How do young people envision their occupational futures? What do teenagers feel about their schooling and after-school work, and how do these experiences affect their passage to adult work? These are the questions that psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and sociologist Barbara Schneider posed in their five-year study of adolescents. The results provide an unprecedented window on society's future through which we can glimpse how today's youth are preparing themselves for the lives they will lead in the decades to come.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Management at Claremont Graduate University and the founder and co-director of the Quality of Life Research Center. He is the author of a number of books, including the bestselling Flow, The Evolving Self, Creativity, and Being Adolescent. He lives in Claremont, California.

Barbara Schneider is co-director of the Alfred P. Sloan Center on Parents, Children, and Work, and is professor of sociology at the University of Chicago. She has co-authored a number of books including The Ambitious Generation and Transforming Schools.