The Development of a Youth-Centered Attitude in Childhood

ABSTRACT

During the transition from childhood to youth a shift takes place from a normative orientation on the values of the adult generation to a peer-centered view of the world. An attempt to measure this process on an attitudinal level is the youth centrism construct that was used in German youth surveys since the early 80s. Based on the sociology of the life-course and Coleman's concept of social capital, the transition to a youth centered orientation is explained by means of different biographical models and types of family interaction. Using a childhood panel for Germany from the mid 90s it can be shown that the development of a youth centered attitude is mainly influenced by a shift from a harmonious to a disharmonious family climate. It is argued that this change in family interaction leads to a replacement of parental networks by peer-centered networks