Adolescent Apprentices in Germany: Adult Attachment, Job Expectations, and Delinquency Attitudes

Guided by Hamilton's discussion on apprenticeships and adolescent delinquency, the goals of the present exploratory study were twofold: (a) to document variation in delinquency (attitudes and behavior), attachment to adults, optimism about occupational future, and disposition toward aggressiven...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of adolescent research 1998-07, Vol.13 (3), p.254-271
Main Authors: Silverberg, Susan B., Vazsonyi, Alexander T., Schlegel, Alice E., Schmidt, Sabine
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent Attitudes
Adolescent Behavior
Adolescent Development
Adolescents
Aggression
Apprenticeship
Apprenticeships
Attachment
Attachment Behavior
Attitudes
Delinquency
Expectations
Federal Republic of Germany
Foreign Countries
Germany
Individual Differences
Intergenerational Relations
Interpersonal Relationship
Interviews
Juvenile Delinquency
Optimism
Predictor Variables
Questionnaires
Teenagers
Work Attitudes
Work Experience Programs
Young Adults
Youth Employment
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Guided by Hamilton's discussion on apprenticeships and adolescent delinquency, the goals of the present exploratory study were twofold: (a) to document variation in delinquency (attitudes and behavior), attachment to adults, optimism about occupational future, and disposition toward aggressiveness among a group (N = 43) of German apprentices; and (b) to examine the relations among attachment to adults, optimism about occupational future, and delinquency-endorsing attitudes. Questionnaire and interview data revealed considerable variation across allfour variables. As hypothe-sized, attachment to adults predicted attitudes toward delinquency; notably, this was over and above the effects of aggression. Apprentices who reported higher levels of attachment to adults were also more optimistic regarding their occupational future. Level of aggression moderated the association between attachment to adults and attitudes toward delinquency; specifically, reports of relatively high attachment to adults were associated with low levels of delinquency-endorsing attitudes but only among the low-aggression apprentices. The implications of thesefindings are discussed.
ISSN:0743-5584
1552-6895
DOI:10.1177/0743554898133002