ADOLESCENCELikewise some critics of youth employment
suggest that extensive involvement in the work-
place during the high school years can promote
‘‘pseudomaturity,’’ the appearance of adult status
that nevertheless lacks the full set of rights and
responsibilities that accompany adulthood. (Psy-
chologists have also expressed concern about ‘‘pseu-
domaturity’’ among contemporary youth, although
they define it as a disjunction between the appar-
ent ability to play adult roles and a lack of ‘‘com-
mensurate psychological differentiation’’ [e.g., Er-
ikson 1959].) For example, although youth may
earn considerable amounts of money during high
school, they spend a relatively high percentage of
their income on entertainment because they lack
the financial responsibilities of true adults (e.g.,
insurance, housing). In turn, this ‘‘premature af-
fluence’’ may interfere with the development of
realistic financial values (Bachman 1983; Bachman
and Schulenberg 1993). However, studies show
that youth spend their earnings on a wide range of
things, not all of which are concerned with leisure,
including savings for future education, car insur-
ance, and even loans and contributions to parents
(Shanahan et al. 1996). Moreover, studies of fami-
lies during the Great Depression suggest that eco-
nomic hardship can lead to the assumption of
more adultlike work responsibilities among child-
ren and adolescents, which can benefit the latter
group (Elder 1974).
Finally, the accelerated life course may reflect
a rapid transition to adulthood. For example, be-
cause young black men have markedly shorter life
expectancies than white men, they often acceler-
ate their transition behaviors (Burton et al. 1996).
There may also be an important element of
intentionality in the ‘‘search for role exit’’ from
adolescence (Hagan and Wheaton 1993). Although
the desire to leave home, marry, and have children
may be normative, the intent to exit the adolescent
role set too early is nonnormative and often associ-
ated with deviant acts. Indeed, the search for
adolescent role exits significantly predicts frequency
of dating and the timing of first marriage and
parenthood. That is, some adolescents may seek
rapid transition to adulthood because they are
substantially dissatisfied with their experience of
adolescence as a life phase. In any event, sociolo-
gists have offered numerous explanations for ado-
lescent parenthood including, for example, the
lack of role models and opportunities that would
otherwise encourage postponing intercourse and
pregnancy (Brewster 1994).PATHWAYS AND AGENCY THROUGH
ADOLESCENCEThe preceding discussion highlights the variable
meanings of adolescence in the life course; a relat-
ed issue is the structured pathways that constitute
likely sequences of social positions through which
the adolescent moves. Pathways reflect institution-
al arrangements that both provide and restrict
opportunities, channeling youth from one social
position to another. Pathways are a prominent
feature in the school and workplace—and be-
tween these institutions (see ADULTHOOD)—
where social forces match individuals to social
opportunities and limitations. Pathways are also
evident in the family, as a sequence of roles that
the child assumes and that offer progressively
greater autonomy.Before the mid-nineteenth century in Ameri-
ca, the immediate environments of youth were
casual and unstructured; mortality and frequent
moves from the home placed limits on the direct
and sustained application of parental discipline,
and schools were decidedly unstructured settings
marked by violence and informality (Kett 1977).
Between 1840 and 1880, a different viewpoint
emerged in both Britain and the United States, a
viewpoint that emphasized character formation in
planned, ‘‘engineered’’ environments. For exam-
ple, Horace Bushnell’s influential Christian Nur-
ture (1848) argued for carefully controlled settings
that would promote in youth qualities necessary to
succeed in a world threatened by urbanization and
non-Protestant immigrants. By the end of the nine-
teenth century, efforts to standardize the settings
of youth—particularly schools—led to the emer-
gence of recognized tracks of educational and
occupational experiences for young men entering
the medical and legal professions. Educational
and occupational pathways from adolescence to
adulthood were becoming standardized.Although pathways sort individuals and assign
them to various positions in social systems, people
are also active agents who attempt to shape their
biographies. In life-course perspective, agency at
the level of the person can be defined as the ability