高等教育ユニバーサル化の文脈における就学行動モデルの変容 : High School and Beyond 調査の再分析をもとに  [in Japanese] Educational Career Patterns under the Universalization of Higher Education : An Analysis of the High School and Beyond Data  [in Japanese]

In modern society, children are expected to enroll in college immediately after graduation from high school, stay in the college for four years, and then find employment after graduation. However, in recent years this conventional educational career has been becoming less prevalent. An increasing proportion of youths spend extra years before entering college, or sometimes even after entering college step out of college and then later reenroll. There emerging unconventional behaviors are closely linked with the advent of the "universalization" of higher education. While this phenomenon has become salient in Japan in recent years, a precedent can be found in the United States in the past three decades. From this perspective, the changes in educational careers are analyzed based on the High School and Beyond data. The analysis finds the following : (1) An increasing number of individuals show deviant educational careers from the conventional pattern. (2) While deviant educational careers, and the underlying behavioral characteristics in choosing educational and careers alternatives, are less prevalent among children from wealthier families with higher social status, a significant numbers of children from those families follow the deviant pattern. (3) The new participants in higher education have significantly different mechanisms of choices with respect to unconventional careers. These findings indicate that the educational careers of youth in the age of universalization cannot be analyzed adequately in terms of the simple dichotomous choice between enrollment and non-enrollment. It also points to the need for a higher education system that can adapt to these changes in behavior.