Adolescents, Work, and FamilyJeylan Mortimer 4/1700
Adolescents, Work, and Family


Mortimer, Jeylan and Michael D. Finch, editors. 1996. Adolescents, Work, and Family: An
Intergenerational Developmental Analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.


Theory. This longitudinal study was initially concerned with teenagers’ employment. Its purpose was to examine the impacts of work on the psychosocial and social development of youth. Following a life course approach, the researcher explored the question of whether working has different implications depending upon the stage of life one is in.

Design. The original research design was guided by the desire to have both a community sample and a longitudinal design. In 1988, one thousand respondents were randomly selected from a list of ninth graders enrolled in the St. Paul public school system. For the first four years the survey was administered in class; after the respondents had graduated from high school, the surveys were mailed. By 1998, 74 percent of the original respondents remained in the study.

Measurement. Researchers drew on surveys that had been done on national samples and adapted the questions to the adolescent experience. The survey has varied across the years. Researchers have changed the survey questions and added different modules in an effort to account for changes in the life circumstances of the respondents.

Data Analysis. To ensure that their measures reflect the same phenomena over time, the researchers use confirmatory factory analysis.

Interpretation. The researchers have found that young people do a variety of work, and that this work becomes more complex over time. Contrary to previous studies, this Youth Development Study has recognized that there are positive impacts of employment on youth development. Youths who worked less than twenty hours a week in high school tend to have the most months of higher educational attendance. That is, unlike those who worked either too much or not at all, individuals who worked part time learned to balance the demands of work and school.

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