education that is required for their desired careers, and family and peers played important roles in the process
of aligning their goals. Many of the youths with aligned ambitions also considered their family goals in
relation to their other future goals and planned to start families only after accomplishing their educational
and career goals.
The group of youths with unaligned expectations had multiple ideas of what they would like to do in
the future or did not connect their occupational goals with specific educational plans. Many of these youths’
aspirations reflect competing ideologies for success among inner-city youths. Many youths say they plan to
go to college even though their desired careers do not require a college degree, reflecting a “college for all”
ideology (Rosenbaum 2001). Many of their desired occupations include careers in the sports, fashion, or
music industries, which are glamorized in the media and may stem from a perception of the limited
opportunities for other educational and career paths in their school and neighborhood contexts (Carter 2005;
Collins 2004; Hoberman 1997; Solomon 1992; Staples 1982).
Many of the youths are also aware of obstacles they face in achieving their aspirations. Even for
youths with aligned expectations there are many structural constraints that may make the realization of those
expectations difficult. The youths’ narratives reflect concerns about financial constraints and the lack of
support and resources at their schools. As the neighborhood effects literature highlights, individual outcomes
are influenced by family and neighborhood level characteristics, and the contexts of these youths’
neighborhoods and schools is an important part of their story. Respondents also recognize that early family
formation affects the realization of educational and occupational aspirations. Youths in this research who
have formed families are well aware of the difficulties they may encounter in realizing their educational and
occupational goals. The narratives of these youths highlight that, especially for those living in
neighborhoods of concentrated disadvantage, planning family goals in conjunction with educational and
occupational goals is crucial to their actualization.
16
Convention