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Participant observation of seasonal high school-college student part time work. Ethnographic experience reveals latent functions of early service sector employment revisits hidden curricula of high school and socializes teens to accept the irrational social hierarchy of work, including gender stratification. Generalizability is questionable, but this limited research suggests that the folk wisdom that part time work builds character in young people is thrown into doubt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decade, researchers have become increasingly interested in the role of adolescent extracurricular participation in development. Not only do adolescents have a significant amount of leisure time at their disposal, but there is considerable evidence to indicate that how adolescents spend their free time has important implications for both short-term and long-term development. Drawing on ecological systems and social control theories, our paper focuses on the implications of high school participation in extracurricular activities on long term educational attainment and family related outcomes using nationally representative longitudinal data from the NELS: 88. Although several other studies have also focused on the impact of participation in extracurricular activities, particularly on educational attainment and work and career related outcomes, or even on risky behavior, we also elaborate on the impact on family and child birth related outcomes, a topic relatively untouched in the literature. Furthermore, we emphasize on long term effects, at least eight years beyond high school. Preliminary results show that involvement in high school extracurricular activities leads to positive long term outcomes in individual lives. There is a generally positive impact on long term educational attainment measures, either in the form of enrollment beyond high school or even up to the Bachelor?s degree level, even after controlling for family, school and student school achievement characteristics. In contrast, such participation at the high school level discourages negative family outcomes such as the incidence of early births or the incidence of single parent families in the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1940’s were a productive and transformative time period in America. As a decade, it is most often associated with World War II ? but it also saw the development of two important components of contemporary popular culture: the teenager (as a concept) and the teen magazine. Seventeen magazine began publication in 1944 and, driven by economic necessity, immediately set out to ?educate? advertisers and merchandisers about the potential of teenage girls as a lucrative market segment. To aid in communicating this message, the magazine created ?Teena, the prototypical teenage girl.? The promotional campaign that introduced Teena to the business community constructed teenage girls as ideal consumers -- and its legacy remains with our culture today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the 1994-1995 National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we examine the effect of closeness with mother and father on teen beliefs regarding the consequences of pregnancy. Unlike previous studies in this area, we include measures of closeness to both mother and father, and examine effects for both males and females by family type (two biological/adoptive, stepfather, and single mother families). Our findings indicate that the relationship between closeness and beliefs about pregnancy varies by gender and family type. Parental closeness is most salient for boys living with two biological/adoptive parents. For girls living with two biological/married parents, and boys and girls living in stepfather families, the effects operate through control measures (i.e., other aspects of the parent-child relationship, as well as adolescent, socioeconomic, and demographic controls). For teens living in single mother families, closeness with mother has no effect on beliefs about the consequences of pregnancy. Overall, our study finds that, rather than closeness per se, it is teen beliefs regarding their parents viewpoint on educational achievement and engagement in sexual activity that has the strongest effect on their beliefs regarding the consequences of pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prom magazines aimed at adolescent girls construct the high school prom as a ?perfect event? that girls must invest in heavily in order to have a good time. Both advertisements and editorial content repeatedly use the word ?perfect? to describe the necessary preparations, dress, male date, and evening. But the realities of the prom are very far from ?perfect.? Girls attending the prom recognize the discrepancy between what the magazines are about and what the prom is really like. Thus, girls are not ?cultural dupes?; they do not blindly follow all of the edicts of the prom magazines. But they also do not act with complete agency or resistance?they weigh the benefits and negatives of certain attire and action and make decisions that often fall within the guidelines of cultural norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses data from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) to investigate the effects of teen parents? gender and social and financial resources at age 18 on their educational attainment at age 26. A resource-based perspective is proposed to account for differences in education. Results from regression analyses show that material resources significantly predict teen parents’ future educational attainment. Gender greatly affects the division of labor among teen fathers and mothers between child care and paid work. Teenage parents in traditional gender roles in terms of child care and paid work suffer the most in their future education. The results provide support for the resource-based approach and call into question the gender-segregated study designs that are prevalent in the literature. I discuss policy implications of the findings and make suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern myths wield immense social influence and are a powerful arbitrator of reality. At the heart of its power to control behavior and the meaning of our lives lies entertainment, which cloaks its ideology in the dreams and fantasies of the masses. By using the PBS Frontline documentary The Merchants of Cool as the guide for what is ?cool? at this moment in American culture and applying it to Joseph Campbell?s conception of the mythic cycle, it will be shown that the narratives sold to audiences, no matter how insipid, are of mythic proportions and that the ideology of cool is highly revealing in terms of the mythology behind the popular culture of teenagers in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an examination of the transformative effects of the encroachment of the private sphere of business on the public sphere of education. These effects are investigated via a discussion of the historical and conceptual transformations of the relevant institutions and through the presentation of empirical research conducted on Texas Public High Schools. Consideration is given to the categories and penetration of commercial activities within the schools as well as the overall evaluation of these activities by high-school principals. This research also investigates the relevant stakeholders, initiators and discourse concerning commercialism in Texas public high schools. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]