Complicating College Students' Conception of the American Dream Through Community Service Learning‪.‬

Hochschild (1995) has defined the American Dream as "the promise that all Americans have a reasonable chance to achieve success as they define it--material or otherwise--through their own efforts" (p. 6). A belief in this promise is one of the most deeply held beliefs in American culture regardless of ethnicity, class status, or geography (Bullock & Lott, 2001; Flanagan & Tucker, 1999; Kluegel & Smith, 1986). In their classic study of Americans' beliefs about inequality, Kluegel and Smith found that an astounding 90% of Americans believed their own opportunities for economic success to be equal to or better than the average American. More recently, Scott and Leonhardt (2005) found that 75% of Americans believed (incorrectly) that the chances of moving up in class status have risen over the past 30 years. Along similar lines, 71% of Americans surveyed for the 2006 World Values Survey expressed their belief that anyone can escape poverty if he or she works hard enough (Gudrais, 2008). In short, the American Dream is one of the (if not the) most firmly entrenched memes in American culture. Faith in America's opportunity structure is particularly strong among contemporary emerging adults (Brooks, 2001; Seider, 2008a; Twenge, 2006). As Levine and Cureton (1998) noted in their study of the millennial generation, "No generation has wanted to believe in the American Dream more than current undergraduates" (p. 135). Such an optimistic outlook has numerous benefits; however, young adults who express confidence in the availability of personal opportunity in the United States are less likely to recognize structural and societal barriers to economic success (Gaztambide-Fernandez, 2009; Howard, 2008). They are also less likely to conceive of themselves as having a role to play in addressing these barriers (Damon, 2008; Seider, 2008b). In short, emerging adults who believe all Americans have unfettered access to the American Dream have little reason to conceive of themselves as responsible for the wellbeing of struggling fellow Americans.