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Leaving Home for College: Expectations for Selective Reconstruction of Self
Author(s) -
Karp David A.,
Holmstrom Lynda Lytle,
Gray Paul S.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
symbolic interaction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.874
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1533-8665
pISSN - 0195-6086
DOI - 10.1525/si.1998.21.3.253
Subject(s) - ambivalence , liminality , identity (music) , context (archaeology) , class (philosophy) , independence (probability theory) , life course approach , social psychology , psychology , period (music) , transition (genetics) , sociology , epistemology , aesthetics , history , philosophy , statistics , biochemistry , chemistry , mathematics , archaeology , anthropology , gene
This paper describes how 23 primarily upper‐middle‐class high school seniors anticipated identity changes as they prepared to leave home for college. The transition from high school to college is a period of “liminality” during which students are structurally in between old and new statuses. We discuss how students anticipated change, planned to affirm certain of their identities, imagined creating new identities, and contemplated discovering unanticipated identities. Such interpretive effort must be understood in the context of the ambivalence they felt about leaving home and achieving independence. The data also provoke discussion of how social class membership might be implicated in people's ability to control identity change as they move through the life course.