Yesterday (4/25/11) a Blog (Entry-Level Rebel) by Jessica Stillman entitled: “Are Helicopter Parents to Blame for Youth Unemployment” claimed that one of the causes of youth unemployment (which included recent college graduates) is “indulgent parents who produce demanding and difficult to employ kids[i].”
The premise of the blog goes against current research because it is implied by the author that youth who have had all the advantages, who likely lived with both parents who work and are college educated, attend good schools, live in good neighborhoods, and were provided with the skills, knowledge, and expectations to be hired, are having problems getting hired because they have unrealistic expectations.
The idea that over-demanding parents are one of the causes for youth unemployment adds a fresh perspective to the field. A majority of the research on the causes of youth unemployment deal with issues of education, social capital, discrimination, and poverty. Primarily focusing on minorities and gender, the research on youth unemployment examines the challenges as a deficit of the individual and downplays the institutional barriers and bias among employers.
Discussions about parents in youth unemployment research typically examine the impact of the single, female-headed family home due to the absence of the father, the lack of education of the parent, and childcare. Due to these barriers, the research claims that when youth apply for jobs, they do not have the skills (social and interpersonal), knowledge, or expectations to be hired. Compounding the problem are the failing schools and high poverty and crime neighborhoods where they live.
The addition of this unchartered perspective on youth unemployment may potentially change the current individual deficit model research to a research model that examines how to make youth employable. In doing this, research will be targeting parents and how to provide resources to them to make their child employable.
Lastly, taking this research perspective also lessens the blame placed on public schools for not producing employable students. Public Schools have bore the brunt of the blame in the research on youth unemployment. While public schools have their part in preparing youth to be employable, youth learn the nuances and intangibles about employment from their parents.
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