Pediatrics, June 2001 v107 i6 p1263

PROBLEMS SEEN FOR TEENAGERS WHO HOLD JOBS. JFL.

Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2001 American Academy of Pediatrics

... For decades, the conventional wisdom has been that it is great for teenagers to hold after-school jobs because it teaches them responsibility, provides pocket money, and keeps them out of trouble.

But, in a nation where more than 5 million teenagers under 18 work, a growing body of research is challenging the conventional wisdom and concluding that working long hours often undermines teenagers' education and overall development.

In the most important study, 2 arms of the National Academy of Sciences--the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine--found that when teenagers work more than 20 hours a week, it often leads to lower grades, higher alcohol use, and too little time with their parents and families.

Influenced by such studies, lawmakers in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Alabama and other states have pushed in recent years to tighten laws regulating how many hours teenagers can work and how late they can work ... A new study by the International Labor Organization showed that American teenagers work far more than teenagers in most other countries. The study found that 53% of American teenagers, from the ages of 16 to 19, work in any given week. In Japan, 18% of teenagers aged 15 through 19 work, while in Germany, 30.8% of teenagers in that age bracket work.

Greenhouse S. New York Times. January 29, 2001