Literature Review #5: I Wish I Had (Not) Taken a Gap-Year? The Psychological and Attainment Outcomes of Different Post-School Pathways.


Citation:

 Parker, Philip D., et al. “I Wish I Had (Not) Taken a Gap-Year? The Psychological and Attainment Outcomes of Different Post-School Pathways.” Developmental Psychology, vol. 51, no. 3, American Psychological Association, 2015, pp. 323–33, doi:10.1037/a0038667.

 Summary:

This paper conducts a longitudinal study on individuals from Finland and Australia, following them starting from high school and continuing until they age they would be halfway through college. The purpose of this study was to see how students who took a gap year had their academic trajectories affected. This was calculated based on their academic achievement, as well as their personal development. Based on several metrics, including degree completion and personality scores of life satisfaction, they found little measurable improvement.

Author:

Philip D. Parker is a professor for the Institute of Positive Psychology and Education for the Australian Catholic University. He has published numerous papers focusing on "career pathways, educational attainment, and individual differences related to youths' transitions from school to work or further education," and has utilized longitudinal databases for these cases.

Key Terms:

The most important term in this paper is the "Life Span Theory of Control," which suggests that "goal-seeking" opportunities available to students decrease as a function of time. This is the reason why Parker advocates for students transitioning directly from high school from college instead of delaying it, since there are more opportunities in a university environment.

These "goal reorienting" opportunities are a similar key term to the idea of identity work and cultural capital, but a clear distinction is made in terms of how to best access these opportunities. According to Parker, goal reorienting is best accomplished during the process in which students decide what classes to take and what college to attend.

Quote:

"Likewise, Heckhausen and Tomasik (2002) indicated that although a number of transitions have developmental deadlines, the post school transition for vocational track individuals is particularly narrow with opportunities rapidly diminishing such that those who fail to make the transition in a timely manner may be “doomed to unskilled work for their entire lives” (p. 201)." (p 324)

"From the perspective of life span theory of control, goal engagement allows individuals to capitalize on success or reorientate goals in the face of failure. Delaying transitions is risky as opportunities become increasingly sparse and constraints increase. Put simply, life span theory of control hypothesizes opportunities as a function of age, rising sharply at the point at which biological, social, and cultural systems and institutions deem is appropriate before declining rapidly." (p. 325)

"Using two large longitudinal databases of young people fol-lowed from at least the last year of high school provided mixed results. Results indicated that for similar youth there was no difference in goal engagement, satisfaction with life, satisfaction with career, or future prospects between gap-year and direct entry groups of adolescents." (p. 330)

Value:

 This research paper serves as a good counterexample to many other claims regarding the touted benefits of a college gap year. However, one element the paper fails to touch on is the nature of the gap years some of these students took. As discussed ad nauseum, there is a crucial difference between the sort of gap years student takes based on their socioeconomic status. However, the paper could symbolize the "death" of the gap year, as one argument the author makes is that employers have begun to care less about gap year experiences between high school and college.

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