Clydesdale, First Year Out

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Tim Clydesdale, First Year Out: Understanding American Teens after High School (Morality and Society Series). University of Chicago Press, 2007.

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Referenced in: Generational Issues in Churches

LifeandLeadership.com Summary

This is not a faith-based book, but is an acclaimed piece of sociological research that followed high school seniors and college freshmen as they faced the first years of emerging adulthood. It began with 125 in–depth interviews with 75 teens, a year of field research at a public high school in New Jersey, a focus group of 12 college teens, and an open-ended group survey of 24 teen volunteers. The author claims to have gained “a diverse, nuanced, and in-depth portrait of American teens who graduated from high school between 1995 and 2003, of the paths they traveled during the year that followed their graduation, and of the moral culture they inhabit.” (213) It is fair to say his research focuses on college students, but the sampling is broad enough for a few good generalities. The Publisher’s Description below describes the essential content well. It is a scholarly yet fun and engaging read. I highly recommend it to youth ministers, campus ministers, college professors, and parents.

From the Publisher

Wild parties, late nights, and lots of sex, drugs, and alcohol. Many assume these are the things that define an American teenager’s first year after high school. But the reality is really quite different. As Tim Clydesdale reports in The First Year Out, teenagers generally manage the increased responsibilities of everyday life immediately after graduation effectively. But, like many good things, this comes at a cost. Tracking the daily lives of fifty young people making the transition to life after high school, Clydesdale reveals how teens settle into manageable patterns of substance use and sexual activity; how they meet the requirements of postsecondary education; and how they cope with new financial expectations. Most of them, we learn, handle the changes well because they make a priority of everyday life. But Clydesdale finds that teens also stow away their identities—religious, racial, political, or otherwise—during this period in exchange for acceptance into mainstream culture. This results in the absence of a long-range purpose for their lives and imposes limits on their desire to understand national politics and global issues, sometimes even affecting the ability to reconstruct their lives when tragedies occur.

The First Year Out is an invaluable resource for anyone caught up in the storm and stress of working with these young adults.

About the Author

Tim Clydesdale is associate professor of sociology at the College of New Jersey.

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