Adolescence:
Change and ContinuityAdolescence:
Change and ContinuityThe US is the only country in the world where full time students are encouraged to work. How do adolescents manage? How much is too much?
In our country teenage employment is the norm. Teenagers will attend school and work part time, weekend, or in the summer. In other nations around the world teenage employment is not as popular amongst teens. Most working teens in the United States are from the ages of fifteen to twenty-four. Going to school and working coincide with one and another.
Percentages of Teen Workers
A study done by Manning throughout the country in 1990 showed that:
Another study done by Bachman and Schulenberg showed that out of 71,863 high school students that were surveyed:
Benefits of Part Time Work
Part time work is beneficial for teens in many ways:
These teens learn work values and preferences for future jobs. Part time work
allows them to observe different jobs that they might want to do in the future.
Teens begin to be able to ask themselves - "What am I good at" and
"What do I want to do in my future".
Teens begin to acquire many different skills for future jobs. Teens that have jobs while in school are able to acquire some good skills for the future.
Another benefit teens receive by working is to learn how to manage their time. They learn to manage school, family, work, and friends. Teens begin to get their first taste of independence while working and going to school. The biggest benefit for teens is that they can make their own money to buy what they want.
Disadvantages of Part Time Work
Greenberg and Steinberg did a study in the 1980's concluded that working and going to school simultaneously is bad for teens. They believe it is bad for their health and their family relationships. Greenberg and Steinberg believe that teens are unable to pick up for their future by working while in school. They feel that it interferes with the way they interact with their peers, their school work, and the way they see themselves. Working long hours and on the weekends causes teens to feel fatigue and is unable to function throughout the day.
Teens that are employed begin to take on responsibilities of adults before they
are mentally and physically ready to. These teens begin to lose out on many
different functions such as:
Greenberg and Steinberg believe that teens who work lose out on their moratorium
stage. This is the stage where they explore new things and identities for themselves.
There is a fear that if teens work it will push them away from their schoolwork
and their academic achievement will go down. These teens will have too much
on their plate that makes it nearly impossible to balance.
It has been believed that teens that work while in school have issues with:
Type of family a working teen may come from
Many of the working teenagers in the United States that work and go to school come from a stable financial home. Their parents believe that it teaches them the value of a dollar and what it means to earn it on their own. It is expensive being a teen these days and by earning their own money they may purchase material objects that they want. This teaches them to become more independent from their families. However, in all financial and socioeconomic families there are teens working. Teenage employment it high throughout the whole United States.
Working and its effects on school achievement
Some studies show that there is no effect on schoolwork by working part time in school. On the other hand, some studies show that there is a small to moderate effect that is negative for students who work while in school.
The study that Steinberg, Fegaley, and Dornbusch conducted in 1993 found that
working after school led students to:
Many students that took part time jobs were less engaged in school to begin
with. When they added over twenty hours of work they began to fall even deeper
into a ditch. Few students have shown that work has caused a negative affect
on academics performance. For the most part no damage was done to their GPA,
while working part time. The reason for the two different opinions on work and
school and how they affect schoolwork is caused by the different types of studies
that are done to collect the data.
It is not uncommon for adolescents today to manage school, friends,
family, and work (Pantiel, 1995). For adolescents, obtaining employment
outside the home is a mark of their transition into adulthood and their
growing ability to become independent from their family of origin. It has
been estimated that 85% of American youth, 44% of males and 41% of females,
will have held jobs before leaving high school (Kablaoui & Pautler,
1991). Of the 5.5 million American teenagers who are employed, 6% work
to help their families while the remaining 94% work in order to have their
own spending money (Bensimhon, 1993). Youth from middle income families
are more likely to hold jobs as compared to their low income cohorts, 73%
verses 60%. This trend may be related to the students' reason for working.
DIFFERENT EXPERIENCES OF WORKING MALES AND FEMALES
Although adolescent males and females may be working for similar reasons, their experiences in the work place are very different. This difference is directly related to the kinds of work they are hired to do (Mortimer, Finch, Owens, & Shanahan, 1990).
The effects of school year employment are related to the number of hours worked each week. Working 15-20 hours per week improves a student's self esteem and overall school satisfaction. The grade point averages of student workers become higher than their non working peers, the working students manage their time better and are better able to stay involved in school related activities (Steinberg, Fegley, & Dornbusch, 1993). When a teenager perceives their job as relevant to their career goals they are more likely to experience the positive effects related to part time employment (Crispell, 1995).
THE EFFECTS OF WORKING 20+ HOURS A WEEK
Adolescents who work over 20 hours a week often have a history of criminal behaviors and report feelings of alienation from school, family, and peers. Adolescents with long work hours show high levels of psychological distress including aggression, and low self esteem (Steinberg et al., 1996). They show diminished investment in school, and peer groups and they report feelings of dissatisfaction with their leisure time. The teenagers are more likely to get in trouble with the police and their income leads them to use drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes (Crispell, 1995). This in turn leads them to be more vulnerable to violence.
THE RAMIFICATIONS OF ADOLESCENT WORK ON FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS
Teenagers who work generally spend less time with their family. The more often they work the less often they have dinner with the other members of their family and help with chores around the house. Parents and adolescents who work generally have more disagreements about staying out late, smoking, drinking, drug use, money, school, and getting along with the rest of the family (Mortimer, 1994).
SUGGESTIONS FOR MINIMIZING FAMILY CONFLICT (Bailey, 1992).
Working adolescents and their parents need to discuss issues such as:
It has been estimated that 85% of American adolescents have or have
had a part-time job while in high school. This figure shows that more than
half of high school teens are taking on more than the responsibility of
academics. This raises these questions: How much work is too much? and
What are the effects of this work? Research has tempted to answer these
questions. Studies show that varying amount of work hours have different
positive and negative effects on adolescents. A common theme among researchers
of this field is that, it is not necessarily whether you do or do not work
that poses problem, but rather the duration of time worked.
EFFECTS OF WORKING MORE THAN 20 HOURS
Research has shown that overall, while tackling the responsibility of school, adolescents working more than 20 hours a week are faced with more negative effects then their peers. Studies have shown that these negative factors may be correlated with such things as enhanced autonomy, less time for academic endeavors, and increased financial independence; all of which are made possible through longer work hours. Some of the more concrete negative effects of long work hours are:
According to a collaboration of studies, in comparison to their peers, adolescents who work 15-20 hours a week face that least amount of negative effects. One negative effect that seemed to trickle down the line was, as hours increased levels of adjustment and self-esteem would decrease. This means that adolescents working 15-20 hours have only a moderate level of adjustment and self-esteem. In addition, those working a moderate amount of hours are more likely to fight with their parents and have low leisure-time satisfaction. These two effects are interrelated because, moderately working teens have such a stringent schedule set for themselves that when they have free time it is a struggle between family and friends. On the flip side, positive effects of working a 15-20 hour week include:
Adolescents which work 10 hours or less are placed in the same category as non-workers because according to Bachman & Schulenberg those working low hours are no worse or better off that non-workers. As one may have guessed, the negative effects of low level- non-working teens are associated with the high level of free time on their hands. Negative effects for these teens in comparison to their peers are:
References
Health,
Safety, and Development of Working Children and Adolescents in the United States
By: The Committee on the Health and Safety Implications of Child Labor
If you want some numbers, this site will tell give you a great statistical overview of how work effects adolescent youth. The 7 major sections include: Introdution, scope and patterns of work by children and adolescents, health and safety at work, work's effects on children and adolescents, agriculture, laws regulations and training, conclusions and recommendations focus on the positive and negetive effects of teens working. This information is key to the understanding about working conditions and our youth.
Adolescents:
the context of the workplace and leisure activity
By: Kim Openshaw
Up for a slide-show? This page gives complete access to a PowerPoint presentation on adolescents, work, and leisure activities. It's very reliable and helpful for someone who wants a summary of topics instead of a complete in-depth article.
Health and
Safety Awareness for Working Teens
By: J. Sharpe
This organization puts a lot of articles together to educate teens and the adults that protect them about current conditions as well as the numbers of adolescence working. This site gives many different perspectives of working teens and working statistics. The main page not only writes for teens and their parents, but also for teachers and employers.
This site was produced by students taking HDFS 433: The Transition to Adulthood and HDFS 239: Adolescent Development at the Pennsylvania State University. Feedback can be sent to the individual authors or to Nancy Darling (darling@bard.edu).
Last updated 5/06/02.