Jennifer M. Silva

Constructing Adulthood in an Age of Uncertainty

Past research in both the transitions to adulthood literature and cultural sociology more broadly suggests that the working class relies on traditional cultural models in their construction of identity. In the contemporary post-industrial world, however, traditional life pathways are now much less available to working-class men and women. I draw on 93 interviews with black and white working-class young people in their 20s to 30s and ask, in an era of increasing uncertainty, where traditional markers of adulthood have become tenuous, what kinds of cultural models do working-class young people employ to validate their adult identities? In contrast to previous studies of working-class identity, I found that respondents embraced a model of therapeutic selfhood—that is, an inwardly directed self preoccupied with its own psychic development. I demonstrate that the therapeutic narrative allows working-class men and women to redefine competent adulthood in terms of overcoming a painful family past. Respondents required a witness to validate their performances of adulthood, however, and the inability to find one left many lost in transition.

The Engagement Gap: Social Mobility and Extracurricular Participation among American Youth

Participation in extracurricular activities is associated with positive youth outcomes such as higher education attainment and greater future earnings. We present new analyses of four national longitudinal surveys of American high school students that reveal a sharp increase in the class gap in extracurricular involvement. Since the 1970s, upper-middle-class students have become increasingly active in school clubs and sport teams, while participation among working-class students has veered in the opposite direction. These growing gaps have emerged in the wake of rising income inequality, the introduction of “pay to play” programs, and increasing time and money investments by upper-middle-class parents in children’s development. These trends need to be taken into account in any new initiative to monitor mobility. They also present a challenge to the American ideal of equal opportunity insofar as participation in organized activities shapes patterns of social mobility.

High Hopes and Hidden Inequalities: How Social Class Shapes Pathways to Adulthood

Traditional markers of adulthood have become increasingly delayed in the latter half of the 20th century. Jeffrey Arnett’s (2000, 2004) groundbreaking theory explained this delay as the result of a new life stage—emerging adulthood—that has arisen out of a changing economic, social, and historical landscape. Within an economy that favors workers with college degrees, achieving financial independence requires prolonged investments in higher education throughout the late teens and 20s. At the same time, the loosening of traditional constraints such as gender, sexuality, and religion has removed external pressures on marriage and childbearing and given young people more freedom to define the course of their lives. Consequently, Arnett (2004, p. 469) writes:

Working Class Growing Pains

Sociologist Jennifer M. Silva examines how working-class men and women navigate the transition to adulthood amid economic insecurity and social isolation. She finds that young adults experience fear of intimate relationships, low expectations of work, and widespread distrust of institutions as they come of age.

Disengagement and Alienation in Modern American Institutions

The term “community” often engenders feelings of longing, togetherness, and social connectedness. Yet in practice, there is a great deal of evidence that Americans have become increasingly distrustful of public institutions and each other, especially across lines of race, class, and political affiliation. This chapter will examine the causes and consequences of growing disengagement from institutions. I will focus on variation in levels of distrust and disconnectedness across social class in particular. I also examine Americans’ turn to the market to meet the needs once met by informal and formal community organizations, and discuss this shift in terms of its consequences for inequality and social mobility.