Forty Years On: Norbert Elias and the Young Worker Project.

A study performed in 1962 by Norbert Elias on the adjustment of young people to the transition from school to work had five areas of inquiry; adjustment to relationships with older workers and supervisors; adjustment to job problems; adjustment to role as workers; adjustment to role as money-earner in home relations; and adjustment to role as money-earner in leisure time. The study was an interview-based survey of nearly 900 young adults. The original study concluded that there is a "shock " experience during the transition from school to work young people have difficulties adjusting to the new role and in their relationships with older workers, their family and their income. However, a current look at the original interviews and background materials and concludes that while shock is experienced, it was not to the degree predicted. The origins of the shock conclusion are unclear, there may be differences between the experiences of working class and middle class youth, and it may not be shock that emerges from the difference between the expectations of work and the actua