Refine
Language
- English (4) (remove)
Has Fulltext
- no (4)
Keywords
- Education (2)
- Adolescent (1)
- Development (1)
- Developmental tasks (1)
- Federal Republic of Germany (1)
- Gender gap (1)
- Individualism (1)
- Life course (1)
- Living conditions (1)
- Political attitude (1)
Youth protest, sometimes accompanied by riots, in a number of
European countries over the last few years repeatedly trigger the question whether similar forms of protest can be expected in the near future from young people in Germany as well. While any, often spontaneous eruption of (violent) protest, can never be predicted with certainty, we argue, based on an analysis of the last Shell Youth Studies (cf. Shell Deutschland 2002, 2006, 2010), that it is rather unlikely to happen in Germany, indeed that if anything this likelihood has decreased over recent years. We identify three explanations for the – compared to a range of other European countries – striking acquiescence of the current young generation in Germany: 1. A range of institutions that keep young Germans in the education system until they finally find employment, 2. a strong culture of pragmatic individualism, and 3. a strong distrust of political parties.
In highly developed countries, the adolescent phase of life is expanding more and more. The consequences are status insecurity and inconsistency. A side effect is that adolescence is no longer clearly separable as demarcated biographical stage from adulthood. In this paper, we argue that the developmental tasks of a typical adolescent and a typical adult can only be partially differentiated, and the exact point in time when adolescents become adults can no longer be clearly identified. We find evidence that adolescence is becoming more ‘adult’ and adulthood is correspondingly becoming more ‘juvenile’. In almost all important social areas of life, the behavioral patterns of adults and of adolescents are coalescing. Living with insecurity in the working life and in social relations, experiencing limitations of personal autonomy, and the continuous need to work on social status inconsistencies today are characteristic features of the life of adolescents and adults. As many adolescents meet these demands skillfully and flexibly, they have in many respects become ‘social models’ for the adult life phase.
Young women, and not young men, acquire the privileged diplomas offered by the educational system, and it is they who obtain the more promising career prospects. In this paper, we seek to identify factors that account for the declining school performance of boys and young men. After reviewing and analysing the international literature on gender and education, we integrate various explanatory approaches into a comprehensive socialisation model. The model focuses on the developmental tasks young men face during adolescence. Our central thesis is that the declining school performance of young men cannot be fully explained by their failure to cope with the developmental task ‘qualification’. Rather, the three other central clusters of developmental tasks – ‘social attachment’, ‘regeneration’, and ‘participation’ – have to be incorporated. The crucial implication is that supporting young men at school will show only limited results. Rather, to improve the school performance of young men, it is also necessary to address their deficits in coping with the other developmental tasks.
The topic of adolescent development in Europe is one which has received little academic attention in recent years. Developmental Tasks in Adolescence makes an exciting contribution to the field by applying socialisation theory to four major developmental tasks of life: Qualifying, Bonding, Consumption and Participation, arguing that if the tasks in these areas are mastered, then personal individuation and social integration can take place, a prerequisite for the formation of self-identity.
In highly developed societies, adolescence encompasses a period of about 15 years on average. Puberty, or the transition from childhood, starts earlier and earlier, and the transition to adulthood is increasingly postponed. Developmental Tasks in Adolescence proposes that the way in which adolescents master the tasks of everyday life has become a pattern of orientation for the life stages which follow because of the new lifestyle requirements that are typical for modern democratic societies. Today, a life full of uncertainties and ambiguities is no longer limited to adolescence, but rather continues into adulthood.
Hurrelmann and Quenzel's sociological approachis valuable reading for students and academics in psychology, sociology, education, social work and youth studies, and for those on professional training courses in these fields.