Change in job values during the transition to adulthood

Abstract

This panel study of young people in the United States addresses a set of interrelated questions on how job values change during the transition to adulthood, including whether the gender differences in job values apparent in adolescence persist across the transition to adulthood, and whether young men's and women's job values change in similar ways. The findings indicate that there is a good deal of instability in job values during this stage of the life course, as young people make the transition from student to adult worker. Gender differences in job values narrow in the process, though do not disappear. For both males and females, job values change in response to the attainment of valued rewards, and not in response to their family roles.