likely to build a foundation upon which to create an
adult life in which they can support themselves and
their families.
Demographic Trends and the Future
Demographic trends at the start of the twenty-
first century are likely to increase the difficulty that
disadvantaged youths will face in finding their place
in the labor market. The total number of sixteen- to
twenty-four-year-olds in the nation’s population is
projected to rise steadily through the year 2010, to
38.7 million, almost 7 million more than in 1995.
Along with the expansion in the supply of young
workers will be the increase in competition for low
wage jobs and the increasingly technological nature
of even minimum wage jobs. Thus, there will be a con-
tinued high incidence of employment and earning
problems among many of the nation’s out-of-school
youths.
Several steps need to be taken to facilitate the suc-
cessful transition to employment for disadvantaged
and out-of-school youths. First, all youths must be en-
couraged to stay in school, and schools must provide
the literacy and interpersonal skills necessary for suc-
cessful integration into college, vocational training,
and employment. Second, career counseling must be
expanded to recognize that many high school seniors
will not attend postsecondary education but are ready
to pursue meaningful employment experiences.
Third, intervention programs that have been proven
successful at enhancing the employment experiences
of disadvantaged and out-of-school youths need to be
made available to all eligible individuals. Fourth,
youths in minimum wage jobs need to be encouraged
to apply a portion of their earnings to further their
education and training. And finally, postsecondary
educational opportunities need to be made available
to all youths regardless of financial income. With
these policies, programs, and practices in place, every
youth will have a better chance to achieve the key de-
velopmental task of adolescence.
See also: ADOLESCENCE; WORKING FAMILIES
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Amy J. L. BakerWORKING FAMILIES
The employment of mothers has been increasing to
the point that it is now the modal pattern in the Unit-
ed States. In 1960, fewer than 30 percent of all moth-
ers of children under age eighteen were in the labor
force; forty years later, fewer than 30 percent were not
in the labor force. Further, 64 percent of all married
mothers with preschool children were in the labor
force at the beginning of the twenty-first century, as
were 73 percent of divorced mothers and 67 percent
of the mothers who had never married. In fact, in two-
parent families with infants one year old and under,
62 percent of the mothers were employed, a figure
more than double the rate in 1975. Thus, most fami-
lies in the early twenty-first century are ‘‘working fam-
ilies.’’ There is considerable public interest in how
this shift affects families and children, and it is a re-
search area to which developmental psychologists
have given considerable attention.
To understand the impact of maternal employ-
ment, it is important to realize that this change has
been accompanied by other interrelated changes.
Modern technology has diminished the amount of
necessary housework and food preparation, women
are more educated, marriages are less stable, life ex-
pectancy has been increased and youthfulness has
been extended, expectations for personal fulfillment
have expanded, and traditional gender-role attitudes
are less widely held. There have also been changes in
child-rearing practices, and the adult roles for which
children are being socialized are not the same as pre-
viously. The increased employment of mothers is
both an effect of these changes and also an influenceWORKING FAMILIES 437