Youth, Lifestyles and Society

Abstract

This article sets out to consider the role of social class on present-day adolescents' development by briefly examining adolescents' `lifestyles' in western industrial societies. The article goes on to consider empirical evidence about possible social class influences on various aspects of adolescent socialization in Sweden, Germany and Britain within Abel and McQueen's theoretical framework of `resources', `orientations' and `behaviours'. In particular the article highlights findings from a large-scale and comprehensive study of adolescents' lifestyle development. Results show that lifestyle socialization in adolescence is still social class based, though allowing for transitional variations within social class boundaries. The analysis and interpretation suggest that despite opportunities for individual taste and choice to operate in present-day western cultures, elements of social class differentiate among various lifestyles across the teenage years and are especially powerful and pervasive in relation to Abel and McQueen's dimensions of `resources' (i.e. life chances) and behaviours (i.e. `life conduct').