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Secondary school plays a major role in German adolescents' lives. In addition to family, peers, community, and work environment, school is one of the most important contexts for adolescent development and is the institution of socialization in technological societies (Petersen, Leffert, and Hurrelmann 1993). In order to study adolescent development, it is important to understand the effects that particular contexts have on adolescents (Silbereisen and Todt 1994). As G.H. Elder and colleagues put it, "Adolescents do not come of age in society as a whole, but rather in a particular community, school, and family" (Elder, Hagell, Rudkin, and Conger 1994, p. 261). Therefore, a study of the role of secondary school in adolescents' lives should address not only the school context but the interaction of other contexts such as family, peers, and community.
Attending school is a fixed part of the daily life of adolescents. School not only affects how adolescents spend their time; it also influences values and beliefs, affects relations with family and peers, directs future vocational choices, and may influence delinquency and problem behavior. Naturally, there is marked variation in how the education system affects adolescents' lives, both between and within groups. However, school is a context of paramount importance within which adolescent development and socialization occur.
The relationship between adolescents and school cannot simply be reduced to young people spending time in a place where they gain knowledge and learn skills. The complexity of the school context affords several perspectives from which to examine the role of secondary school in adolescents' lives. This report begins with a comparison of the amount of time German adolescents spend in school and other academic activities with the time they spend in nonacademic, leisure activities. This is followed by an examination of the values, interests, and expectations held by adolescents regarding their education and future vocational choices. Also explored is the relationship between family background and parental involvement with students' school performance. Finally, the influence of peers on academic achievement and the extent of problem behavior among adolescents is examined.
According to the Youth 1992 study—a survey of more than 4,000 German adolescents and young adults aged 13 to 29—adolescents between the ages of 13 and 20 spend about 35 percent of their waking hours on school lessons, either in class or studying on their own (Fischer 1992). They spend another 33 percent of their time in leisure activities such as socializing with friends, playing sports and games, watching television, and listening to music. The remaining 32 percent of adolescents' time is spent working, playing an instrument, or in personal maintenance. Thus, school and schoolwork fill a considerable portion of the adolescent's day; however, leisure, work, and interpersonal activities also are important components of adolescent time use.
Adolescents surveyed in the Youth 1992 study said they spent approximately 28 hours per week in school. This amount of time reflects the normal secondary school day, which lasts about 5.5 hours. However, this is an average figure; there is considerable variation between school types and between states (Fischer 1992), with differences of as much as 2.5 hours a day.
The Youth 1992 study also estimates the amount of time adolescents spent studying outside school. Students aged 13 to 20 indicated that they studied outside school on average about 7 hours per week. However, there was a large amount of variation (up to 5.81 hours, or 83 percent of the mean) in the amount of time that individual students spent studying outside school (Fischer 1992). Attending academic classes outside school is not a prevalent aspect of adolescents' lives in Germany. About 4 percent of adolescents ages 10-19 are enrolled in nonacademic classes, such as those offered by music schools (Statistisches Bundesamt 1993).
Leisure time and activities represent a special context for any adolescent's development. The so-called fourth environment is comprised of leisure centers, such as youth clubs, sports centers, discotheques, and cafés. According to Silbereisen and Todt (1994), the "fourth environment" is an important context for adolescent development because its relatively unstructured, autonomous atmosphere of leisure activities gives adolescents the freedom to try out new roles and behaviors. The fourth environment may serve as an alternative developmental pathway for those who do not experience success in school, and may become more important in the absence of normative social roles (Silbereisen and Todt 1994).
Several researchers have examined adolescent use of time and the role of leisure activities in the lives of German adolescents. Behnken et al. (1991) conducted a large-scale study which surveyed a representative sample of 2,600 7th-, 9th-, and 11th-graders from Nordrhein-Westfalen (western Germany) and Saxony-Anhalt (eastern Germany). The sample was divided into three age cohorts with mean ages of 13, 15, and 17 years, respectively. Of those surveyed, a full 80 percent declared leisure to be a "central life value" for them.
The study by Behnken et al. (1991) reported differences in leisure time and resources available to German adolescents in western and eastern Germany. Table 12 illustrates the contrast in the amounts of leisure time available. These results, however, indicate that leisure time comprises a major portion of an adolescent's day, in both western and eastern Germany.
Table 12—Reported leisure time among adolescents in Eastern and Western Germany
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Amount of daily leisure time |
Nordrhein-Westfalen (in former West Germany) |
Saxony-Anhalt (in former East Germany) |
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SOURCE: Behnken et al. 1991. | ||
When asked what type of leisure activities they participated in and which locales they visited most often in the 4 weeks prior to being surveyed, German adolescents (aged 13 to 20) reported that they most often visited restaurants or bars, followed by cinemas and discotheques (Fischer 1992). Regarding media use, German adolescents reported listening to music as their most frequent activity in the past 4 weeks, followed by watching TV and reading a newspaper. Concerning creative leisure activities, adolescents reported that they had spent the most time drawing or painting, followed by "tinkering" with a bicycle or something in their room. Beyond this, 12 percent of adolescents surveyed reported belonging to an orchestra, choir, or cultural association; 11 percent said they were members of a charity organization; 11 percent said they participated in "hobby clubs"; and 8 percent claimed to be members of political associations and parties (Fischer 1992).
Spending time with peers is one of the most common leisure activities of young Germans. According to a survey of more than 1,000 German youth conducted in 1993 by the Institute for Practice-Oriented Social Research, 37 percent of adolescents polled in western Germany said they belonged to a youth organization (Bundesministerium für Frauen und Jugend [BMFJ] 1993). In eastern Germany only 19 percent of those polled said they belonged to such an organization. Cliques also represent a strong part of adolescent social life, especially in western Germany, where 68 percent of youths polled claimed to be a member of a clique. In eastern Germany, only 31 percent of youths claimed clique membership.
Adolescents ages 13-20 who participated in the Youth 1992 study (Fischer 1992) were asked to estimate how frequently they engaged in 35 separate leisure activities. Answers ranged from 1 (never) to 4 (very often). Of all leisure activities, only "listening to music" was more popular than "being together with friends" (table 13).
Table 13—Youths' self-reported frequency of participation in selected leisure activities
| Leisure activity |
Mean valuea (1 to 4) |
|---|---|
| Listening to music |
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| Being together with friends |
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| Being together with girlfriend or boyfriend |
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| Being together with the family |
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Participating in sports |
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| Reading books |
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SOURCE: Fischer, 1992 | |
Families also play an important role in the lives of German youth. These families usually include at least one sibling (78 percent of the families) (Fischer 1992). Female adolescents reported a higher frequency of "being together with the family" than did male adolescents. This may be a reflection of the fact that about 5 percent more females between the ages of 13 and 29 live with their parents (63 percent) than do male youths (58 percent); thus, female youths may be afforded more time with their family (Fischer 1992).
Organized recreational activities are the most common organized activities in which German adolescents and young adults take part. Between 70 and 80 percent of German young people said they participate in sports regularly. Females are slightly less likely to participate in sports than males (from 3 percent to 20 percent less, depending on the type of sport). In terms of particular sports, German youths reported that during the prior 4 weeks they most often played soccer, followed by tennis and swimming (Fischer 1992).
In Germany, most sports activities take place outside school. The only organized athletic activities at school take place during "sports" class. German secondary schools do not, as a rule, sponsor intramural or interscholastic sports teams. Instead, students may participate in community-sponsored clubs and sports leagues after school ends at lunchtime (Petersen et al. 1993).
The Deutsche Sportbund (German national sports league) is the national parent organization of many smaller, local sports organizations specific to particular sports such as soccer and tennis. In 1992, 75 percent of male adolescents under age 15 were members of the Deutsche Sportbund, compared with 62 percent of females in that age group; 49 percent of males and 32 percent of females between ages 15 and 19 were members (Fischer 1992).
Holding a part-time job while attending school is not as common an experience for German youth as it is for Americans, and those students who do work are more likely to do so during school holidays and vacations. Although many adolescents do apprenticeships as part of their vocational training, these are not considered part-time jobs. In the Youth 1992 study, only 19 percent of those surveyed said they had a part-time job at which they spent an average of 9.5 hours per week (Fischer 1992). This figure should be considered cautiously, however, because of large differences between the employment situation of adolescents in western and eastern Germany and because of the students' track in school. In western Germany, 22 percent of students aged 13 to 16 held part-time jobs, for an average of 5.5 hours per week, and 30 percent of students aged 17 to 20 held part-times jobs, for an average of 8.5 hours per week. In comparison, only 10 percent of students in eastern Germany in both age groups held part-time jobs. However, those students in eastern Germany who did work tended to work 25 percent more hours per week than their western counterparts. Another difference worth noting can be seen between male and female students in both western and eastern Germany. In western Germany, males tended to work about 20 percent more hours than females. The situation was reversed in eastern Germany, where females tended to work about 30 percent more hours than males (Fischer 1992).
Adolescent Values
Adolescent values have been the focus of much research, and useful cross-national comparisons have been conducted (Smolenska and Fraczek 1987; Silbereisen, Noack, and Schönpflug 1994). The most popular approach to research on adolescent values has been the hierarchical list of life goals used by Rokeach (1968).
In a study by Smolenska and Fraczek (1987), a cross-national sample of 14- and 17-year-old male and female adolescents in East Berlin and Warsaw was presented with a list of 16 life goals and asked to assess the importance and relevance of each of the goals, using a 4-point scale. Results indicated that all adolescents consistently rated values such as "friendship," "family," and "education" most important, and "politics" least important. However, some cross-national differences did emerge. For German adolescents, "friendship" was the most important value, while for Polish youth, "family" took top priority. Another interesting difference concerns the role of education: German youth rated "education" more important than "family," whereas Polish adolescents rated it below "family."
The Youth 1992 study also questioned adolescents about their most important values; among the most frequently given responses were "world peace," "family security," "personal harmony," and "true friendship." The values most frequently rated as least important were "social power," "authority," "respect for tradition," and "wealth." Of those surveyed, 38 percent said they wanted to be different from others, 62 percent expressed the will to be independent, 54 percent said they knew what they wanted out of life, and 23 percent said they thought their life would improve in the future (Fischer 1992).
In terms of political orientation and involvement, the earlier Youth 1984 survey reported that of all those questioned, 45 percent of adolescents said they had "no interest in politics" (Watts and Zinnecker 1987). Broken down by age cohort, 62 percent of the 15 to 17 year olds, 46 percent of the 18 to 20 year olds, and 32 percent of the 21 to 24 year olds reported having "no interest in politics." In the Youth 1992 survey, 67 percent of adolescents were of the opinion that "government is not doing enough for youth." When asked in which domains government should expend more effort, 28 percent said that government should ensure "more places for apprenticeship and employment," 22 percent wanted "more leisure facilities," and 21 percent indicated a need for a "better school system, more educational opportunities, and more money for school and culture." An additional 15 percent said that government should provide "more youth centers," and 10 percent stressed the need to "fight drug and alcohol abuse and reduce delinquency" (Fischer 1992).
In a 1993 survey of 1,000 young people aged 14 to 27, 95 percent of youth in western Germany and 83 percent in eastern Germany agreed with the statement "I am content with my life" (BMFJ 1993). In terms of family relationships, the majority of adolescents (83 percent in western Germany and 89 percent in eastern Germany) reported that their parents "provided assistance with personal problems." Furthermore, 72 percent said they looked confidently toward the future of society. In the Youth 1992 study, 47 percent of adolescents polled had indicated a belief in life after death (Fischer 1992).
A student's motivation to succeed in school is influenced not only by actual school performance but by a multitude of factors outside school. Peer and family support, parental orientation and involvement, as well as the adolescent's life goals, values, and perception of the connection between success in school and future employment all may have an impact on school performance. In the Youth 1992 study, about 50 percent of adolescents said they were motivated to succeed in spite of difficulties and obstacles; 53 percent of adolescents in western Germany and 55 percent in eastern Germany claimed they were doing all they could in order to earn the best grades possible (Fischer 1992).
In the study by Behnken et al. (1991), 87 percent of adolescents questioned said they felt good in their school class, with 72 percent of students from western Germany and 68 percent of those in eastern Germany agreeing with the statement "It is pleasant to learn in school." In response to the open-ended question, "What is pleasant and what is unpleasant about school life?" 75 percent of German adolescents named at least one positive aspect. The most frequently cited positive aspect of school life was "leisure time and holidays" followed by "relations with peers." Around two-thirds of German youth also cited at least one negative aspect of school life, the most frequent being "relations with teachers" and "homework and lessons."
When asked about their preferred subjects, a large number of youth said that sports and mathematics were their most preferred subjects (Behnken et al. 1991). Although the majority of both males and females named sports as their favorite subject, their second and third choices differed according to gender. In general, males said that mathematics and geography were their second and third favorite subjects, while females named German and biology (Fischer 1992).
In a 1985 study of the development of children's interests in Germany, Todt found that interests serve as highly significant mediators that allow adolescents to realize cognitive objectives, feel good in school, compensate for everyday stress, focus their occupational choice, and foster identity development. Furthermore, adolescent interests in school subjects and lessons, in leisure activities, and in occupational choices show a dynamic interaction. The interplay of these various interests is mediated by personal variables such as ability, temperament, family, and socioeconomic background, and by school variables such as teachers, class composition, school equipment, and peers, and by gender and age.
The educational/employment nexus in any country can be characterized by two properties: transparency and permeability (Hamilton 1994). Transparency refers to the ease with which a student can plot a course from school to work for any type of job; that is, the more formalized the entry requirements are for most jobs, the more transparent the system. Permeability refers to how easy it is for a student to get through the hurdles in the system once he or she has plotted a course to an occupational goal. The two properties of transparency and permeability are usually inversely related: the more formal the credentials required for a profession, the easier it is to plot a course (high transparency), but the more difficult it is to acquire all the required credentials (low permeability).
The German education/employment system is characterized by high transparency and low permeability. For example, it is easy for a student to find out how to become an electronics technician—there is a specific training program leading to a credential in Elektrotechnik. However, once one becomes a certified electronics technician, it is difficult to change professions, since this would involve starting over and completing another training program. As a result, the German apprenticeship and vocational-training system, while world renowned, does not come without its concomitant stresses on adolescents who are struggling to find their identity and to make difficult vocational decisions.
Many German adolescents expressed that they had concrete plans and vocational intentions (74 percent in eastern Germany and 66 percent in western Germany) (Fischer 1992). This response is not surprising given Hamilton's formulation: since the German education and employment systems are highly structured and credentialed, young people have a strong incentive to make vocational decisions early and then to stick to them. This tendency is reinforced not only by the educational structure and institutions (such as early tracking of students into one of three distinct secondary educational tracks) but by family, community, and peer pressure.
The German school system is based on early ability tracking into "differently privileged forms of secondary school" (Engel and Hurrelmann 1994, p. 329). However, once a student is tracked into Hauptschule, Realschule, Gymnasium, or Gesamtschule, that student is "sponsored" by the education system to succeed in that setting. The German system is based on "sponsored mobility," in which students are tracked early and then actively encouraged within a track. The only exception to this is the recently introduced Gesamtschule, which attempts to simulate a degree of "contest" mobility in which all students compete in one academic arena to achieve the best grades (Engel and Hurrelmann 1994).
In a sponsored mobility system, social status quo is actively maintained. Because of the early age of "branching" into one of the secondary school types, school tracks in Germany tend to correspond with parents' social status. Students who deviate above or below their parents' social rank are not supported de facto by the education system (Engel and Hurrelmann 1994). "The higher the family status, the greater the probability that the family's children will attend the type of secondary school offering the best postscholastic career prospects" (Petersen et al. 1993, p. 618). Statistics show that of the students attending Gymnasium, 58 percent are children of civil servants, 47 percent are children of white-collar workers, and 38 percent are children of self-employed people, while only 10 percent are children of blue-collar workers (Arbeitsgruppe Bildungsbericht [MPI] 1994, p. 511).
According to Engel and Hurrelmann (1994), students draw on the "social and cultural capital" of their parents to succeed in the school setting. When the child of an unskilled worker enters Gymnasium, that child cannot draw on the same base of social and cultural capital that many of his or her classmates draw on to complete school assignments. That child therefore experiences more stress in the school environment, and has a greater likelihood of failure (Engel and Hurrelmann 1994). These effects are clearly seen in Germany, where early tracking effectively separates social classes. It should be pointed out, however, that upward mobility in educational attainment does exist in Germany, as is evidenced by the intergenerational increases in enrollment in Realschule and Gymnasium and in the appearance of alternative modes of access to higher education.
Continued
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[Secondary Education in the Life of German Adolescents - Part 2 ]