The Links Between Youth Employment and Educational Attainment Across Racial Groups

Abstract

Research suggests that the relations between adolescent employment and youth development vary by socioeconomic status (SES) and race/ethnicity. However, it is unclear whether the links between paid work and college outcomes vary by either SES or race/ethnicity, or both. Using data from the Educational Longitudinal Study, we find that low-intensity work during high school is associated with positive college outcomes for almost all students, whereas the associations between high-intensity work and negative postsecondary outcomes are mostly limited to White students. Our results suggest that both differential selections into youth employment and differential consequences of youth employment contribute to these varying links between paid work and educational outcomes across different racial groups.

Antecedents and Correlates of Adolescent Employment: Race as a Moderator of Psychological Predictors

“…Other evidence suggests that any costs possibly attributable to long hours of student work are most severe for those who are most advantaged (Bachman, Staff, O’Malley, & Freedman-Doan, 2013). Whereas high-intensity work during high school was found to be negatively associated with high school GPA, college enrollment, attainment of college certificate, and attainment of an associate degree among White students, it was unrelated to these outcomes among Black students (Bachman et al, 2013; Hwang & Domina, 2017). In addition, research indicates that students with the most highly educated parents have the strongest negative relations between work intensity and GPA (Bachman et al, 2013).…”

“…Sociodemographic factors such as parent education level and race/ethnicity have also been found to influence the relation between adolescent employment and youth outcomes, although the evidence is not altogether consistent. In Staff and Mortimer’s (2008) longitudinal study of youth in Minnesota, steady work (high duration, low intensity) during high school was more positively associated with postsecondary educational attainment among youth whose parents had low levels of education (as compared with youth whose parents had high levels of education), although this moderation effect did not hold in subsequent research when prior educational performance (e.g., grade point average [GPA] and math achievement) was controlled (Hwang & Domina, 2017). Other evidence suggests that any costs possibly attributable to long hours of student work are most severe for those who are most advantaged (Bachman, Staff, O’Malley, & Freedman-Doan, 2013).…”

“…Evidence that race and socioeconomic status (SES) influence the relation between adolescent employment and youth outcomes has raised questions about differential selection into employment, that is, whether employed Black and low-SES adolescents have different characteristics than their nonemployed counterparts even before they begin to work (e.g., motivation, social skills), and whether such characteristics are stronger determinants of employment and access to hour-intensive jobs for Black and lower SES youth than White and more affluent youth. Differential selection into employment, perhaps driven in part by greater obstacles that Black and lower SES adolescents face in obtaining employment, compared with White and more affluent adolescents, may result in differential quality of employment and differential outcomes of employment by race and social class (Bachman et al, 2013; Hwang & Domina, 2017).…”

“…Differences in whether and how studies address preexisting characteristics that influence adolescents’ propensity to work appear to be a major contributor to the pattern of inconsistency in findings assessing links between adolescent employment and youth outcomes (Monahan, Lee, & Steinberg, 2011). Recent rigorous research demonstrating the robust moderating influence of race on the link between adolescent employment and youth outcomes further underscores why addressing differential selection into employment is essential to advance our understanding of the effects of adolescent employment (Bachman et al, 2013; Hwang & Domina, 2017).…”

Association Between Work and Common Mental Disorders in School Adolescents: The ERICA Study

“…The entry of adolescents into the job market may be associated with a series of negative implications for their development, increasing their daily stress to a level that adolescents are not always psychologically prepared for and introducing adverse factors into their life by preventing them from performing the ludic and social activities common at their age. Moreover, the involvement of adolescents in the job market can have adverse consequences ranging from poor performance and dropping out of school to abnormalities in physical and mental health ( 4 , 5 ). Other inherent risks for adolescent workers are work-related accidents during transportation to and from the workplace or resulting from a poor work environment ( 6 ).…”