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Excerpts from Qualitative Studies Excerpt from: Transitions to Adulthood in the Land of Lake Wobegon St. Paul is the capital city of a prosperous and generally progressive state, with a strong economy, a relatively homogenous population, excellent public schools, and generous welfare benefits. The area economy supports a wide variety of jobs, with relatively high employment rates. Residents also have a long history of civic participation and public consciousness. In short, St. Paul appears very much like Garrison Keillor’s mythical Lake Wobegon, a community where everyone seems to be nice, normal, and slightly above average. * * * “One of the more surprising findings was the high degree of hopefulness exhibited in the interviews. Although many were not wholly satisfied with their present circumstances, they viewed these situations as temporary, certainly not fully determinative, nor even indicative, of their future prospects….One college-educated male from working class origins, who had hoped to enter medical school, but whose MCATs were too low, was currently working as a case manager in a service agency for developmentally disabled adults. He speculated about his future:
One of the clearest recurring themes in the Minnesota interviews were the ways that parents remain involved in the lives of their grown children, providing regular and intermittent resources and services that helped these young adults negotiate their complex lives. … What is more, these young people enjoyed living with their parents, and the temporary nature of the arrangement and their optimism about their eventual financial independence prevented them from feeling their adult status was threatened. John, for example, a white, 28-year-old man from working-class origins had lived with his parents during college in order to afford a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota. John continued to live rent-free even though he was now a well-paid professional, enabling him to accumulate a large savings account and enough money to purchase a home for himself and fiancée. Along with the clear financial benefits, John also cited how much he enjoyed the companionship of his parents, the meals his mother provided, and the independence he had living with them. For John, living with his parents until he was ready to begin a family of his own was not only appropriate, but smart:
John compared himself to his friends whom he viewed as less mature because they lived paycheck to paycheck, paying for apartments and spending freely on new cars and fashionable clothes. He credited his lack of concern over the status of living independently or about consumer items for his capability of purchasing a home in the near future in which he and his fiancé would be able to start their married life together. Another 29-year-old woman saw things a little differently. Luisa, a school teacher, returned to her working-class parents’ home after living on her own, incurring tens of thousands of dollars in student loans and consumer debt. She wanted to move out, however, because:
Nevertheless, Luisa realized that she benefited from the years of free housing that had allowed her to work her way out of student loan debt she’d acquired while drifting from major to major. Even though she wanted a place of her own, she believed it was more mature to stay with her parents while she paid off her debt. In fact, most of the Minnesotan’s saw living with their parents as a sign of maturity, a sign of discipline and willingness to sacrifice for the future. Across the interviews, a distinct pattern of social class and cultural capital emerged. Many upper middle-class and middle-class parents paid for all or part of their children’s college educations, gave their children down payments for homes, supplemented their incomes while they explored work options, paid car or health insurance premiums, and purchased food, appliances, or other life necessities for them. In contrast, lower-income youth or families with health or mental health issues, deaths, or violence were unable to provide the same level of support. Without a parental safety net, some of these young people had to forgo higher education or were unable to save money to buy a house. Nor did they have a support to bolster them through crises. Jake and Bo show how life circumstances can proscribe one’s future. Both were white, 29-year-old men who had attended public schools as youth. Jake would go on to William and Mary and then to a prestigious east coast law school, both financed by his parents. Bo, on the other hand, attended the local public university, which he felt was his only option because his mother could not provide financial assistance owing to her poverty and what he perceived as her mental instability. Despite working long hours while attending college, Bo dropped out when he found himself having to go without food. Jake is now an attorney, while Bo has worked a serious of manual labor and service jobs. Unique to the other sites, St. Paul youth were especially committed to civic participation, reflecting a deep tradition in Minnesota. Youth, for example, saw voting as an important and indeed defining characteristic of a mature, responsible adult. …Other civic participation, such as volunteering, did not just produce personal feelings of being a responsible, mature adult. It was also experienced as an actual right of passage into adulthood. …volunteering also was best understood not only as a matter of social responsibility, but also as bringing with it deeper personal satisfaction and reward. As John, a college-educated health care administrator said: top |