K. Esther Szabo was a small child when the recession of the early 1970s sent her family's fortunes into a tailspin. Her father, an economist, struggled to find work, and her mother worried about paying the bills. The family eventually filed bankruptcy.
The tensions at home put a permanent mark on Ms. Szabo. To help her family, she started working at age 8, doing chores for neighbors, and has been working ever since. When a personal-finance class in college introduced her to the idea that calamities like the one that crippled her family could be avoided with careful planning, she found the idea 'mind-blowing,' she says. She now co-owns a Los Altos, Calif., financial-planning firm.
In this current recession, we may be creating a new generation of Ms. Szabos. Economic downturns leave enduring marks on the career prospects and aspirations of children. Some youngsters will face lasting setbacks, while others will emerge more focused and motivated, based on studies of past recessions. The outcome depends partly on a child's age, on the example set by parents, and on whether young people can be empowered somehow to help their families through the crisis.
College students may be among the hardest-hit. Graduates who entered the job market in the recession of the early 1980s made significantly less money for at least a decade, compared with those who graduated in more prosperous times, says a study by Yale University's Lisa Kahn. Another study, a 21-year look at 39,000 father-son pairs published last year in the Journal of Labor Economics, found sons whose fathers were laid off had annual earnings 9% lower than comparable youths whose fathers kept their jobs. Recession-era grads also tended to remain stuck in lower-prestige jobs, even after the economy recovered, Dr. Kahn found. While the reasons aren't clear, some may have invested too much in their original jobs to try to move to a more prestigious job and start anew when the economy picked up. Others may have felt loyalty to the employers that harbored them in hard times.
Small children, too, are vulnerable psychologically in ways that shape their aspirations. Glen Elder, a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina, found in studies of the Great Depression that the self-image of small children of that era was shaped by the morale of their same-sex parent. Amid the traditional gender roles of the time, young boys suffered most, from seeing their fathers deprived of work and a sense of identity, says Dr. Elder, author of 'Children of the Great Depression.' Because preschoolers and pre-teens were too young to understand the causes or to help out financially, they risked growing up with 'a lack of initiative, of confidence, of self-efficacy,' he says.
Those who fared best, Dr. Elder says, were teenagers when the downturn hit -- young enough to avoid the worst blows, but old enough to work for pay. 'They were in an opportune time . . . to pick up some of the lessons of the period,' he says. Depression-era hardships also led youths from hard-hit families to grow up faster; many committed to a vocation shortly after high school, earlier than offspring of more prosperous families.
Past isn't necessarily prologue, of course. Also, applying the lessons of the past will be hard; kids today who try to find work face tall hurdles, with teen employment hitting new lows, says Andrew Sum, director of Northeastern University's Center for Labor Market Studies.
Nevertheless, parents are already finding lessons in the current troubles. Based on a study of 77 white-collar layoff victims published last year in the journal Social Forces, jobless parents are urging children to equip themselves to survive hard times, by developing transferable skills or learning to be entrepreneurs.
With luck, many youngsters will take the cue. 'It's a joy for me,' says Ms. Szabo, the financial planner, 'when I help people see they don't have to be a victim' of a bad economy. A big reward, she adds, is seeing anxious customers leave her office with renewed confidence in their plans for the future.
上世纪70年代初期的经济衰退让K·埃丝特·萨博(K. Esther Szabo)的家庭陷入了困境，那时她还只是个小孩子。她的父亲是一位经济学者，整日为找工作而奔波，而母亲则为维持这个家的生计而担 。最终，萨博一家还是入不敷出，宣告破产。
生活上的压力在萨博身上打下了永久的烙印。为了减轻家里的负担，她8岁就开始打工赚钱，先是为邻居做家务，从那以后就一直在工作。大学的个人理财课程让她明白，如果细心规划，她家遭遇的那些不幸是可以避免的。她说，这一发现让她“茅塞顿开”。现在，她是加利福尼亚州洛斯阿图斯市(Los Altos)一家理财规划公司的共同拥有人。
Getty Images眼下的经济衰退可能造就新一代的萨博。经济衰退会对孩子们的职业前景和未来理想产生持久的影响：研究显示，有些年轻人将遭受难以摆脱的挫折感，而另一些人则会变得更加目标明确、全力以赴。造成不同结果的原因在一定程度上取决于孩子的年龄、父母的示范作用以及这些年轻人能否通过某种方式帮助他们的家庭度过危机。
大学生或许是遭受打击最严重的人群之一。耶鲁大学(Yale University)莉萨·卡恩(Lisa Kahn)的一项研究表明，80年代初经济萧条时期进入就业市场的大学毕业生与在好年头参加工作的大学生相比，他们的工资收入至少在十年内都要比后者少得多。针对3.9万对父子进行的另一项为期21年的研究表明，如果父亲失去了工作，那么来自这些家庭的孩子们每年的收入要比那些父亲有工作的孩子们低9%。该研究成果去年发表在《劳动经济学》(Journal of Labor Economics)杂志上。卡恩发现，即使经济复苏，衰退期毕业的大学生们也往往继续从事那些低收入的工作。尽管确切原因还不清楚，但有些人可能对原来的工作投入了太多，以至于经济好转时也难以找到一份收入更高的工作重新开始。还有些人可能觉得应该对雇主忠诚，因为他们在经济困难的时候为自己提供了避风港。
小孩子们在心理上同样容易受到冲击，从而影响到他们未来的志向。北卡罗来纳大学(University of North Carolina)社会学教授、《大萧条时期的孩子们》(Children of the Great Depression)一书的作者格伦·埃尔德(Glen Elder)在对大萧条的研究中发现，小孩子们自我形像的形成深受其父母中同性别一方精神状态的影响。按照当时传统的性别定位，男孩子受到的影响最大，因为他们看到父亲丢掉了工作，同时也失去了社会认同感，埃尔德说。那些学龄前或是还不到十岁的孩子们年龄太小，还难以理解生活困难的原因，也不能在经济上对家庭有所帮助，所以他们在成长过程中有可能遭遇“缺乏主观能动性、自信和自我效能信念”的风险。
埃尔德表示，那些在萧条时期正值十几岁的青少年们对这一切应付得最好：他们年龄尚小，因而躲过了最严重的冲击；而这个年龄又足以让他们出去打工赚钱。“他们生逢其时……恰能从萧条中汲取一些经验教训，”他说。那些来自遭受沉重打击家庭的孩子们还因为大萧条时期的困境更快地成长起来。他们中的许多人高中毕业后不久便参加了工作，早于来自富裕家庭的孩子们。
当然，过去的事情并不能代表现在和未来。东北大学(Northeastern University)劳动力市场研究中心主任安德鲁·萨姆(Andrew Sum)说，以过去得到的经验教训来应对今天的危机也并不容易；如今，找工作的孩子们面临着很高的门槛──青少年的就业率已再创新低。
尽管如此，家长们还是已经从当前的困境中汲取教训了。根据《社会力量》(Social Forces)期刊去年发表的对77名失业白领的研究，这些失去工作的家长们要求孩子们掌握综合技能或学会自己创业，做好应对危机的准备。
幸运的话，许多年轻人将会遵照这些劝告行事。财务规划师萨博说，“当我帮助人们认识到他们不必成为经济不景气的牺牲品时，我很开心。”她说，看着焦虑不安的客户在离开我的办公室时对未来重拾自信，是对我的最大奖赏。
