The authors used data from seven schools in a metropolitan region to explore continuity and change in adolescent cultures and status structures; they identified six major types of status structures and explained variation among them in terms of characteristics of communities and schools. A key feature of the study is comparison of school climates, using both survey data and qualitative case studies that provide an interpretive context for the survey responses; this methodology allows a contextual level of analysis that is unavailable in either single-school ethnographies or large data sets that aggregate responses from individuals situated in many schools.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Adler, P., and Adler, P. (1998). Peer Power: Preadolescent Culture and Identity. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ.
Bona, C. (1998). Adolescent Product Consumption and Youth Culture Values: An Exploratory Study at a Suburban High School. DePaul University, master's thesis, Chicago, IL.
Bootcheck, J., and Garner, R. (2001). Who Gets Good Grades? Correlates of School Achievement. DePaul University, Chicago, IL.
Brown, B. (1990). Peer Groups and Peer Cultures. In S. Feldman and G. Elliot (eds.) At the Threshold: The Developing Adolescent, 171–196.
Bourdieu, P. (1987). Distinctions: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
Chambliss, W. (1973). The Saints and the Roughnecks. Society 11.
Char, M. (1996). Small Town Youth Culture in Post-Modern America. DePaul University, master's essay, Chicago, IL.
Coleman, J. (1961). The Adolescent Society. Free Press, New York.
Cohen, A. K. (1955). Delinquent Boys. Free Press, New York.
Comas, J., and Milner, M., Jr. (1998). From Hierarchy to Pluralism in American High Schools: Changing Patterns in Status Distinctions and Racial Segregation. American Sociological Association conference paper.
Corsaro, W., and Eder, D. (1990). Children's Peer Cultures. Annual Review of Sociology 16: 197–220.
Eckert, P. (1989). Jocks and Burnouts: Social Categories and Identity in High School. Teachers College Press, New York.
Eder, D. (1985). The Cycle of Popularity: Interpersonal Relations Among Female Adolescents. Sociology of Education 58.
Fine, M. (1992). Disruptive Voices. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Finnegan, W. (1999). Cold New World: Growing Up in a Harder Country. Modern Library.
Fordham, S., and Ogbu, J. (1986). Black Students’ School Success: Coping with the Burden of Acting White. The Urban Review, 18(3): 176–206.
Fordham, S. (1996). Blacked Out: Dilemmas of Race, Identity, and Success at Capital High. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Frank, T. (1998). The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
French, T. (1993). South of Heaven. Doubleday, New York.
Friedenberg, E. (1963). Coming of Age in America: Growth and Acquiescence. Vintage, New York.
Gaines, D. (1991). Teenage Wasteland. Harper Perennial, New York.
Goodman, P. (1956). Growing Up Absurd. Random House, New York.
Henry, J. (1963). Culture Against Man. Random House, New York.
Hersch, P. (1999). A Tribe Apart: A Journey into the Heart of American Adolescence. Ballantine, New York.
Holland, D., and Eisenhart, M. (1990). Educated in Romance: Women, Achievement, and College Culture. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Hollingshead, A. (1949). Elmtown's Youth. John Wiley and Sons, New York.
Kao, G. (2000). Group Images and Possible Selves among Adolescents: Linking Stereotypes to Expectations by Race and Ethnicity. Sociological Forum 15(3): 407–431.
Kinney, D. (1993). From Nerds to Normals: The Recovery of Identity among Adolescents from Middle School to High School. Sociology of Education 66: 21–40.
Lamont, M., and Fournier, M. (1992). Cultivating Differences: Symbolic Boundaries and the Making of Inequality. University of Chicago, Chicago.
Laumann, E., et al. (2004). The Sexual Organization of the City. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Lorr, M. (2001). High School: The War that is Waged in and Out of the Classroom. Third Annual Ethnography Conference Loyola University Chicago.
Matza, D. (1964). Delinquency and Drift. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.
Melly, G. (1971). Revolt into Style. Anchor Books, Garden City, NJ.
McLeod, J. (1995). Ain't No Makin’ It. Westview Press, Boulder, CO.
McLoyd, V., and Steinberg, L. (1998). Studying Minority Adolescents. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc, Mahwah, NJ.
McRobbie, A. (1991). Feminism and Youth Culture. Routledge and Kegan Paul, Cambridge, MA.
Miller, W. B. (1990). Lower Class Culture as a Generating Milieu of Gang Delinquency. In Delos, K. (ed.), Criminal Behavior (2 nd edition, pp. 213–226). St. Martin's Press, New York.
Milner, M., Jr. (2004). Freaks, Geeks, and Cool Kids: American Teenagers, Schools, and the Culture of Consumption. Routledge, New York.
Ogbu, J. (1974). The Next Generation. Academic Press, New York.
Parson, T. (1951). The Social System. The Free Press, Glencoe.
Rauch, K., and Garner, R. (2000). ’Us and Them’ in Oakville: Production of a Marginalized Feminine Identity Among Young White Working Class Women. DePaul University, unpublished, Chicago, IL.
Schneider, B., and Stevenson, D. (1999). America's Teenagers: Motivated But Directionless. Yale University Press, New Haven.
Schwartz, G. (1987). Beyond Conformity or Rebellion: Youth and Authority in America. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.
Smerdon, B. (1999). Engagement and Achievement: Differences Between African American and White High School Students. Research in Sociology of Education and Socialization 12: 103–134.
State of Illinois, School Report Card. (1993); (1994), (1997), (2001).
Steinberg, L. (1996). Beyond the Classroom. Simon and Schuster, New York.
Stinchcombe, A. (1965). Rebellion in a High School. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.
Thorne, B. (1993). Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School. Rutgers University Press.
Wacquant, L. (2003). Body and Soul. Oxford University Press.
Weinstein, D. (1991). Heavy Metal. Lexington Books, New York.
Weis, L. (1990). Working Class Without Work. Routledge, Chapman, and Hall, New York.
Willis, P. (1982). Learning to Labor. Columbia University Press, New York.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Roberta Garner is Professor of Sociology at DePaul University. She received a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago (1966). Her interests are in sociological theory, political sociology, and the sociology of culture.
Judith Bootcheck is Associate Professor of Sociology at DePaul University and received the Ph.D. from Purdue University (1969). Her interests are in youth and the aging, families, and social problems
Michael Lorr is a Ph.D. student in Urban Studies at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He received an MA in sociology from DePaul (2002) and his interests are in sociology of culture, political sociology, and sociology of education
Kathryn Rauch received an MA from DePaul University with a focus on sociology of education and youth
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Garner, R., Bootcheck, J., Lorr, M. et al. The Adolescent Society Revisited: Cultures, Crowds, Climates, and Status Structures in Seven Secondary Schools. J Youth Adolescence 35, 1023–1035 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-006-9060-7
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-006-9060-7