Effects of organized leisure activities on the transition into vocational training.

The transition from school to vocational training seems to be a major junction in life. Adolescents from middle and lower educational backgrounds often struggle with the transition. Organized leisure activities in non-formal settings can therefore provide supportive potential (e.g. Farb/Matjasko 2012).

The quantitative longitudinal survey follows aims at analyzing the usage of organized leisure activities of middle and lower secondary school pupils as well as the effects of these activities on work related personal and social resources as well as on transition into vocational training. The study is based on the Resource Model of Coping with Life (Ressourcenmodell der Lebensbewältigung; Fend u.a. 2009).

Central questions are:

• How do middle and lower secondary school pupils use organized leisure activities between grades 1 to 9/10?
• How does social, cultural and economic capital of the family (Bourdieu 1983) affect the usage of organized leisure activities?
• Which effects do organized leisure activities have on work related resources?
• Which effects do organized leisure activities and work related resources have on the transition into vocational training two years after the last year in school?

Participants are pupils in middle and lower secondary schools in Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt in Germany. They will be surveyed twice with a standardized questionnaire. T1 takes place as a classroom survey in their last compulsory year (grade 9/10). T2 will be conducted as individual telephone interviews two years later.

Following the current state of research on educational processes in non-formal settings, it is assumed that organized leisure activities can have positive developmental effects on work related resources and the transition into vocational training. Thus, the project follows studies on positive effects of organized leisure activities on youth development and complements the state of research with a focus on youth transitions.