The adolescent-to-adult transition: discouragement among jobless black youth.
Although many youth experience difficulty in the school-to-work transition, increasing numbers of black youth face more chronic difficulties that have far-reaching developmental implications. This chapter examines both objective and subjective aspects of chronic joblessness among black youth, with emphasis on gender differences in discouragement over job searches and related developmental issues. A life cycle approach to role strain and adaptation provides a coherent framework to guide theoretical inquiry into jobless black youth in America. Role-strain adaptation processes have special appeal because they provide a coherent conceptual base for studies on the nature, antecedents, and consequences of chronic difficulty in job search. Two basic notions in the proposed role-strain adaptation approach to joblessness among black youth are that discouragement in the job search and self-blame increase the risk of maladaptive responses to objective barriers and that objective and subjective cultural resources facilitate adaptive response patterns. The role-strain adaptation paradigm not only provides a parsimonious framework but also builds on a diverse theoretical and empirical literature (Barnett, Beiner, and Baruch, 1987; Bowman, 1989; Goode, 1960; Kahn and others, 1964; Merton, 1968; Pearlin, 1983; Sarbin and Allen, 1968). Role-strain adaptation models allow one to go beyond past studies on black youth, which have primarily been descriptive rather than theoretical and predictive. In addition to the foregoing benefits, a major virtue of the life cycle approach to job search strain processes is its explanatory power throughout the life span (Allen and Vande Vliert, 1981; Erikson, 1980; George, 1980; Levinson and others, 1978). A life cycle framework avoids common misconceptions that occur with a narrow focus on job search strain among black youth that fails to consider the continuity in chronic role-strain adaptation processes. In a broader life-span framework, the interrelated concepts of human development and cultural adaptation have unique explanatory power. Elsewhere (Bowman, 1989) I have noted that to develop means to grow out of, to evolve from--where experiences at one life stage not only follow but emerge directly from preceding life experiences. The related concept of adaptation involves a continuing process of incorporating past experiences into new patterns to strategically meet the challenge of changing life demands without undue compromise. For black youth faced with chronic joblessness, effective adaptation may require preserving core cultural patterns from prior generations, while also transforming such core patterns into new strategies to cope with job search barriers in postindustrial America.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Bowman
P J
PJ
University of Illinois, Champaign.
D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012649:Self Concept; D012737:Sex Factors; D014478:Unemployment / Q000523:psychology*; D014481:United States