However, she says there is no one at her school who helps students through the process of applying to
colleges and she does not feel that she has adequate information to go to college. Danielle’s story highlights
the lack of a connection between aligned expectations and the ability to actualize these expectations for
youth in these disadvantaged neighborhoods and schools.
Family Planning
Most of the youths who discuss having families say that they want to wait to have children until they
are older, and youths who already have kids explain that they had planned to wait. Keisha, who has a 9
month old baby, explains:
It’s been times, you know, when I wasn’t doin’ stuff and that, I was sayin’ to myself, I ain’t want no
baby. I was, I just kept on sayin’, I said I want a baby when I’m 25. That’s all I kept on sayin’ and
stuff like that. And so, when it happened I was just so surprised and stuff.
Danielle explains that she should have waited to have kids because her son will be in the way of going to
college:
I love being a mom, but you know, I think I should have waited, you know, ‘til I got older to do it.
‘Cause now when I graduate outta high school, I wanna go to college, and he, he not gonna be really
in the way, but I’m just saying I should have waited. But I love being a mom. I love my son.
These stories illustrate that there are many factors that shape family formation outcomes despite an
individual’s expectations (Edin and Kefalas 2005).
Conclusion
This analysis focuses on youths’ own narratives about their educational, occupational, and family
expectations and highlights the experiences of youths hailing from poor, urban housing developments. Using
qualitative data from youths whose families participated in the Gautreaux Two Program, we find that there
are two broad categories of youths – those whose educational, occupational, and family expectations are
aligned and those whose expectations are misaligned. Of the 88 youths who discussed their aspirations and
expectations for the future, 34 had aligned expectations (38.6%) and 54 had misaligned expectations
(61.4%).
The youths with aligned expectations were able to articulate their future educational and
occupational ambitions as well as how they planned to achieve them. These youth generally recognized the
15
Convention