Abstract
Recent labor market problems in the Federal Republic of Germany have spurred research on the status passage from school to work. However, those problems are distributed unevenly, varying drastically among the 11 Lander (states), between more and less urbanized regions, and between males and females. Therefore, a thorough understanding of the problems faced by young people as they leave school and try to enter the "dual system" of apprenticeship combined with part-time vocational schooling requires studies that compare the strategies used by males and females in different kinds of communities. The study reported here, "Socialization and Environment," investigated the placement strategies of 140 young people in three neighborhoods: an old downtown neighborhood in Munich; a modern housing area on the outskirts of Munich; and a semirural small town 70 miles from Munich. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with all the young people and with important adults, such as parents, teachers, counsellors, and youth workers. Results confirm the value of an ecological perspective by revealing important interactions between individuals' status characteristics and qualifications (e.g., gender, family background, level of schooling) and the structure and climate of the three neighborhoods, interactions that generated distinctive coping patterns, leading, in turn, to more or less successful placements in the labor market.
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