UC Berkeley

The problem of youth unemployment continues to rise in countries around the world, and for many adolescents whose early working lives are marred with challenges and obstacles, such disadvantages are likely to have lifelong implications and to ensure cycles of poverty and inequality. Policy responses to the youth unemployment problem, particularly in the United States, have largely ignored the evidence that adolescents are a unique population that requires both a deeper understanding of the problem and bespoke policy interventions.

This dissertation challenges policymakers to change their perceptions of the problem of youth unemployment to one of work disparities with the purpose of shifting the focus to the social and psychological nuances that are also a part of the problem. Doing so allows for the application to the study of the problem of psychosocial development theory, which posits that individuals develop an identification with work across their pre-adult lifespan, and that work roles, choices, and behaviors are extensions of this process. To understand youth work disparities thus requires examining their identity development experiences.

The findings of the quantitative study provide some support for the relationship between psychosocial development predictors and young adult work outcomes. Furthermore, the examination of the identity development and employment trajectories of 20 Latino males in California revealed stark developmental differences between those who had attained at least a four-year college degree and white-collar employment compared to those who had attained neither and who struggled with unemployment. The findings provide a base from which to develop new policies that focus on supporting developmental pathways to healthy employment outcomes across the pre-adult lifespan.