Work and Leisure
Chapter Outline
I. Work and Leisure in Contemporary Society
· Enactment of compulsory education laws contributed to increases
in “free time” adolescents have – prior to these laws, youth were much
more likely to work many hours per week – the laws in effect barred youth
from many jobs
· Part-time work was rare (unlike today)
· Adults organized youth groups, such as the Boy Scouts, in
order to give youth something to do after the laws were enacted
· Increased affluence after WWII also changed the nature of
adolescence
· Products came to be aimed at youth with much more “discretionary
income”
· Czikszentmihalyi & Larson studied time use of adolescents
through the use of electronic pagers (“beepers”)
· The average teen spends @ 29% of his or her waking hours in
productive activities, such as attending class or studying, @ 31% in maintenance
activities such as grooming, eating, or performing errands, and @ 40% in
leisure activities
· Younger adolescents spend somewhat more time in productive
activities than older adolescents
· American teens spend far more time on leisure, and far less
time on schoolwork, than teen in other countries
· The average U.S. teen spends 5 hours per week on homework;
the average teen in Japan spends 5 hours per day
II. Adolescents and Work
· Almost 80% of HS students will have worked before graduating
A. School and work in the early twentieth century
o In the early 1900s, attending high school was the exception rather
than the rule for most youth
o Compulsory education laws were passed that required school attendance
through age 16
o By 1940, only 5% of 16-17-year-old males worked during the school
year
B. The emergence of the student-worker
o Following WWII, the segment of the economy that required part-time
workers expanded dramatically (retail stores and service industries)
o During the same time, the cost of living for youth has risen, as
industries began to market products to teens and charge more for those
products
o Middle class and upper class teens are more likely to work; they
have an easier time finding jobs, and those jobs are more likely to exist
in affluent neighborhoods
o Adolescents today work far more hours than they did immediately after
WWII
o The average senior HS student works 20 hours per week
C. Teenage employment in America and in other nations
o Outside of the U.S., family life and work life are much more integrated;
also, teens are much more likely to leave school permanently at age 15
or 16
o In non-U.S. industrialized countries, youth are far more likely to
not work until they leave school
o European youth are more likely to work in school- or government-sponsored
apprenticeships – which play a major role in preparing youth for adult
occupations
o In Europe, teens stay in school later in the day, stores close earlier,
and youth employment is seen as a necessity for the lower class only
D. The sexes: Sex differences in the adolescent workplace
o Male and female youth typically work different types of jobs
o Males work longer hours and are paid higher wages
o During childhood, chores and responsibilities around the home are
different for boys and girls, mimicking the pattern of sex segregation
in the workforce that youth will experience
E. The adolescent workplace today
1. Common adolescent jobs
· Most do not hold challenging or interesting jobs
· Young adolescents tend to work informal jobs, while older
teens tend to work in retail or food service
2. The adolescent work environment
· In Steinberg’s research on youth employment, he found that
most teens do not have much contact with adults at work
· These teens in general reported feeling reluctant to go to
adults with personal problems, and felt less close to adults at work than
to other adults in their lives
· Few teens are permitted to behave independently or make decisions,
few receive important training from supervisors, and they are in general
not required to use skills they learned in school
· The average teen spends less than 6% of her time using reading,
writing, or math skills, and spends more than 25% of his time cleaning
or carrying things
· Most teenagers’ jobs are repetitive, monotonous, and not intellectually
stimulating
F. Working and adolescent development
1. The development of responsibility
· The argument that work builds character is not supported by
research
· Working does not enhance teens’ feelings of social obligation,
tolerance, or belongingness
· Work tends to make youth more individualistic, and to be more
cynical and unethical in the workplace
2. Money and its management
· Few teens exercise much responsibility when it comes to managing
their earnings
· Few save their earnings or use it for their education
· Youth today may suffer from premature affluence - having
too much money too soon
· This may affect teens to have more cynical attitudes about
the value of hard work and a tendency to develop more materialistic attitudes
3. Work and deviance
· There are relatively high rates of deviance among youth workers
on the job
· Research indicates youth employment is associated with higher
rates of deviance, aggression, school misconduct, theft, joyriding, weapon
possession, purchase of stolen goods, and drug and alcohol use
· Increases in work hours precedes increases in drug and alcohol
use (discretionary income may precede, and higher stress may precede, higher
drug and alcohol use)
4. Work and its impact on school
· Working more than 20 hours per week appears to hinder school
performance in many teens – especially those who can’t afford any further
negative impact on their grades
· May increase the likelihood of dropping out of high school
· Working teens pay attention less in class, exert less effort
on their studies, and skip class more frequently
G. Youth unemployment
· Only 5% of teens are neither in school nor working
· About 12% of 18-21 year olds are neither in school nor working
· The majority are high school dropouts – more likely to be
a minority youth
· The “forgotten half” – nearly 50% of youth who do not go on
to college
· HS does little to prepare these youth for the world of work
· Some argue that increases in opportunities for community service
may enhance young people’s ability to find meaningful roles once they leave
high school
· Others suggest the U.S. initiate apprenticeship programs
III. Adolescents and Leisure
· Adolescents choose their leisure activities, unlike school
and work activities
· Adults have mixed feelings about adolescents’ use of leisure
time – they value some but not all of what teens engage in
· Studies do not always support the adult worry that TV time
will negatively affect academic importance – the reverse is more likely
true
· Moderate amounts of solitide – during which time daydreaming
predominates – is associated with psychological well-being
A. Participation in extracurricular activities
· Sports, music, and specific clubs are most frequently joined
by teens
· Participation tends to improve academic performance and school
success
· Increases contact with adults who are student-focused (unlike
after-school employment)
B. Leisure activities and socialization for adulthood
· Males and females may be socialized in different ways
· Male athletics emphasizes achievement, toughness, dominance,
and competition – not necessarily true for female sports
· Main route to popularity for females is through cheerleading
· Appearance, neatness, bubbliness – valued in popular female
roles
C. Leisure and the mass media
· Teens spend between ½ to 1/3 of their waking time in
contact with the media
· Teens report more emotional arousal listening to music than
watching TV
· Little evidence that teens are affected in systematic ways
by TV or music
· Much of what is communicated through the media are messages
about sex, particularly the depiction of women as sex objects
· Repeated exposure to such messages has consistently been linked
to changes in attitudes, if not behavior – more tolerant attitudes toward
sexual harassment
· Difficult to determine if aggressive TV leads to aggression,
or if aggressive teens gravitate toward aggressive TV
D. The scientific study of adolescence: The experience sampling
method
· teens carry pagers – when paged, they write down their moods,
activities, and companions
· moods most positive when with friends, least positive when
alone
E. Leisure and the economy
· adolescents are responsible for the expenditure of over 200
billion dollars on the market, mostly for movies, music, sports, clothes,
and consumer electronics
Important Terms, Concepts and Individuals
The following terms are listed as they appear in the chapter:
student-worker
leisure activities
premature affluence
Experience Sampling Method
occupational deviance
curvillinear pattern
youth unemployment
school-to-work transition
community service
extracurricular activities
Study Questions
1. How much time do American adolescents spend in productive activities? In leisure activities?
2. Are there differences in type of activity engaged in based on age? Describe these differences.
3. What are the social and economic forces that lead to the emergence of the student- worker in the United States?
4. How does teenage employment in this country compare with teenage employment in other industrialized countries? Why?
5. What is the typical adolescent workplace like? Incorporate age and gender differences.
6. What are the benefits of after school work during adolescence?
7. What are the costs of after school work during adolescence?
Describe the costs in each area:
development of responsibility
money management
work and deviance
school performance and participation in extracurricular activities
8. What youth tend to be unemployed?
9. What form does youth unemployment tend to take?
10. What strategies have been proposed to solve the youth unemployment problem?
11. What constitutes leisure activity? What percent of the waking hours of young people is spent on leisure activities?
12. What percent of American high school students participate in extracurricular activities? Which type of extracurricular activity is most popular?
13. What type of student is most likely to participate in extracurricular activities?
14. How does the impact of extracurricular participation on adolescent development compare with the impact of after school work?
15. How are male and female extracurricular activities structured to provide socialization into traditional sex roles?
16. What messages do female adolescents receive from teen magazines?
17. How much time does the average adolescent spend with mass media? How does this time change throughout adolescence?
18. How much television content contains sexual interactions? What are some of the sexual messages portrayed on television?
19. How is the Experience Sampling Method used in research with adolescents?
20. What was discovered about adolescent moods using the Experience Sampling Method?
Multiple Choice Questions - Please circle the correct answer.
1. Younger adolescents spend a greater percentage of their time on _____
than older adolescents.
a. school
b. socializing
c. work (including chores and errands)
d. leisure activities
2. Growth in which sectors of the economy supported the emergence of
the student- worker?
a. Agriculture and finance
b. Service and retail
c. Retail and agriculture
d. Finance and service
3. Approximately ____ percent of American high school students will
have held a job by the time they graduate.
a. 20
b. 40
c. 60
d. 80
4. Which country has the lowest percentage of adolescent student-workers?
a. United States
b. Canada
c. Japan
d. Sweden
5. Which job is a female adolescent most likely to do in the workplace?
a. Gardener
b. Food counter worker
c. Dishwasher
d. Newspaper deliverer
6. What percent of time on the job does the average adolescent spend
using school related skills like reading and math?
a. less than 10 percent
b. 15 percent
c. 25 percent
d. 33 percent
7. Generally, researchers have found that adolescents that work are
more _________ than adolescents that don't work.
a. socially responsible
b. tolerant
c. individualistic
d. ethical
8. Premature affluence refers to:
a. the higher wages that American adolescents receive for the
jobs they do in comparison to adults;
b. the increase in inheritance of family money among American
adolescents during the last decade;
c. the increase indiscretionary spending money among American
adolescents due to employment;
d. none of the above.
9. The most common deviant act committed by first-time workers in the
Ruggiero, Greenberger and Steinberg study was:
a. working while drunk or high
b. taking money from work
c. purposely damaging property
d. calling in sick when not
10. Several studies indicate that drug and alcohol use in working adolescents
is _______ when compared with non-working adolescents.
a. lower
b. higher
c. about the same
d. difficult to calculate
11. Working during adolescence generally has an adverse impact on:
a. grade point average
b. extracurricular participation
c. school attendance
d. all of the above
12. Who is most likely to be unemployed?
a. Poor, minority youth with a high school diploma
b. Poor, White youth without a high school diploma
c. Poor, minority youth without a high school diploma
d. All are equally likely to be unemployed
13. Adolescents spend the largest proportion of their time engaged in
which type of activities?
a. School
b. Work
c. Leisure
d. Eating
14. Which adolescent is most likely to be involved in extracurricular
activities?
a. A lower-class adolescent that attends a small school
b. A middle-class adolescent that attends a small school
c. A lower-class adolescent that attends a large school
d. A middle-class adolescent that attends a large school
15. The most popular type of extracurricular activity among adolescents
is:
a. music
b. occupational clubs
c. athletics
d. academic clubs
16. Participation in school-sponsored extracurricular activities tends
to be associated with:
a. heightened drug and alcohol use
b. increased delinquency and truancy
c. enhanced psychological well being
d. all of the above
17. Participation in extracurricular activities has been found to be
most beneficial for ______ students
a. at-risk
b. average
c. above-average
d. outstanding
18. Eder found that extracurricular activities for females tended to
focus on ____ more than extracurricular activities for males.
a. competition
b. achievement
c. cooperation
d. appearance
19. On average who watches the most television?
a. Young adolescents
b. Middle adolescents
c. Late adolescents
d. Young adults
20. In what context do adolescents typically watch television?
a. Alone
b. With friends
c. With family
d. In a bar
21. The Experience Sampling Method has been used to study adolescent__________.
a. work experiences
b. moods
c. food preferences
d. financial decisions
22. Generally, adolescents are happiest when they are:
a. alone
b. with family
c. with friends
d. with teachers
23. The average high school student has more than _____ in spending
money every month.
a. $50
b. $100
c. $200
d. $300
24. Graphed data that fits a curvilinear pattern looks like:
a. an ellipse
b. a wavy line
c. a U-shape
d. a pear
25. In 1950, approximately ___ percent of adolescents worked during
the school year.
a. 20
b. 40
c. 60
d. 80
True/False Questions - Mark each statement either True (T) or False (F).
1. The rise in the service and retail sectors of the American economy following World War II fueled the emergence of the student-worker.
2. Adolescents spend the largest percentage of their time engaging in leisure activities.
3. About 50 percent of American high school students will have worked by the time they graduate.
4. American youth have always worked while attending school.
5. Japanese adolescents are much less likely than American adolescents to work while attending high school.
6. In the United States, lower-class adolescents are more likely to be employed than middle-class adolescents.
7. Gender differences in employment are not as evident in the adolescent work place as in the adult work place.
8. Most jobs held by adolescents are boring, repetitive and monotonous.
9. One of the benefits of adolescents working is that they tend to be more socially responsible than adolescents that don't work.
10. Most adolescents that work save their money for long-term goals like their education.
11. Young people who work are more likely to use drugs and alcohol than young people that don't work.
12. Adolescent work has very little influence on school performance.
13. The segment of the adolescent population with the highest level of unemployment are poor, minority youth.
14. The most popular form of extracurricular activity among adolescents is athletics.
15. Adolescents who participate in extracurricular activities tend to earn lower grades than those who don't.
16. The impact of extracurricular participation on adolescent development is very similar to the impact of work on adolescent development.
17. Donna Eder discovered that many extracurricular activities are organized to differentially socialize males and females.
18. Studies have conclusively demonstrated that the sexual violence depicted on MTV has a negative influence on adolescent's values and behavior.
19. Television viewing tends to decline throughout the adolescent years.
20. The average high school student has $300 in spending money every month.
21. Younger adolescents spend a larger proportion of their time on school
work and related activities than older adolescents do.
22. The rate of inflation on goods and services typically purchased
by teens, outstripped the rate of inflation on other goods and services
during the 1970s.
23. One benefit of adolescent work is that they spend a considerable amount of time on the job in positive supervisor-worker relationships.
24. One common business practice that young workers report is giving away merchandise for free.
25. One proposal for improving the prospects of unemployed youth is the expansion of community service opportunities.
26. Researchers have found that adolescents report being in better moods while at work than during school or leisure activities.
27. Sexual messages are particularly prevalent in television shows viewed by teenagers.
28. Data showing a curvilinear pattern tends to look like an ellipse when graphed.
29. The Experience Sampling Method generally involves random reporting of activities throughout the day.
30. After school work is a common activity among adolescents in most
Western,
industrialized countries.
Matching Questions - Choose the term that most accurately fits the description.
___ 1. having most of one's earnings
a. student-worker
available for discretionary
b. premature affluence
spending
c. occupational deviance
___ 2. research technique where
d. youth unemployment
individuals carry electronic
e. community service
pagers and report on a random
f. leisure activities
basis
g. extracurricular activities
___ 3. an individual who attends school
h. Experience Sampling Method
and holds a part-time job
i. school-to-work transition
___ 4. socializing with friends, watching
j. curvilinear pattern
television and listening to music
___ 5. a U-shaped pattern of data
___ 6. engaging in cynical or unethical
activities on the job
___ 7. young people not able to find work
___ 8. volunteer work activities
___ 9. bridging the gap between formal
schooling and paid employment
___ 10. youth activities often affiliated
with a school-like sport
Answer Key
Multiple Choice Questions
1. a 11. d 21. b
2. b 12. c 22. c
3. d 13. c 23. d
4. c 14. b 24. c
5. b 15. c 25. a
6. a 16. c
7. c 17. a
8. c 18. c
9. d 19. a
10. b 20. c
True/False Questions
1. T 11. T 21. T
2. T 12. F 22. T
3. F 13. T 23. F
4. F 14. T 24. T
5. T 15. F 25. T
6. F 16. F 26. F
7. F 17. T 27. T
8. T 18. F 28. F
9. F 19. T 29. T
10. F 20. T 30. F
Matching Questions
1. b
2. h
3. a
4. f
5. j
6. c
7. d
8. e
9. i
10. g