Agents of Influence

This section briefly summarizes the research on the various "agents" that may influence a student?s school-to-work transition. It is by no means comprehensive; rather, its intent is to provide an overview of key domains and relevant research findings. Five key agents of influence are proposed: Self, Parents and Family, School, Peers and Work. Each of these may influence the possible reasons for school-to-work transition or career choice problems. Problems may be caused by the following: lack of knowledge (of self or occupations), internal conflicts (e.g., interests are inconsistent with abilities), external conflicts (e.g., goals are inconsistent with parental aspirations), and perceived barriers and opportunities (e.g., a preferred job/occupation is perceived to be inaccessible or unattainable).

Self and Identity

During adolescence, individuals are beginning to understand themselves and come up with a theory of the self (Garcia, Hart, & Johnson-Ray, in press) or an identity (Erikson, 1966). Developmental psychologists have extensively studied identity and self and have frequently related identity and self to job and educational choices. Research indicates that concepts about the self become more complex and abstract with age, self-understanding becomes more differentiated with age (you can be one way with one group and another way with another group), and, by late adolescence, an individual begins to accommodate contradictions within the self (Harter, 1998). A major task of adolescence is self-integration, or systematically pulling together the disparate pieces of the self. This usually occurs in late adolescence and into early adulthood, and requires the individual to discard some of the less consistent self-images that he or she may have tried during adolescence (Marcia, 1994).

Several theorists have addressed the large discrepancies found between the "real" self and the "ideal" self during adolescence (Rogers, 1950; Hart, et al., in press) or the teen's "true" self and "false" self (Harter & Lee, 1989). The perceived discrepancies between what adolescents perceive as self and the way they really are leads them to have goals and aspirations that do not match what they are doing at the moment. Such incongruities may be relevant for issues related to job and career counseling and planning.

Another area of study has been adolescents' conceptualizations of "possible selves" for the future (e.g., Cross & Markus, 1991). Typically, teens have been asked to describe both negative and positive images of themselves, because adolescents' possible selves include both what they hope to be and what they dread they might become (Martin, 1997). One study found that students with instrumental possible selves (e.g. successful, hard-working, respected, independent, intelligent) were more likely to attend college than students without feasible possible selves. It is likely that the ability to consider possible selves is related to employment decisions made by noncollege bound youth as well.

Identity has been closely linked with self-concept, but it is typically discussed as a concept that develops in the late teen to early adulthood age and range (Erikson, 1968; Marcia, 1994). An individual?s educational and occupational choices play a large role in reaching a comfortable identity. Recent research has looked closely at the importance of gender, ethnicity, and intimate relationships in identity development. Intimate relationships play a more significant role for females than for males in identity development (Archer & Waterman, 1994; Josselson, 1994); thus, their decision-making about jobs and careers is colored by their choices about mates and families.

Individual Differences

Genetic variables differentiate individual students and affect their career choice and transition from school to work. These variables include intelligence, sex, race, and personality.

The relative intelligence of an individual will relate to the individual?s occupational choice. Lower intelligence will rule out some occupations, while higher intelligence will make others possible. Varied definitions of intelligence may bear even more relationship to career or job choice. For example, Gardner?s theory of multiple intelligences (Gardner, 1983), which proposes seven types of intelligence, would suggest that outstanding performance in a particular domain, e.g., music, would be related to superior intelligence in that area.

Research finds that the only consistent difference in mental abilities between men and women that relates to gender is in spatial abilities (Jacklin, 1989); however, girls continue to be concentrated among jobs historically held by women and more oriented toward working with people (Beutel & Marini, 1995). A recent related study released by the American Association of University Women sounds a new alarm for the school-to-work transition (AAUW, 1999). Girls compared with boys are significantly less likely to spend time using computers. As computers and technology represent the major sector of economic growth, computer literacy is critical to the employment success of all students. The gender gap in computer usage is reminiscent of the earlier gap in science and math that, with concerted educational efforts in the high school curriculum, has been lessening. The AAUW study suggests that efforts to reduce gender-related ability and interest stereotypes will need to continue with vigor.

Opportunities for employment of minority youth, particularly in disadvantaged neighborhoods, is abysmal compared with work opportunities for White advantaged youth. Thus, not surprisingly, research consistently finds White youth more likely to be employed compared with non-White youth (Lewis, Stone, Shipley, & Madzar, 1998). Early work experience has been demonstrated to have a positive impact on subsequent employment for White, but not Black youth. Steel (1991, cited in Lewis, et al., 1998), however, found no Black?White race differences in hours per week, job status, or perceived job opportunities among employed adolescents. No studies were located that examined race differences in adolescent employment among other ethnic groups. Clearly, there is a dearth of research on the impact of high school work on school-to-work outcomes across racial and ethnic groups.

Although different investigators have differed slightly in the labels and meaning of factors, in general, research finds five major dimensions of personality that provide distinctive behavioral clusters. These include Extraversion, Likability, Conscientiousness, Emotional

Stability, and Intellectual Curiosity/Creativity (Loehlin, 1992). As discussed earlier, Holland?s theory of vocational personalities and work environments demonstrates the theoretical and empirical linkage between personality traits and potential work choices. Although not all aspects of Holland?s theory find empirical support, the theory has been of considerable value in counseling students toward occupations better suited to personality qualities.

Parents

The majority of studies examining the impact of parents and family on the transition from school to the workplace consider social factors such as socioeconomic status and family background. In general, lower SES predicts higher dropout, particularly among minority youth, which predicts lower occupational status (Rumberger, 1982). Adolescents from intact, middle class families are more likely to have jobs during high school, and, thus, have earlier and greater exposure to the world of work (Schill, McCartin, & Meyer, 1985, cited in Lewis, et al., 1998). Parents, depending upon their social class, also establish a value context in which certain occupational choices are encouraged and others discouraged (Kohn, 1977). For example, middle class parenting styles that promote autonomy, self-direction, and independence will fit best with middle class occupational choices.

Home environment exerts a significant influence on adolescent educational aspirations, which, in turn, influence the school-to-work transition. When parents have high educational training, and they are perceived by adolescents to have high expectations, adolescents have high aspirations (Wilson & Wilson, 1992). Parents and siblings also serve as models for adolescent work and occupational choices (Barber & Eccles, 1992). Despite the popular stereotype of adolescent rebellion, evidence suggests that adolescents and parents are more similar than dissimilar in vocational choice, particularly when family relationships have been warm, and strong identifications have formed (Grotevant & Cooper, 1988).

Similarly, maternal employment influences the school-to-work transition for youth. In particular, daughters who have mothers happily working outside the home are more likely to seek careers in addition to marriage and family (Leslie, 1986). Both sons and daughters are less likely to have gender-stereotyped attitudes about work if they come from dual-career homes (Barber & Eccles, 1992).

Another aspect of family that is critical to the school performance of youth is parental involvement. Parental involvement in school, which can range from monitoring homework at home to participating in school governance, is consistently found to relate to school achievement (Coleman, 1991). Moreover, parental involvement in school overcomes the disadvantages associated with single-parent or stepparent homes, lower SES, and minority status in children?s school achievement. Given the importance of parental involvement to the academic achievement of youth, not surprisingly, school-to-work legislation calls for parents to be involved. Interestingly, a review of school-to-work programs finds that few, if any, actually develop a meaningful component for parents, unless the target population is special education students.

School

Schools create opportunity structures for the school-to-work transition and barriers to learning that may discourage youth from completing high school. Because the single best indicator of eventual occupational success is number of years of schooling, these barriers to schooling cannot be disentangled from school-to-work success.

Youth who drop out of school are more likely to be Hispanic, not fluent in English, and come from lower socioeconomic status homes, poor communities, single-parent families, large families, nondemanding (permissive parenting) families, and households where little reading material is available (Entwisle, 1990; Rumberger, 1995; Zimilies & Lee, 1991). School dropouts are also more likely to have had a history of school failure, low school involvement, negative school experiences, and behavioral problems (Jordam, Lara, & McPartland, 1996).

Schools may inadvertently play a role in school dropout and occupational attainment. Social critics argue that schools present numerous institutional barriers, (e.g., tracking, teacher attitudes, curriculum advising) that steer young people toward some educational endeavors and away from others (Ogbu, 1978). The ways in which students are exposed to which curricula restrict opportunities for those placed in lower or regular tracks, where they also encounter less stimulating and challenging curricula, which may further discourage school achievement and involvement. Ethnic minority youth fall disproportionately in lower tracks; thus, tracking poses particularly significant barriers to future occupational success for disadvantaged youth.

Peers

Although peers may play a less influential role than parents or schools in influencing adolescents? long-term educational and occupational plans, they are clearly a significant indirect influence. Adolescents select close friends who are similar to them in attitudes and behaviors. Moreover, as close friendships progress, friends become more similar in attitudes and behavior over time (Epstein, 1983). In particular, close friends exert significant influence on adolescents? day-to-day behavior and attitudes, including how much time they devote to their studies, how well they perform in class, the degree to which school-related achievement is valued, and engagement in risk-taking activities.

Adolescents are not only influenced by their close friendships but also by the social group with which they identify and to which they belong. Social groups or crowds in middle school and high school represent distinctive peer cultures (Brown, 1990). Adolescents select and are selected by social crowds. Peer social crowds can be organized on a continuum from involvement in adult institutions to alienation from adult institutions and involvement with peer culture (Brown, 1990). Eckert (1995) argues persuasively that the U.S. high school can be considered a corporate institution, and social groups at the extremes of the school engagement versus alienation continuum will have life orientations as distinct as corporate management versus labor. Whereas students in the school-engaged crowds live in a world organized around preparation for college, students identifying with the school-alienated crowds are organized around age-heterogeneous out-of-school friendship networks. School-alienated youth see little or no relationship between high school and their future. Even those who view graduation as a procedural requirement understand that once they have graduated, they will have to make their own way. Thus, high schoolers in the alienated crowds rely upon their older friends in the workforce to help them construct a path to adulthood. Because loyalty to friendships is a primary value of alienated youth, these youth are particularly vulnerable to peer culture norms related to work and achievement. In particular, students who "deidentify" with school and "overidentify" with peers are inclined to work more than 15 hours per week while in high school, which is related to further school alienation, lower school achievement, and numerous other high-risk behaviors (Greenberger & Steinberg, 1986).

Work During High School

Most people believe work builds character and responsibility. Thus, adolescents who experience the world of work should be better prepared to make the transition from school to full-time work. Recent studies find this view to be inflated. Studies of contemporary youth (vs. Great Depression youth) do not find that working is linked with either greater financial responsibility or social obligation (Greenberger & Steinberg, 1986). Rather, working in high school is associated with premature affluence, social deviance, and lower school achievement, particularly if hours of work are in excess of 20 hours per week. In addition, there appears to be little indication that the high school part-time job provides role modeling opportunities, as the majority of youth are supervised by individuals who themselves are adolescents.