28. Examining developmental patterns of work-related behavior over the early life course and then into the third decade of life will inform a number of theoretical and policy issues related to this strand of human development, including the underemployment of African American men. Regarding intellectual merit, this project will contribute to several scholarly traditions: 1. Life-course developmental research in Sociology, which neglects the workplace as a developmental context for youth. 2. Vocational development research, which typically lacks a long-term perspective and takes a narrow view of the non-college bound. 3. Human capital research, which neglects human capital acquired through middle school and high school work and soft skills as an integral component of human capital. 4. Social stratification research and theory, by illuminating how some disadvantaged youth manage to overcome the odds and succeed. Broader Impacts The research has the potential to inform policy by identifying early life experiences that help young people born into disadvantaged socio-economic circumstances attain adult success. Because of its focus on the early developmental years, the results may identify opportunities for early intervention, focused, for example, on the cultivation of soft skills that have value in the workplace and programs to more effectively bridge school and work.