The Importance of School in the Life Course: Results from the Bielefeld Study on School-Related Problems in Adolescence

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a seven-year longitudinal case study that analyzes the biographic importance of school for the life course of adolescents in West Germany. First, an overview of the German school system and its social-status implications is given. The results of our empirical study clearly show that adolescents' educational and occupational expectations are related to their place in the Federal Republic of Germany's stratified system of secondary schools. Our panel study was undertaken to learn how 40 adolescents aged 14 at the first wave and 21 at the last wave of questioning perceive the social and structural changes in their living conditions, in particular their educational and vocational opportunities, and how they rate their school time in relation to their individual biographies. The findings reveal that school is primarily judged to be of instrumental value, useful for acquiring the marks of adult status. Especially students with low achievement levels are at risk of showing problem behavior if they perceive their time at school as a wasted time and find it difficult under these unfavorable conditions to plan their future lives. Finally, some implications for improving the quality of school as a socializing setting and for improving the social support function of schools are discussed.