Gendered Narratives of Transition to Adulthood among Korean Work-bound Youth

Abstract

The transition to adulthood has recently drawn diverse social attention in many post-industrial countries (Arnett, 2000; Furstenberg Jr, 2010; Hogan & Astone, 1986; Newman, 2008) including Korea (B.-H. Kim, Lee, & Park, 2016; H. Park, 2013, 2016; H. Park & Sandefur, 2005). Particularly, in Korea, public discourse and scholarship has recently shed light on the uphill battle that college-bound youth have been grappling with for becoming adults (especially for completion of education, entry into the labor marker). In contrast, there has been relatively limited attention to the transition experience of the work-bound youth – young adults who join the labor force with only high school education – as the proportion of this population in young adults has gradually decreased and their transition trajectory has become a non-dominant way to become adults.