Adolescent Development and Choice of Leisure Settings

Abstract

Emphasis on adolescents' own initiative has become a key element of recent theorizing on youth development. In the present paper, we elucidate this understanding by presenting findings from field studies at adolescents' leisure settings and longitudinal analyses of questionnaire data. Interviews and observations at leisure settings showed that the development of contacts with adolescents of both the same and the opposite sex figured prominently among the motives to visit these places and were reflected in adolescents' behavior. Addressing the relationship between young people's actions and experiences during leisure and longer-term processes of change, longitudinal analyses of data on the development of heterosexual partnership and the choice of leisure places taken from a representative sample of West Berlin adolescents pointed out that adolescents' context preferences vary as a function of their progress in partnership development. Additional analyses showed that visiting places which facilitate the pursuit of partnership is a strategy which has its costs, namely increases in consumption of legal substances.