ABSTRACT

In this chapter, the authors try to reach some general conclusions about young adults in the 1990s. They examine different types of lives, drawing on individual case records to provide summary ‘pen portraits’. The authors also examine some of the main features of continuity and change which the study has identified. Young men’s and young women’s routes to becoming skilled were demarcated, with boys tending to get the apprenticeships, and girls going to college for one year to get a secretarial or clerical qualification. The young men and women in the situation were likely to be married or in a partnership by the age of 26, and a considerable number had the further responsibilities of parenthood. The young women in this situation faced exceptional difficulties because reliance on state benefits. There was plenty of evidence of social mobility - a general loosening up of employment structures, giving many young people opportunities.