Parenting teenagers as they grow up: Values, practices and young people’s pathways beyond school in England

Abstract

Parents’ values and practices are central to theorising the reproduction of inequality across generations. Where researchers have explored how parental values and practices relate to class circumstances and their combined influence on children’s outcomes, the focus has been largely on younger families, with limited evidence on parents’ perspectives at the point children approach and pass compulsory school leaving age. The trebling of university tuition fees in England, the insecurity which characterises many non-academic routes into the labour market and concerns about economic recession make this a particularly significant historical moment to investigate parental influences on children’s pathways through post-compulsory education and training. This article draws on research into parents’ perceptions and practices whilst their children were growing up through their teenage years between 2008 and 2014. In particular, it examines classed differences in how parents frame their young adult children’s decision making, assess their pathways and accord markedly differing value to academic and vocational pursuit. It evidences temporal dynamics through showing how diverse values and resources underpin young people’s evolving biographical pathways. In these ways, the analysis contributes to theorising parents’ values and practices and their complex relationship with social class at a time of some significant social structural changes.