Winners and losers: transformation processes and their consequences for adolescents
In: Social science information, Band 39, Heft 1, S. 131-154
ISSN: 1461-7412
Transformation processes (e.g. transition to plurality, diversification of lifestyles, individualization, changing values, exponential increase of new options and new constraints on selecting and deciding) lead to changing developmental contexts for adolescents. This article considers individual consequences and subjective meanings of transformation processes for adolescents. A qualitative study conducted in East Berlin shows that three types of adolescents can be distinguished (winners, winners and losers, losers) from the ways they cope with transformation and its consequences. Each type can be regarded as a coherent system consisting of specific life-goals, values, anxieties, kinds of struggle for recognition, identities, characteristic social networks, personal and social resources. Differences in these dimensions are shown for the three types.