Adolescents who work: Effects of part-time employment on family and peer relations

Abstract

Research on adolescents has ignored a setting in which significant numbers of young people spend significant amounts of time: the workplace. The increasing participation of high school students in the part-time labor force raises a number of questions about the impact of such employment on family and peer relations. Questionnaire data from a descriptive study of 531 tenth- and eleventh- graders indicate that (a) working attenuates time spent with family, but not with peers; (b) girls, but not boys, may enter the work force in part as a result of weaker emotional ties to their parents; (c) working has negligible impact on the quality of family and peer relationships; (d) despite substantial incomes, workers do not have complete autonomy over their expenditures, nor do working and money-making lead to increased autonomy in other areas; and (e) the workplace is not a source of close personal relationships with others. Taken together, these findings suggest that working does not have a substantial immediate impact on the adolescent's relations with others. Possible long-range effects are briefly noted.