ORIGINS AND OUTCOMES .0 Background 1 The 16-19 Imtlatlve ongmated m the work earned out m the earner ESRC Imtlatwe, Young People m Society (YPS) Launched m 1979, YPS embraced a number of studies of adolescent development m the areas of occupational and polltlcal soclallsatlon, dnnkmg and smokmg, fnendshlp and peer groups, and juvemle dehnquency The research undertaken was characterised by mter-dlsclplmary research perspectwes and naturalistic methods of enquiry, mcludmg account gathering and observation Results from a number of the studies were reported at the successful symposusm convened by Rudolph Schaffer at the 1983 conference of the Bntlsh Psychological Society m York Subsequently papers about tbe research were pubhshed m, a book Gettm~ mto Llf~ (Beloff, 1986) and summanscd m the JZSRCpamphlet, What Next (McGurk, 1987) 12 One outcome of the YPS programme was the decmon by the Human Behawour and Development Committee (HBD) to follow It with a major longitudinal study which would put on a sounder footing conclusions about the factors producing changes m mdmduals during adolescence This would embrace the study of a number of aspects of adolescent soclallsatlon researched earner, wlthm the framework of a single enqurry 13 Papers produced by Rudolph Schaffer summarlslrrg the results of the YPS programme and by Harry McGurk, dlscussmg design posslblhtles for the Iongltudmal study, were cmculated to members of the UK youth research commumty arsd comments were mvlted on how the Imhatwe should be developed Subsequently lt was decided that the mam thrust of the research should be m the domam of economic and pohtlcal soclahsatlon during late adolescence and two consultants, psychologist, Glyms Breakwell and soclolognt, Ken Roberts were commlss]oned to review current research and theory on this subject and to ldentlfy the marn questions which the new Imhatwe should attempt to answer These were located m two broad areas (a) the processes underlying Identity formation and social mtegratlon fac]htatrng or mhlbltmg asslmdatlon mto socml roles and groups, social representation and attribution m the growth of economic and polltlcal understanding and the emergence of agency and self-efficacy, (b) ca:eers m the economic domestic and polltlcal domam I e the broad transition routes from chddhood to adulthood m the masn domatns of hfe It was agreed that the first task of the person appointed to coordinate the Inltlatlve would be to produce a synthesis of the Brcakwell and Roberts papers as a basn for formulating a research design 14 Following my appointment, mltlally on a three month consultancy and then as coordinator, a paper setting out prehmmary Ideas for a research design, together with the Breakwell and Roberts papers (Appendix 1), were circulated to people who had e]ther written caller to ESRC expressing interest m the Inmatwe or had responded to an advertisement announcing my appointment In addltlon, meet]ngs were arranged with all the researchers who had conducted studies m the YPS programme and with the members of the ESRC Steering Group, Harry McGurk, Dawd Ashton, Duncan Galhe, and an earher member Martin Shlpman who had been gwen the brief of developing the new Inltlatwe From the results of this consultation I produced a paper M: J.9 Inmatwe. Research Desmr which brought together the key themes of the Roberts and Breakwell papers, set out the key questions to be addressed and offered a framework for the proposed research design, ldenhfymg issues that strll needed to be resolved i 15 The research design proposed had a number of key elements Frost, m lme with another on-going ESRC Imtlahve directed at adults, SocmJ Change and Economic Life (S CELI), the research should be based m different areas of the country corresponding broadly to local labour markets. The SCELI research was based m Aberdeen, Klrkcaldy, Rochdale, Northampton, Coventry and Swmdon The advantages were seen m slmhrly locating the 16-19 Imtlatwe research m some of these areas, but lt was agreed this should not be a ngld cntenon for their mchmon Secondly, the study should be longltudmaf, compnsmg at least two age cohorts of young people followed-up from the last year of compulsory schooling through the late teens and spanning the whole age range 15 -20 Thirdly, followlng the precedent of YPS the research approach should be multr-dlsclpllnary drawing on a variety of methodological perspectives and embracmg surveys, mtervlews, observation and account gathering Fourthly, a common data base would be set up to which each team would have access and a computer would be supphed to each team 16 The overall alm of the analysls of the data collected would be to unravel the mteractlons between the developmental processes across the late teens and the social and occupational structures of the geographical Iocahtles m which young people hved For this reason It was essential that the areas selected showed sharply contrasting socml and economic charactenstlcs, mcludmg a buoyant local economy at one extreme and tugh levels of youth unemployment at the other 17 One of the man-r purposes of my lmtlal consultancy was to plan a workshop to which key members of the youth research commumty were to be mvlted Selected partlclparrts would then be mvmxl to submit proposals for research funding under the Imhatrve The meetrtrg was held at Mmster LovelJ on 18 May, 1986 28 people participated (Appendix 2) and the programme consisted of working through and closing the options m each section of the Research Design paper The meetmg proved a stimulating occasion, wh]ch brought together researchers across the spectrum of interests and perspectwes that the Imtlatlve was intended to embrace From those present, 4 lndlvlduals and 2 pairs were Identlfled as potential proposers for the three research contracts It had been decided lnltlally to offer G Rees, Urnverslty College of Wales, Cardlff, Glynls Breakwell, Umverslty of Surrey, Ken Roberts, Unwerslty of Liverpool, Chnstlne Gnftin, Umverslty of Bmmmgham, John Gray and Michael Banks, Umvers]ty of Sheffield, Nicholas Emler and Lynn larmeson, Uruverslties of Dundce and Edinburgh 18 Each of these potentml proposers was sent a revmd copy of the Research Design paper (Appendix 3) together with an mvltatlon to bld Dr Rees dechned to bld Fwe bids were recewed, which were forwarded for review to three consultants Their reports were considered by the worfung group and myself at another meetmg m Mmlster Lovell Because of the generally very high quahty of the proposals It was decided to re-dlstnbute the sum of money avarlable for the project m order to fund two major enqumes m Sheffield (Unlvers]ty of Sheffield) and Klrkcaldy (Urnversltles of Dundee and Edinburgh), which would include ethnographic research, and two smaller scale enqu]nes m Liverpool (Unlverslty of Liverpool) and Swmdon (Umverslty of Surrey) restricted to postal surveys and mtervlewmg Surrey mntlally had argued for Newbury or another town more closely located to their Umversny campus But because of the advantages of makmg hnks between the Imtlatwe areas and those included m SCELI, the Surrey team were persuaded to change to Swmdon The membership of the successful teams N shown m Appendix 4 In decldmg on the award of contracts, It was also decided to commmlon a market research agency to carry out the postal surveys It was also agreed to reserve some of the funding (with supplementation) to support associated studies of specml groups such as young people from ethmc mmontles or with special needs that could not be covered wltbm the design of the core research 2 and which would be bld for sepsuately 19 Once notlflcatlon had been gwen to the successful apphcants, and m advance of the award of contracts, I held a preliminary meetmg with team leaders on September 15, 1986 to agree the broad programme of act]vlty A number of cnttcal declslons were taken mcludmg the agreement to handle all correspondence with respondents m the surveys locally, whale relying on the agency to admmlster the data collection and prepare the dataset The local research teams would undertake the lntervlewlng and ethnographic work entmely themselves In addltlon It was agreed to use Local Education Authority (LEA) areas to set the boundanes for the local area studies and that each team would take responslblhty for drawing up full address hsts of young people m the fifth year of secondary school (1987) artd the fifth year of secondary school two years prewously (1985) to provide a samplmg frame It was also decided, following the successful procedures employed m the National Youth Cohort Study (YCS) duected by John Gray, one of the Sheffield proposers, to send questlonnrures to young people for completion at their homes Agency mterwewers would then follow-up those who had not replled and lf necessary assist them m fllllng m the questlonname It was also agreed that postal enqumes would be earned out m 1987, 1988 and 1989 and that the work on questlonname design would begtn immediately with a view to conducting tbe first postal enquiry before the exam] nation period and ideally before Easter m April 1987 This would requme a pdot survey m February 1987 The meet]ng also agreed a pohcy paper on data access and publtcatlons derived from one drawn up by the SCELI teams (Appendix 5) [t was agreed that core team meetmgs would rotate around each of the Iruttahve sites and London. 1 10 This prehmmary meetmg was followed by a final meetmg of the 16- 19 Inmatwe working group on 9th October 1986, whtch considered a report from the coordinator on