Facing the Future: Barriers and Resources in Work and Family Plans of At-Risk Israeli Youth

1. Facing the Future: Barriers and Resources in Work and Family Plans of At-Risk Israeli Youth Rachel Gali Cinamon and Iris Hason Tel Aviv University

2. Rationale: • Work and family both comprise important domains for many Western adults. • Career plans of Western adolescents manifest active participation in both work and family roles (Peake & Harris, 2002). • Career models’ previous validation solely on Western middle-class individuals (Blustien, 2001) raises questions regarding these models’ applicability for adolescents who grow up in multiproblem families in an at-risk environment.

3. Role salience plays a major role in the career plans of adolescents and young adults (Niles & Goodnough, 1996). • Personal meaningof the work role varies in different social classes (Chaves et al., 2004). • Simultaneous examination of work and family roles’ salience leads to a more precise understanding of career plans.

4. Mutualwork and family relations include conflicting and facilitating aspects (Wayne, Musisca & Fleeson, 2004). • Anticipating certain relations between work and family roles can affect career plans. • Family models may influence anticipated conflict between work and family (Cinamon, 2005).

5. Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) can enhance understanding of at-risk adolescents’ expected barriers and resources. • A paucity of literature exists on specific, significant contextual factors that at-risk adolescents perceive as crucial to their development.

6. Goals of the study: • The current study will investigate the work and family plans of at-risk Israeli adolescents who live in child residences, in terms of role salience and meaning, perceptions of the relations between work and family, and anticipated barriers and resources.

7. Participants • Fifteen Israeli Jewish at-risk youths included 8 females and 7 males, ranging in age from 16-19 years (M=17.8; SD=1.8).All were born to dysfunctional families – exposed to poverty, crime, drugs, prostitution, and so forth. • Five were born in the former USSR; 1 participant was from an Ethiopian family; 1 was the daughter of a Jewish mother and a Bedouin father; and the remaining 8 were native Israelis. • They were all removed from their homes at least 7 years earlier and were placed in a special child residential center for at-risk children.

8. Interview • In-depth semi-structured interview based on projective stimulus: Participants were asked to describe the future 10 years of a residential center “graduate” and then were asked where they themselves fit in to this story. • Leading questions: 1. Tell me about your career and family plans. 2. What do you expect will help you achieve these goals and what will prevent you from achieving them? 3. How do you plan to combine these roles?

9. Procedure • Approval from social service authorities • Snowball sample • Voluntary participation • 90 to 120 minute duration • Debriefing • Interviews audiotaped and then transcribed by the interviewer

10. Research team • The interviewer: Female school counselor who worked as a supervisor in a child residential center. • Analysis team: Three members (one male and two females) who all work with at-risk populations. • Auditor: Female researcher in the field of career development.

11. Results • All the stories about the future revealed (a) the “normal” Israeli sequence and (b) positive, even cheerful narratives/themes. • The consensual qualitative research (CQR) method of analysis (Hill, Thompson, & Williams, 1997) identified five domains and 19 categories.

12. Domain I: Work Domain • “She’ll have a good job, something that’ll make her want to get out of bed in the morning... Of course this job will bring her money, why do we go to work? For money, but it’s also very important to enjoy it. She won’t stay if she feels bad, or if they don’t treat her nicely… It’s important to teach her children that mother and father both work, to teach them how to live.” (GALI-WHO??)

13. “This whole interview is a little bit strange. These aren’t things that you usually think about. I don’t know what occupation I will have. Probably someone will come and say to me: Do you want to work in the USA and earn a lot of money?” (Lior)

14. Domain II: Family role • “She has learned from her own experience. She will never treat her children the way her parents treat or treated her. Her children will live well. She will never leave them. They will have hot meals and she will serve them herself. She will be there for them. Not like her parents.” (Daniela) • “…and the girl will not leave or betray him. He is expecting to have a good life, not a shitty life. What does a man expect from a woman? Loyalty! Loyalty and not betrayal. If there is no trust – the relationship is worthless.” (Lior)

15. Domain III: Work-Family Relations • “First they need money, and then a family. Without money you can’t live. Money talks. If you have money – you can have family. No money no family. No money – wait . … he comes from work and takes the kids and spends some time with them.” (Ro’ee) • “After she has a baby, she stays at home with her. He finds a job and he is very happy with his work. And they are happy. When the baby grows up, she can go work out of the home. She will help her husband. It isn’t fair that only he will work, but she never neglects her children. (Liat)

16. Domain IV: Barriers • “… It depends on me. On whether I will want to continue enough, and not like now. To believe in myself more. It’s like, you know, after I did a show, people came up to me and told me: “You can do it, you can do it easily,” but I don’t believe in myself enough. I tell myself: “I won’t make it. I have no chance of succeeding.” That’s because I’m afraid of failure. I am afraid that I will make a mistake and it will destroy everything. This way, I don’t have to try too hard.” (Itamar)

17. “If anybody will stop me, it’ll be my family. They will tell me ‘Come live with us and give us your money.’ My family could do that, and I have to think about that…”(Dana) • “... It is very difficult for me to study. It’s not easy for me. I don’t want to learn… I can’t concentrate on studying… It’s like I understand but I’m afraid to bring out what I understand.… So the furthest she can get is to the final high school exams. But she did not pass them all, and she has to do it over several times, and she tries again and again, but it’s difficult.”

18. Domain V: Resources • “Chances are that he will have good life, that he will keep working. And he will have family as his motivation, as his willingness to continue, if he insists on going to work, even if it’s difficult, and doesn’t give up. It depends only on him.” (Yossi) • “Sarit will serve in the Army, and there she will have good and bad experiences. But she will overcome [them]. She knows how to deal with difficult periods. She had many like these. She will get an interesting job and learn a lot from this job. She will meet new people, visit many new places, and all these people will help her in the future.” (Liat)

19. Discussion • At-risk Israeli youths perceive the aim of the work domain as serving the family domain, and perceive the two together as a sign of success. • Value of simultaneous examination of the work and family domains. • Implications for practice.