Struggling to achieve: An examination of the transition to adulthood in a high crime urban neighborhood

Inequality in the United States has been growing steadily over the last several decades. This growing inequality is particularly obvious when we examine the transition to adulthood, a time in the life course in which inequality is acutely brought to the forefront. Yet not enough attention has been paid to how youth entering this transition with limited resources and from disadvantaged backgrounds experience, understand, and negotiate this process as it is happening. While previous research has acknowledged the institutional constraints many low income youth face, little work has examined in-depth the different ways these obstacles play out in the lives of disadvantaged young adults during their transition. This dissertation addresses this gap in the literature by examining a group of low income young adults transitioning to adulthood in a high crime urban neighborhood in Philadelphia. I utilize in-depth interviews with youth when they were adolescents, and again when they were in the early stages of the transition, to explicate the myriad obstacles less privileged young adults experience during this crucial stage in the life course.;I specifically examine youths' trajectories between interview waves and focus on their experiences with three social institutions: the family, education, and employment. There are three trajectories of youth across the sample: those who are "sinking," those who are "barely keeping their heads above water," and those who are "swimming against the current" in the neighborhood. Despite their different experiences, aspirations and expectations, youth across these trajectories find themselves struggling to achieve as they encounter various institutional obstacles during their transition. Additionally, those who find themselves "sinking" often also suffer from institutional incongruence , wherein the institutions they encounter often work against each other to push youth even further behind. While we know that the transition to adulthood has become longer and more complex for all youth, this work examines these changes on a micro level to understand the various intricacies that impact less privileged youth as they are transitioning. This work highlights the various ways less advantaged youth interact with social institutions, and how these institutions inhibit their ability to successfully navigate the transition.