본문 바로가기
  • Home
Basic Search

Unequal Futures: ‘Dreams’ of Adolescents as Status Markers

Kim, Su Jung 1,  YoungHwa Cha 2,  SetByol Choi 2

1국민대학교
2이화여자대학교

Excellent Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study explores the cognitive and emotional processes adolescents undergo when setting boundaries for their dreams, and what kind of meanings and influences do class- stratified dreams have for adolescents. Using the 2017 National General Survey on Korean Youth, we conducted a multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) to identify the “Dream topography” of Korean adolescents based on social class, as well as 26 in-depth interviews of male and female adolescents to look at specific mechanisms that exist behind the stratified dreams of adolescents. Results indicate that adolescents from the same class share similar dreams and go through a process of selective socialization, while “distinguishing” themselves from those who have different dreams. Adolescents dream a dream that “suits them” by interacting with significant others within the same class-while upper class adolescents aim higher, those in the middle and lower class voluntarily adjust their dreams to be modest based on their family background and the opinions of their peers. This can be seen as a process through which adolescents gain a sense of positions that they fit into, within a stratified society; and rather than simply wishful thinking, the dreams that one’s peers hold may function as a “status marker” of the social position one holds now and will in the future, regardless of whether the dreams come true or not.

Statistics

  • 1,300 Viewed
  • 1 Downloaded

Tools

Issue List

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

Basic Search Advanced Search